Perth Newbie - AG

[JayP]

Hi.

Just wanted to introduce myself.

This weekend (or maybe tonight) will be my first foray into home brewing having done a couple of "U Brew It" batches previously.

Ive got my eye on a Robo Brew for the future, but the immediate goal is to produce a small stovetop BIAB batch of Pale Ale (10L) as a test run.

Im going to use a 15L stock pot (Kmart, $16)
2kg of Maris Piper grain
2x 15g of Cascade Hops
1 packet of Safale US05 yeast

The plan with be to mash in with 10L of water for 60 min (around 62-68 degrees), then add 3.7L of water to boil 11.7L for 60 min with just 2 hop additions (60 min, 15min).

Im aiming for about 10L in the fermenter (15L cube which i already had)

Beersmith says I should end up with ABV of 5.19%, IBUs 40.1, OG 1.048 FG 1.008.

Will see how we go.

Cheers, James

 

[wildburkey]

Hi James, good luck with the brew m8. I'm still learning the ropes of AG myself so am no expert on recipe design, it sounds like you have it pretty well sorted tho. Are you using the no chill cube method after the boil? I would add some more flavourful hops for a pale ale personally, in the past I have had good success using cascade at the start and finish + a 15min addition of citra or mosiac and dry hopping with galaxy prior to bottling. What you are doing should still be fine and will help you to distinguish flavours/ give you a base to build upon, hope all goes well

 

[JayP]

Im undecided about the chill - im either going to cover the kettle in gladwrap and let it cool over night (as per the "Move to all grain for $30" thread, or chill it in the laundry sink and then transfer to fermenter at that time. I think it'll depend on how I'm feeling and how late it is...

Shane from Brewcraft has been very helpful re tips and the recipie.

 

[wildburkey]

Cool, I personally don't like the thought of leaving over night but have never tried it myself. Main reason I was asking if you were no chilling was that I noticed you would not have had the volume to purge the headspace completely in the 15L cube.

 

[JayP]

Maiden Brew day is almost over...... Am still chilling in the sink at 30 degrees and aiming to rack to fermenter soonish. All went well and I think I've hit my numbers. Pics to follow.

 

[barls]

1400-jayp

 

[JayP]

So the brew day begins...

Heating 10L water in my $16 Kmart pot... fairly straightforward

At 68 degrees.....switch off heat and prepare grain bag

And promptly mash in...

Use potato masher to remove dough balls and mix gains, and it looked like this...

Lid on, then wrap in old towels for 60 min

And after an hour it looked like this

 

[JayP]

And the temp was pretty stable.... after an hour was still 64 odd

So i sparge with 2L (squeezing the grain bag) and then add 1.7L to the wort to give me a pre boil volume of around 11.7L .The boil plan is 60 min with 3 hop additions

Got a nice rolling boil... first hop addition nearly resulted in a boil over...) But all good....

... and basically, I've just made a giant cup of tea...

 

[JayP]

After 60 min the boil is done, and I start the chill... in the kitchen sink. Which is fine, except my wife wants to know if I've finished and if she can start cooking the kids dinner.

"Sort of"... I reply...

I take an OG sample and wait for it to cool , meanwhile adding all the ice and kids ice blocks to the sink. Lucky its winter in WA and no one will miss the it...

At 30 odd degrees i measure OG & I think I've done ok - BrewSmith said 1.048 OG and I'm just over 1.050. Maybe an expert can comment at this point...

( I was quite impressed by the fact my grain bag looked like a pair of giant testicles at this point....funnily enough my wife was ambivalent)

OG reading...

And after everything, i think the colour looks ok

An hour later, or so it seems, I racked about 9 ish L wort into the fermenter, using half the rehydrated yeast (11.5g Safale US05), leaving a litre or so of *ahem* crap in brew kettle.

Im pretty stoked because I've spent about $20 on ingredients, and have >9L of something in the fermenter !

Great for a trial run. So, I'll get back to you in a week or so with the results.

Thanks for reading.

James

 

[RobB]

Nice work James. If you hit your numbers on your first try, you've done something which most of us failed to do!

Welcome to the forum.

 

[wildburkey]

Nice job, well detailed and written up too! That's not too far off your target OG, I'd be happy with that especially considering your equipment and a being a first time effort.

I'd guess you may have got better efficiency than predicted in the brew calc but I'll leave that for the more experienced/ qualified to decide.

 

[JayP]

Had a quick check of the fermenter after work today - so about 48 hours after pitching. As best as I can tell the temp is around 18 degrees - measured outside of the fermenter via thermopen - which is in the range Safale recommend for US05. There is at least 1cm of bubbles covering the wort so I guess things are happening.

As a precaution I've taken the cube off the concrete and put it on a shelf, plus added a Beach towel to insulate to some extent.

So how long do I ferment for - 1 week or more?

I'm planning to bottle into King Browns so read up today on the bulk prime proxy using sugar syrup and a syringe. Seems to be straightforward, 46g sugar for my 9 odd L.

Then carbonate at room temp for a further 2 weeks, them fridge ?

After all this - what's next ? with a 15L pot, can I make any bigger beers like stouts bearing in mind my max boil volume is around 13-14l ?

Also, my dad ( old school handy) is wiring up an STC 1000 for me for better fermentation control. For future batches !!

 

[Milk-lizard84]

Nice write up JayP. Sounds like you have had everything pretty well sussed.
I'd say leave your brew for closer to 2 weeks. It should be definitely finished fermenting by then. Also if you take some gravity readings with your hydrometer and they are stable over 2 days it's done.
Good idea getting the stc 1000.
Best bit of kit ever.

 

[JayP]

Got Brew #2 in the fermenter today. Going for an Irish Stout.

 

[Devhay]

Great write up mate
I'm about to do my first BIAB with a pretty much identical set up haha

 

[JayP]

Awesome. It's all working well for me.

 

[pnorkle]

Just out of interest JayP, my first AG brew day was a F%^*&king long one... how long did it take from start to finish for you?

 

[JayP]

Maybe 3 hours tops ?

20 minutes to heat to mash strike temp
60 min mash, wrapped in a blanket with gas stove off.
Heat to boil - 10 min, 60 min boil
Cooling took forever in the kitchen sink - say another hour for the first batch. ( Second batch I put the hot pot in the swimming pool which is currently 14 degrees so it cooled down in under 30 min with by the filter directing water towards to pot)

Siphon to fermenter and yeast addition was quick, and I did most of the clean up whilst I was waiting for the pot to cool.

 

[JayP]

Threw out my second brew today (brewed last Saturday). Maybe someone can confirm I've done the right thing?

It was a fairly simple Irish stout recipie and the brew day went fine, but I did have a few minutes of faffing about getting the airlock o ring seated properly in the fermenter. Thinking about it, I may NOT have sanitised the airlock, but I did use boiled water when filling it.

Anyway, after 6 days of no visible fermentation or krausen, the garage is a little low @ 16degrees , I opened the lid to check. I'd previously taken a gravity reading and gravity had dropped from 1.04 to 1.02 ish.

My god - upon opening the lid and peeking inside I was hit with the most eye watering, noxious vinegar type smell. Is that CO2 or a sure sign of infection ?

I promptly tossed the lot and have washed the fermenter thoroughly in Brewers detergent and hot water, and also run everything they the dishwasher. All o rings and seals removed and washed too.

I'll try again tomorrow, fingers crossed my next batch is successfully. I'm 1 for 2 at this stage.

 

[manticle]

If gravity was dropping, it was being fermented by something.
Intense co2 buildup can be pretty full on. Better to take a sample into an hydrometer tube than take a faceful from the fermenter.

Don't be in such a hurry to turf fermenting beer.