First All Grain Brew - Ekg Porter

[tillbilly]

Hi All,

Long time reader, first time poster.

Big Day Saturday - my first AG Batch.

I`ve planned an EKG hopped porter -

Grain Bill is
4.75 Kg Pale Malt
0.25 Chocolate
0.25 Medium Crystal
0.25 Brown Malt
0.125 Black Patent


I`ve built myself a 40L techni ice mash tun, Palmer style copper mainifold,
and I`m planning to Batch sparge, 16L mash, 16 L sparge.

Going to hop to about 30 IBU using EKG plugs fresh from beerbelly,
amounts depending on the Gravity of what I get out of the mash.
Probably a 60 and 30 minute addition, with just a pinch at flameout because I can.

Going to use safale s-04 english ale yeast.

Its going to be awesome!

 

[vykuza]

Good luck to you billy! It looks like you've done your research. My only suggestion for the first brew is to have everything written down before you start - when you're learning a new process it can be a bit of a nightmare to have to stop when you're not sure whats going on to work out water volumes or temps etc.

But mostly, enjoy yourself. Don't stress about small stuff and just enjoy the process.

 

[going down a hill]

That looks tasty, hope the brew day goes well for you.

 

[Mitcho89]

Mate you'll never go back! Trust me. I did my first all grain batch (Smurto Golden Ale) and I can't ever see myself going back to k&K or Extract. Have a blast making it but you just wait until you try the end product, it's well worth the many hours researching the best ways, busting your knoggin with confusion and all the recipes you've read through!

Mitch. :beer:

 

[tillbilly]

Well I`m done, I ended up with 23 Litres of 1.050 gravity wort.

Had a bit of a freakout after measuring the gravity after sparging,
measured at about 1.020. Had to jump online to find out wtf - thought
maybe there maybe a difference between metric / imperial or whatever -

I found this site to adjust the gravity for temperature

http://hbd.org/cgi-bin/recipator/recipator...r.html?13932118

So I assumed a Boil Gravity of around 1.050 -

My hop schedule for this porter was

All EKG 5% AA ( plugs from Beer Belly )

60 Min 40g
30 m 25 g
5 min 15g

Was aiming for an IBU of about 28 - the calcs are on my laptop so can`t give the proper breakdown -
the wife reckons she does`nt like too much bitter , and this porter is for her.

So lessons learned - pre-heat water to a higher temperature - I thought 72 would`ve been ok for the mash but it was pretty cold today in adelaide ( around 15 or so ) anyways took a couple of kettles of boiled water to get the temp up - either i pre-heat the tun, or use a higher temperature mash water. Similar issue for the sparge.

I`ve made an immersion chiller - I`m keen to add a prechill coil to it before the next run - I thought i was done, but after getting wort into the fermenter it was still around 28 degrees ( I`d already cleaned and packed up the thermometer ).

Anyways, looking at my 23 L of fairly high gravity porter - shame i can`t taste it for 5 weeks .


Next up - a session ale

 

[Bizier]

Rock'n'roll man!

As per other comments, it should taste great and you won't look back.

 

[tillbilly]

thanks lads - i`m so into it.

Need to have a party or something to get rid of all my lesser prior homebrew . . .

Although I`ve hopped the hell out of my last 2 brews, still ... lesser . . .

 

[going down a hill]

Good work with your brew.

Have a play with http://www.brewmate.net/ it's a killer little ap that you will find helpful.