my 1st all grain brew on my first all grain rig!

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Abunzl

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Hi!

Just thought id share my 1st all grain brew experience with everyone!

Before this brew day my brewing experience was; 1 extract brew on a kit bought from local home brew store, loved it so started building a 3V rig!

I've been slowly building the rig over the last 3 months and after giving the wife and boy plenty of notice, this Sat i finally got to use it!

I was probably a week premature as i still had some prep work to do on sat morning before i even started brewing. I had to;

Assemble all the gear outside on the porch
Teflon tape-up the ss fittings
Test run rig with water to check for leaks!
Notch some 10litre interval marks on my ss stirring spoon with a hacksaw, so i know how much water/beer i have in the kegs!
Go to local hom brew shop to pick up ingredients!
Make 2 pick up tubes by screwing spare hose tails into bulk heads in MT and BK and fixing 2 short lengths of silicone tube

....A long day ahead!

I brewed an american IPA recipe from 'brewing classic styles', 'hoppiness is an IPA'

During recirculation of the wort i suddenly remembered to take some film and took a very rushed, dodgy, short video on my phone, see here!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XoM-D1aO5_0&feature=em-upload_owner

I started brewing at around midday and had a (lot!) of problems throughout the day! See below for a laugh at my expense!

I only put 23l of strike water in to the mash tun instead of 27, realised 15 mins into the mash and added more!

Was tricky initially to work out what temp temp i needed in the HLT to give the correct temp in the MT (copper coil is small so realised through trial and error that i needed 72 deg C to achieve 65 deg C in MT

BK valve sprung a small leak as i was transferring wort from MT, during sparge - had to finish transferring it, whilst draining all water from the HLT, then quickly transferred wort in to the HLT to boil! Lost approx 2l of wort!

Hadn't thought through the 'whirlpool' technique properly and i tried to empty the boil kettle into the fermenter WHILST WHIRLPOOLING (!!!), and with my silicone pick up tube sucking up all the hops and break up from the centre of the BK!!! Doh! i realised straight away but it was too late! Couldn't believe i had been so daft!

Misread recipe and added the 60min hops at 0 mins! Doh!

And my copper coil was too small so only cooled the wort to around 40 deg C, which is still pretty good for the size of the home made coil, i did wait till it was the correct temp before pitching the yeast.

After sanitising the hell out of the fermenter and transfer tube, i sucked a small amount of tap water from the air valve in to the fermenter with the wort! not sure if this will spoil the beer, i guess i'll find out!

It took a long, long time, but i really enjoyed the experience it and i feel proud that i pulled it off - though i know i am yet to taste the beer!
I am really glad i did it as i know i have learnt 1st hand from all the mistakes that i made on this first run!

Anyway, thanks if you take the time to read this, please post some advice if you have some to offer!

Cheers,

Mark
 
3 months to build, next 3 to refine and tinker another 3 to get it all down to a fine art and then 10 minutes to find this thread again and have a good solid laugh at yourself.. lol… you've clearly researched a fair bit to get to where you are so keep on keeping on fella..

Recipies? Pfff, they're meant as a guide only and rarely if ever followed to the letter

Cheers
 
Think of it as lessons learned!
Bet ya they get smoother and smoother as time goes on
 
I like your brew stand. Is that one of those hammer lock shelving systems from Bunnings with castors added?
 
Yep, impressed. From one little can of goop to 3v. I hope the ferment is ferment is trouble free.
 
I wouldn't have gotten half as far as i did without all the good info on this website, so thanks guys!

Truman - the stand is the 'rack it' system from Bunnings, as are the castors; they just bolt right in, then i just cut a work top in half and put half in top and half in bottom.

432neb - i hope the ferment goes well too, be awesome if the beer is drinkable at least! lol! I have it in a fermentation chamber (see photo) so that should help.
photo.JPG

Just wondered if anyone can help with the following please?

My recipe says to ferment the IPA for a given time and then to keg and carbonate with CO2, however, i don't yet have a keg so was just gonna bottle the beer with some carbonation drops, so i'm unsure how long to ferment it in the bottle for and at what temperature, and how much sugar to use?

Also, anyone know any tricks for getting the beer out of the fermenter and in to the bottle, without all the hops and break i sucked out of the BK due to my dodgy whirlpooling technique?!

Cheers,

Mark
 
All of the crap will sink into the trub at the bottom of the fermenter and you shouldn't get too much in there. Many people also rack to a secondary which clears it up even more.

Bulk priming is the best way to bottle but the drops are safe to use instead.
 
Congrats on your first brew, but if you added your 60 min hops (bittering) at 0 mins your finished beer is most likely going to need some extra bittering when finished. Isohop should sort you out.

cheers Ross
 
Really great work, hell your ahead of where I'm at, and I've been putting my gear togeather for a good year or two . Congratulations!
 
Edak - OK, hopefully the crud will just stay in the bottom and it'll just pour clear from the fermenter. Cheers.

Ross - i added the 0 min hops in at 60 mins to compensate, so hopefully that will bitter it up a bit?! Cheers.

Thanks Masters Brewery!
 
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