My First A.g Tomorrow

[Cocko]

Larry, dont stress my friend!!

I am only doing BIAB but it sounds like you had a good first AG - Grats!!

Also thanks for the tip on SWMBO - Funny as... "Whats that smell" Why can't you come and do this?" - GOLD!

As warra said, there a few thing you can't account for until you run up your system = Boil off, kettle loss etc!

My $0.02 = Just be hapy you made some AG beer, ferment it, bottle/Keg it AND enjoy it!! Easy....

Anyways, well done mate and I hope turns out well for you!!

Cocko
:icon_cheers:

 

[datman510]

Larry, dont stress my friend!!

I am only doing BIAB but it sounds like you had a good first AG - Grats!!

Also thanks for the tip on SWMBO - Funny as... "Whats that smell" Why can't you come and do this?" - GOLD!

As warra said, there a few things you can't account for until you run up your system = Boil off, kettle loss etc!

My $0.02 = Just be hapy you made some AG beer, ferment it, bottle/Keg it AND enjoy it!! Easy....

Anyways, well done mate and I hope turns out well for you!!

Cocko
:icon_cheers:

mate apart from coming up short i had a great day i thoroughly enjoyed myself it was a great learning curve, i see your in warrandyte your more than welcome to come to my next one if your interested. all in all i had fun good times im hooked.

 

[Cocko]

mate apart from coming up short i had a great day i thoroughly enjoyed myself it was a great learning curve, i see your in warrandyte your more than welcome to come to my next one if your interested. all in all i had fun good times im hooked.

Awesome, all right lets hook up!! Next brew day - PM me... too easy! Mine was today full BIAB AG, no chillin as we type and tomorrow full biab to a 60L Fermenter... add LDME and water so I guess it's a giant Partial!! NEED STOCK!!

Sooooo PIX??

 

[datman510]

Awesome, all right lets hook up!! Next brew day - PM me... too easy! Mine was today full BIAB AG, no chillin as we type and tomorrow full biab to a 60L Fermenter... add LDME and water so I guess it's a giant Partial!! NEED STOCK!!

Sooooo PIX??

will post pics tonight or early tomoz..... its on.

 

[datman510]

here are some pics of my basic AG setup with my assistants.... had fun and cant wait to do another.




Target hit!!


spirits were high among the crew after successful mash temp reached.


A setup that isnt flashy but will do


yup...


thar she boils


cool you b%stard

 

[warra48]

I use BeerSmith, and measure my gravity, volume, and temperature into the kettle when I've completed my runoff. BeerSmith has a function to correct the hydrometer readings for temperatures. The result is the only true measure you will have of your efficiency as a brewer, as it is the only true comparable with other brewers. It gives you the Efficiency into the Kettle, ie how good you are at extracting the sugars from your grain bill. Everything else is dependent on your own system and foibles, and differs for everyone.
I'm sure you'll enjoy the beer you've made, and also I'm sure you'll do better with your next brew.
Relax and enjoy your hobby.

Edit. Just saw your pics. Very nice, and does the job, so it's all good. I only have one brewing assistant. There's a pic of her on Ross' bar thread.

 

[Cocko]

How's the Staffi crosses ... SOO Curious!!

Beautiful dogs.. pity they are not in front of ross's bar!!!

Good pix!

Did you boil inside your house? How is that? Seriously, what is the smell like?

I brew outside.....

Great pix = Grats mate = Ferment and enjoy!!

 

[grod5]

here are some pics of my basic AG setup with my assistants.... had fun and cant wait to do another.



View attachment 21627
Target hit!!

View attachment 21624
spirits were high among the crew after successful mash temp reached.

View attachment 21623
A setup that isnt flashy but will do

View attachment 21628
yup...

View attachment 21625
thar she boils

View attachment 21626
cool you b%stard

Mate,

Well done on your first. You will only improve and won't look back. Very few dog breeds will tolerate the profranaties quoted during a stressful brew day. You, my friend, chose wisely as the staffy is one of those that will sit by patiently (eyes averted now and then) and participate in your brewing success.

daniel

 

[datman510]

the door is less than a metre away and wide open the whole time so its no issue and the smell is great!!! one of my dogs doesnt have pure bred papers but the other 2 are the real deal :beerbang: ill post so info on todays adventure tomorrow including lessons learnt ect..

