Hi all,
Thanks mostly to the massive amount of advise here I've just completed my 1st All Grain brew (or at least got it into a fermentor). Had taken pics of the processs, but now can't get them off my piece of $^$#^ phone, so will do without for now.
After getting the whole lot done I've a bunch of questions about what I probably should have done, so will start by explaining what I did.
Aim was to make an english bitter, IBU low thirties, nothing too fancy, just a beer I could make from scratch myself.
Grain Bill
2kgs of UK Pale Ale English Malt - I'd worked out I needed 1.8kgs but LHBS said just to throw it all in.
200g of Crystal Malt
Crushed for me by LHBS
So heated 10litres of water to 75 Deg C, put grain into water, in bag, and gave it a good mix around.
Measure temp, was 70 Deg C, so added 500mls of tap water, was then 66 Deg C, gave it another good mix.
Lid on the pan, wrapped it up in old towels, blanket etc
Left it 60 mins
Unwrapped it, temperature was 63 Deg C
Pulled out bag, let it drain, measured depth, got 10.25 litres by my calcs (at 60 Deg C).
Wondering if I actually put in more than 10 litres, I counted 5x 2litre jugs, plus the 500mls temp adjust, but didn't measure depth to double check. Or is there that much expansion, or did I really only leave 250mls in with the grain?
Took a sample, this measured 1035 OG at 60 Deg C, which when converted to 20 Deg is I think quite a lot, 1050+?
Anyway, put the bag into a bucket, couldn't find a green one, so a clean paint pail seemed good.
Added another 1.7litres of water at 70 Deg C and gave it all a good slosh and let it drain again.
This yielded another 1.5 litres, ish, with an OG of 1.016 at 60Deg C.
A took another sample here, and let it cool down to 20 Deg C. OG=1.046, this was before boiling it.
This seemed higher than I expected, and as it came up to the boil I realised i could probably get more in the kettle ( 17 litre, supposedly) than I thought. So I added another 1.7 Litres of boiling water from the kettle.
Brought it up to the boil, it looked like some kid of swamp monster from rotorua.
used a ladle from the kitchen to take the scum off the top as it started boiling, wasn't very succesful it getting all of it and probably took another 300mls of liquid out.
Anyway, boiled away, I only want to use one type of hop, and the LHBS only had one type suitable for an english bitter.
Willemette Pelletts, AA=4.5 %, a 100g bag.
I don't have accurate scales, so typed the numbers as best I could into "the beer recipator", Just cos its a cool name, playing with the vols and effeciency until I got something that looked like my OG.
Went with multiples of 12.5 grams of hops, which I did just just splitting a 100g pile of pelletts into halves again and again.
12.5 G at 60mins
25g at 30mins
12.5g at 15mins
and another 12.5g at flame out (just for luck that one).
Lost more water than i thought i would in the boil, so added another 1.7 litres about 5mins before the end, which brought it back up to 12 litres.
5mins to go put the lid on to sterilise it, furious boiling now, but no boil over.
flameout
glad wrap over the top, lid on, put it in a large bucket of water.
no water shortages in NZ, so hosepipe in the bucket, bit of a swirl going on, some ice blocks towards the end, and about 40mins later was down to 25 Deg C. I gently swirled the kettle a few times to help it cool, but was this a bad idea? It would have swirled up all the crud??
Poured it into a 15litre cube was wary of using thermo and contamination to check temp here, it no longer felt warm through the barrell, so threw in 1/2 pack rehydrated S04 (recommended by LHBS) and glad wrap over the opening of the cube.
took me 5 hrs by the time I'd finished, and got just under 10litres into the FV. :angry: now I see why people like to do bigger batches!
the 10 litres of clearish looking liquid into the FV was a mission in itself. I'd read to pour it like a bottle of homebrew, slowly and steadily so as not to mix it up. fine in theory, but the pot was getting pretty heavy so it got mixed more than I would like.
I poured 2litres of some pretty sludgy looking stuff into a jug which is now settling with some gladwrap over the top. After a few hours there's about a litre of clearish liquid on the top of it.
I had about 500mls of "green mud" in the bottom of the kettle.
The final OG when I'd finished was 1.046 which still seems high, and I'm not sure I've got enough bitterness in there.
Any feedback?
Would it be worth boiling some more hops in water, letting it cool, and putting it in the FV?
Or should I just leave it and taste it in 4 weeks time.
Is my 2 litres of sludge, now separated into a litre of wort and a litre of green mud, useful for anything?
Too risky to pour it into the FV now?
All in all though a very rewarding day, thanks indeed to the kind people here who have given me enough advise to be dangerous !
I just hope it tastes good in 4 weeks time.
Only then can i stand on the top of my upturned FV, beat my chest, and shout "I man, I make beer".
edit:
:icon_chickcheers:
whoo hoo !!!
:icon_chickcheers:
Thanks mostly to the massive amount of advise here I've just completed my 1st All Grain brew (or at least got it into a fermentor). Had taken pics of the processs, but now can't get them off my piece of $^$#^ phone, so will do without for now.
After getting the whole lot done I've a bunch of questions about what I probably should have done, so will start by explaining what I did.
Aim was to make an english bitter, IBU low thirties, nothing too fancy, just a beer I could make from scratch myself.
Grain Bill
2kgs of UK Pale Ale English Malt - I'd worked out I needed 1.8kgs but LHBS said just to throw it all in.
200g of Crystal Malt
Crushed for me by LHBS
So heated 10litres of water to 75 Deg C, put grain into water, in bag, and gave it a good mix around.
Measure temp, was 70 Deg C, so added 500mls of tap water, was then 66 Deg C, gave it another good mix.
Lid on the pan, wrapped it up in old towels, blanket etc
Left it 60 mins
Unwrapped it, temperature was 63 Deg C
Pulled out bag, let it drain, measured depth, got 10.25 litres by my calcs (at 60 Deg C).
Wondering if I actually put in more than 10 litres, I counted 5x 2litre jugs, plus the 500mls temp adjust, but didn't measure depth to double check. Or is there that much expansion, or did I really only leave 250mls in with the grain?
Took a sample, this measured 1035 OG at 60 Deg C, which when converted to 20 Deg is I think quite a lot, 1050+?
Anyway, put the bag into a bucket, couldn't find a green one, so a clean paint pail seemed good.
Added another 1.7litres of water at 70 Deg C and gave it all a good slosh and let it drain again.
This yielded another 1.5 litres, ish, with an OG of 1.016 at 60Deg C.
A took another sample here, and let it cool down to 20 Deg C. OG=1.046, this was before boiling it.
This seemed higher than I expected, and as it came up to the boil I realised i could probably get more in the kettle ( 17 litre, supposedly) than I thought. So I added another 1.7 Litres of boiling water from the kettle.
Brought it up to the boil, it looked like some kid of swamp monster from rotorua.
used a ladle from the kitchen to take the scum off the top as it started boiling, wasn't very succesful it getting all of it and probably took another 300mls of liquid out.
Anyway, boiled away, I only want to use one type of hop, and the LHBS only had one type suitable for an english bitter.
Willemette Pelletts, AA=4.5 %, a 100g bag.
I don't have accurate scales, so typed the numbers as best I could into "the beer recipator", Just cos its a cool name, playing with the vols and effeciency until I got something that looked like my OG.
Went with multiples of 12.5 grams of hops, which I did just just splitting a 100g pile of pelletts into halves again and again.
12.5 G at 60mins
25g at 30mins
12.5g at 15mins
and another 12.5g at flame out (just for luck that one).
Lost more water than i thought i would in the boil, so added another 1.7 litres about 5mins before the end, which brought it back up to 12 litres.
5mins to go put the lid on to sterilise it, furious boiling now, but no boil over.
flameout
glad wrap over the top, lid on, put it in a large bucket of water.
no water shortages in NZ, so hosepipe in the bucket, bit of a swirl going on, some ice blocks towards the end, and about 40mins later was down to 25 Deg C. I gently swirled the kettle a few times to help it cool, but was this a bad idea? It would have swirled up all the crud??
Poured it into a 15litre cube was wary of using thermo and contamination to check temp here, it no longer felt warm through the barrell, so threw in 1/2 pack rehydrated S04 (recommended by LHBS) and glad wrap over the opening of the cube.
took me 5 hrs by the time I'd finished, and got just under 10litres into the FV. :angry: now I see why people like to do bigger batches!
the 10 litres of clearish looking liquid into the FV was a mission in itself. I'd read to pour it like a bottle of homebrew, slowly and steadily so as not to mix it up. fine in theory, but the pot was getting pretty heavy so it got mixed more than I would like.
I poured 2litres of some pretty sludgy looking stuff into a jug which is now settling with some gladwrap over the top. After a few hours there's about a litre of clearish liquid on the top of it.
I had about 500mls of "green mud" in the bottom of the kettle.
The final OG when I'd finished was 1.046 which still seems high, and I'm not sure I've got enough bitterness in there.
Any feedback?
Would it be worth boiling some more hops in water, letting it cool, and putting it in the FV?
Or should I just leave it and taste it in 4 weeks time.
Is my 2 litres of sludge, now separated into a litre of wort and a litre of green mud, useful for anything?
Too risky to pour it into the FV now?
All in all though a very rewarding day, thanks indeed to the kind people here who have given me enough advise to be dangerous !
I just hope it tastes good in 4 weeks time.
Only then can i stand on the top of my upturned FV, beat my chest, and shout "I man, I make beer".
edit:
:icon_chickcheers:
whoo hoo !!!
:icon_chickcheers:
