My First Ag

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Bizarre

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Well I finally got around to doing it I finally joined the dark side. After making excuses for about the last month and thinking na I cant do it cause of this that or the other reason I thought Sod it Im doing it. I have cut my teeth a little by doing heaps of partials so the prospect of flying solo for an AG didnt really worry me (ok it did hehe but only just a little bit!!).

My only concern was that I still do not have a huge S/S pot yet (next pay day!) so I did a lower volume batch (only 20 litres).

It all went fairly straight forward too which surprised me no end! My recipe was based on Kong and Warrens bitters from the recipes section slightly different due to what was available at my LHBS but it went along the lines of:

Bizarre Bitter

A ProMash Recipe Report
BJCP Style and Style Guidelines
-------------------------------
04-A Bitter & English Pale Ale, Ordinary Bitter
Min OG: 1.030 Max OG: 1.038
Min IBU: 20 Max IBU: 40
Min Clr: 6 Max Clr: 14 Color in SRM, Lovibond
Recipe Specifics
----------------
Batch Size (L): 20.00 Wort Size (L): 20.00
Total Grain (kg): 3.84
Anticipated OG: 1.044 Plato: 10.97
Anticipated SRM: 7.0
Anticipated IBU: 32.8
Brewhouse Efficiency: 77 %
Wort Boil Time: 60 Minutes
Pre-Boil Amounts
----------------
Evaporation Rate: 5.00 Percent Per Hour
Pre-Boil Wort Size: 21.05 L
Pre-Boil Gravity: 1.042 SG 10.44 Plato
Formulas Used
-------------
Brewhouse Efficiency and Predicted Gravity based on Method #1, Potential Used.
Final Gravity Calculation Based on Points.
Hard Value of Sucrose applied. Value for recipe: 46.2100 ppppg
Yield Type used in Gravity Prediction: Coarse Grind As Is.

Color Formula Used: Morey
Hop IBU Formula Used: Rager

Additional Utilization Used For Plug Hops: 2 %
Additional Utilization Used For Pellet Hops: 10 %
Grain/Extract/Sugar
% Amount Name Origin Potential SRM
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
91.1 3.50 kg. TF Maris Otter Pale Ale Malt UK 77.43 3
4.7 0.18 kg. JWM Amber Malt Australia 80.01 23
2.1 0.08 kg. JWM Crystal 140 Australia 72.48 74
2.1 0.08 kg. TF Caramalt UK 69.75 19

Potential represented as Yield, Coarse Grind As Is.
Hops
Amount Name Form Alpha IBU Boil Time
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
26.00 g. Target Pellet 11.00 24.0 30 min.
26.00 g. Goldings - E.K. Pellet 4.75 5.4 15 min.
26.00 g. Goldings - E.K. Pellet 4.75 3.4 5 min.
Yeast
-----
WYeast 1098 British Ale



The mash went ok and my esky held its temperature no worries my dough in temp was 78C which gave me a mash temperature of 64.5C when it had all settled down. I mashed using 11 Litres of water giving me about 2.86L per Kg of grain.

1 Hour into the mash I had to adjust the temperature a little with hot water, to take it up from 63C to 65C again (I Guess I could have left it really). Sparging was something I was stressing about a bit, but it turned out to be a breeze. I decided to work my overall volume on the maximum 6L of water per kilo of grain rule I have read of on AHB a couple of times giving me an overall max liquid volume of 22.8L. Seeing I had already used 11L for the mash I decided to do 2 x 5L sparges, to give me a total volume of 21L (well below the near 23L mark so hopefully no tannins). My 2 sparges were done at 78C and I set my ball valve to allow it all to drain in about 10 minutes. I wondered about a 3rd mini sparge to get all the sugars, but at that point the SG of the runnings was about 1.012, so I decided not to bother.


I did my usual 1 hour boil with hop additions over the last 30 minutes, and that all went very smoothly. For cooling I used an old fish tank power filter head I had knocking around, to create a bit of movement in my laundry trough, and heaps of frozen water bottles to reduce the temp (not all at once!!). I was stirring the wort every five minutes or so and I got it down to a respectable temperature in about 30 minutes I think.

When I poured it in my fermenter I realised I only ended up with 11 litres of wort with an SG of 1.084!! I topped it up (in stages and checking the SG each time) to 20 litres with a final SG of 1.045 (a little over target for the recipes but I didnt want to dilute it much more). I based my recipe on a 65% efficiency in Promash, which is what I was getting with the partials I was doing, but on adjusting it in promash afterwads, it look like I got around the 77% efficiency mark which I was pretty chuffed about.

Points for next time I need a bigger pot for sure!! I want to build a stand/table to take my mash tun etc, so that SWMBO doesnt get cranky with me doing it in the kitchen! Oh yeah and maybe I better turn down the flames a bit to, so I dont evaporate off so much water!!

I have included some pictures too cause I know you all love a bit of beer porn!! LOL


I know this post is of Pistol Patch like proportions hehe but I wanted to share the info so that others who are thinking of doing AG might actually try it too. Its honestly not as "scarey" as you might think - if an idiot like me can manage it you guys can too (if you wanna that is). Oh yeah Ill let yas all know what it goes like and tastes like over the next couple of weeks or so!

Happy beer drinking!!
Cheers
Paul

:chug:

Crankenstein.jpg


Crush.jpg


Mash_tun.jpg


First_runnings.jpg


Grain_bed.jpg


Cheapo_CFC.jpg


Boil.jpg
 
Looks spot on Bizarre...but the 10:15pm posting time does tell of a rather long day ? :D
 
Top stuff Paul! Great to wake up to your post with pics and all. Understood everything except,
I know this post is of Pistol Patch like proportions
No idea what you're talking about here - lol!

Sounds as though all went very well. The evaporation on your first go can be a bit frightening but easily fixed as you did. If you're batch sparging, you can make your sparge additions much hotter than 78 degrees as it takes a fair bit of heat to get the grain bed above 80 degrees so this could be something to try next time.

Thanks for the early morning beer porn!

All the best,
Pat
 
Well done Bizzare, as many have found out recently, AG is no where near as difficult/complicated as initially perceived... there's no looking back now :super:

cheers Ross
 
Good stuff, Bizarre. Great efficiency for a first time. :super:

The one thing you might want to think about is putting a hose on the tap coming from the mash tun to the kettle. It'll stop any of that mythical Hot Side Aeration happening. (I've come to believe it is real now. :lol: )

Anyway, well done. Now just to test out the results. :chug:
 
Looks spot on Bizarre...but the 10:15pm posting time does tell of a rather long day ? :D


It was a rather long day Mika - not so much cause of the brewing but with all the other stuff I was trying to do through the day too (and of course the V8's were on the box too hehehe). Sunday is meant to be a day of rest, but I was stuffed at the end of it!

Pat - I'm pretty sure you know what I mean mate - lol! :p Hope the beer porn didnt get you too over excited this morning BTW :)

Ross - I have to say I thought the whole thing was a hell of a lot easier than I was expecting (especially the sparging bit). I think I actually prefered AG to partials from the point of view that it takes about the same length of time - and there is no messing around with cans of gloop etc at the end of it - sling it straight in the fermenter and off you go.

Stuster - I meant to get some food grade hose to stick on the end of the tap and forgot! Thats another thing to add to the list of "must do's" before my next go in a couple of weeks or so. Cant wait to try it - I'll just have to be patient though.


I dont think I would have ever tried AG if it wasnt for all the info I found (and got from people too) on here - so I must say a little thankyou to all those who have put up with my stupid questions etc - hehe - I wont ask stupid questions any more - honest! :ph34r:
 
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