 

[Uncle Fester]

All can say is "Go For It" FWIW, I'm doing my 33rd AG tonight - Pale Ale, simcoe for bitter, Pallisade for flav/aroma.

Should be a nice Quaffer. Could have gone Simcoe throughout, and called it Pinoclean ???

Brew on,

Fester.

 

[Adamt]

I think that burner may be a LITTLE too close to that bench!

 

[kevin_smevin]

Hi Larry.

Sounds like your first AG was fine. I dont know if you know this but you can continue sparging until the gravity of the wort you collect gets down to 1010. Once it falls below 1010 you shouldnt continue to collect it as it will affect the buffering and your pH will be thrown off. So you should be constantly testing the gravity of the wort you collect while sparging. This can be difficult with a hydrometer because of the volumes you need to collect and the fact that it needs to be around 20C. Something that will make this much easier is a refractometer, which is this tiny telescope looking thing that you only need to put a drop of wort onto a window and look through eye piece. It will tell you how much sugar you have in your wort in % BRIX i think. This is easily converted to SG by multiplying roughly by 4 . You can buy refractometers with automatic temperature compensation (ATC) so you can add very small volumes of wort from your runnings and dont have to worry about temperature. You can buy these pretty cheap on ebay. They are the best things in the world for AG brewing, youll never look back.

On the topic of you final volume, you will get the hang of this in time. I had a similar problem my first brew. What i do now is have a mark in my kettle which shows my desired final volume. I simply continue to add water during the boil to keep it around this level. Its better to add water during the boil then from the tap as it will be steralised during the boil.

Hope these tips might be useful. Enjoy

 

[raven19]

As a minimum provide some kind of heat protection from the burner near the kitchen bench ! And have fire extinguisher handy.
Look forward to hearing how it turns out!
Cheers.

 

[rude]

Well done larry. I am nearly there for my first AG so it is an interesting thread for me.
Hoping to do a Brown Ale first up no chill 26 litres final vol.

 

[datman510]

I think that burner may be a LITTLE too close to that bench!

i know what you mean i forgot to post this photo earlier......

 

[Adamt]

Ahhhhh that's why you were under volume! Boiled too hard in all that heat and too much evaporation!

 

[buttersd70]

Hi Larry.

Sounds like your first AG was fine. I dont know if you know this but you can continue sparging until the gravity of the wort you collect gets down to 1010. Once it falls below 1010 you shouldnt continue to collect it as it will affect the buffering and your pH will be thrown off. So you should be constantly testing the gravity of the wort you collect while sparging. This can be difficult with a hydrometer because of the volumes you need to collect and the fact that it needs to be around 20C. Something that will make this much easier is a refractometer, which is this tiny telescope looking thing that you only need to put a drop of wort onto a window and look through eye piece. It will tell you how much sugar you have in your wort in % BRIX i think. This is easily converted to SG by multiplying roughly by 4 . You can buy refractometers with automatic temperature compensation (ATC) so you can add very small volumes of wort from your runnings and dont have to worry about temperature. You can buy these pretty cheap on ebay. They are the best things in the world for AG brewing, youll never look back.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but according to the original post, wasn't Larry batch sparging? So gravity drops and loss of buffering potential aren't really relevant. I'm not saying that your info is incorrect; just that fly sparging is a different process than that which was used.

 

[kevin_smevin]

Sorry. My mistake. I dont batch sparge so the thought didnt even cross my mind.

 

[Offline]

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View attachment 21625
thar she boils
...

That photo doesn't look like it's boiling, regardless of what your thermometer is reading, dissolving just about anything in water will increase its boiling point plus your thermometer my not be calibrated. Its like a pot of water on a stove, you dont need a thermometer to tell when its boiling (or how hard its boiling) because you can see with your eyes
Im not saying that you didn't boil it hard enough, just that in this photo it looks like it's not boiling yet.

My first ag i hit all my volumes spot on, but i was using a borrowed HLT/urn with marked sight glass. When i got my own HLT i suddenly lost 2-3litre in each brew until i worked out an accurate way to mark my sight glass.

 

[datman510]

it definately was boiling for the full 90 minutes, the thermometre was just for the photo and for your viewing pleasure :beer: