My 1st Ag

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Greg Lawrence

Blow me eric8
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Yesterday morning I attempted my 1st AG brew.
I thought that I would do a small batch for my 1st one, so if I stuffed it up completely, there would not be too much wasted. My cubes (collected from FWKs) are 15L which actually hold more like 17 L, so I aimed to make a 19L brew (allowing for a bit of wastage).
It was an IPA recipe which was supposed to be 23L, so I figured that I would just make it at a higher gravity and water it down once in the fementer.

Set the timer on the urn to turn on at 4.30am.
Was up at 5.30, water just about up to temp.

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False bottom in place ready for the grain


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Mashed in at 75 degrees by attaching a hose from the urn attached to the tap of the tun so water was rising from the bottom.
No real dough balls to speak of, so I was happy with that.
Measured temp, was 66.5 so cooled down to 65 with 1.5l of cold water.

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after 80 minutes I started to recirculate. Here was my first problem. I didnt really know how much I needed to recirculate. i figured it was until I stopped getting any bits of grain in the jug and the liquid was getting clear, so ended up going about 10jugs (10L).
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Now I started my sparging - 16L at 85 degrees
I was filling the tun while draining into the kettle

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This whole process took me about 5 minutes, which I now know was way too fast as the gravity of the wort in the kettle was way too low.

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Turned the burner on while the last bit was draining into the kettle and then realised my next major **** up.
I had forgot to attach the pickup tube and hopscreen.

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Carried on without it.

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The kettle was about 1/2 full, so I guessed that was about 25L.
Calculated evaporation at 10% per hour (90 min boil) so about 3.75l evap.
That would still give me 21.25, but considering I had no pickup tube now the wastage in the bottom of th ekeg was going to be more, so the 15L cube should be about right.

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Added the 60min hops (40G Horizon) and measured out the rest of the hops.

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Added all the hops and by the end of the boil a fair bit of evaporation has occured.
I think I had boiled it too hard.

Whirlpooled and started filling cube.

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By this stage I realised that there was not going to be enough to fill the cube, so tilted teh kettle to get all I could without getting the crap. Ended up only about 13L.


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I have made notes all the way through each step, and am pretty sure i know where I went wrong. Llonger sparge, attach the pickup tube to the kettle and dont boil so hard.

13L of wort at 1065, so not a total balls up.

I would give it another crack today if I had the ingredients.

Gregor
 

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Now I started my sparging - 16L at 85 degrees
I was filling the tun while draining into the kettle

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This whole process took me about 5 minutes, which I now know was way too fast as the gravity of the wort in the kettle was way too low.

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Turned the burner on while the last bit was draining into the kettle and then realised my next major **** up.
I had forgot to attach the pickup tube and hopscreen.

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Carried on without it.

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Congrats, well done on learning some important stuff re AG brewing.

When it comes to recircing, meehh! a jug or two, no need to be anal. Continuous sparging (which is how you did it) set your flow rate to the kettle using a measuring jug to 1/2 L per min then set the sparge water into the mash tun at the same rate. Then bugger off somewhere for 45 min or so, have a beer or go on AHB, but RELAX. If continuous sparging I would suggest you do a final Mash Out step and raise your mash temp to 77. If your strike water is up around 75 then add it to the tun first and close it up for 5 min before adding the grain, to allow some of the temp to be transferred to the tun before adding the grist.

Cheers and well done,

Screwy
 
well done ,, congrats ,, you should still get good beer from your 13lt effort...


Wise words from screwy....


cheers
 
Congrats Gregor! Piece o piss isnt it? Great pics, thanks for sharing......here's to a future filled with many more AGs :beerbang:
Cheers
Steve
 
Congrats Gregor! Piece o piss isnt it?

Well not exactly, but now I know where I went wrong I know what to do different next time.
The next one can only get better. The one after that, piece o piss.
 
If I can get some advice early enough in th eday, I might even have a second attempt today.
Do you think I could make something like a Pale Ale with just the one malt - Joe White Traditional Ale?
Pretty bland? Thats all I have to work with at the moment.
Bittering hop selection is either Sticklebract, Simcoe or Hirizon.
Late hop selection is Cascade, B-saaz, Amarillo or Centennial.
Got a fair bit of each

Any suggestions with a few basic proportions welcome.

Gregor
 
No woriies, Gregor.. Go with all Ale, bitter with the Simcoe to about 25-30 IBU, throw 15g each of Amarillo and Cascade at 15min to go and 20 of each at flame out.... Aim for around the 4% ABV mark and pitch with WY1056 or US05 for a great summer lawnmower beer.. ;)

edit: Oh... and congrats on your first of many :D
 
Congrats on the first AG beer, it'll make you grin ear to ear once you have your first glass :) It took me about 4 brews to get volumes and OG targets down pat, mostly just trying to figure out boil rates, kettle losses, boiloff rates etc. For the boil all you need is a rolling boil, it doesn't need to be like a volcano. If there's some evaporation and you can see it slightly bubbling away then that's all you require. I'm still batch sparging which makes things very simple, I get 70% efficiency this way and that's fine with me.

You can make a lovely ale with only one malt and it's not a bad way to learn either. This way you have a reference point to know what to add for future brews. Many like the SMASH approach (Single Malt And Single Hop) for the simplicity and it'll produce a great brew. If you like American Pale Ales then the Simcoe and Cascade are a great combo. It's making me think about brewing a nice Pale Ale now in fact :)
 
OK Im goin for it.
Gotta shoot off to a mates place to get 5kg of trad Ale milled.
Urn is heating up now. Should be up to temp when I get back from milling grain.
I will mash in as soon as water is up to temp, then work out the hop schedule while I am waiting.
Id better go now.

Gregor
 
Just mashed in. Aiming for a 19L batch at 1065 OG.

5.5kg of trad ale
215g of caramunich II

Hop additions will be

23g simcoe - 60 min 35 IBU
20g cascade - 15 min 6.1 IBU
20g amarillo - 15 min 9.6 IBU
20g cascade - 0 min
20g amarillo - 0 min
 
Good stuff Gregor,

Not many people take the plunge into AG, and are so hooked by it, that they do another brew that very day :super:

Impressive.

Marlow
 
Well done mate,

I'm nearly ready to AG. Set-up is almost complete. Your pic's are great also, helps those, like me, who have yet to AG.
 
Great work Greg!! 13 litres is definitley better than none.
You sure have caught the bug now.

DON"T FORGET THE HOP SCREEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
Gregor,

Maybe a checklist of equipment etc to be ticked off as you set-up? This is simething i will need as i know something will be forgotten otherwise...like the hopscreen (yours is the same as mine...Beerbelly).

Prost!
 
Great work Greg!! 13 litres is definitley better than none.
You sure have caught the bug now.

DON"T FORGET THE HOP SCREEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Pickup tube and hop screen are in place.
Just about to mash out/sparge.
 
Well done Gregor ,

love the pics ,makes it so much more interesting, you have al the gear ,and its paying off .

I always feel the rectangular mash tun coolers, give the best mashing results ,

nice clear first runnings

pumpy :)
 
Just mashed in. Aiming for a 19L batch at 1065 OG.

5.5kg of trad ale
215g of caramunich II

Hop additions will be

23g simcoe - 60 min 35 IBU
20g cascade - 15 min 6.1 IBU
20g amarillo - 15 min 9.6 IBU
20g cascade - 0 min
20g amarillo - 0 min


Yummm :icon_cheers:

Look at you go.

Screwy
 
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