Popped My Ag Cherry

[tipsy_mcstagger]

Brewed my First AG Yesterday

Figured Id start with a really simple Hefeweizen;
2Kg JW Pale
2Kg JW Wheat
Mashed @ 67 for 120mins
15g Northern Brewer boiled 45mins

No Leaks so thats a big plus.

MT worked well however need to work on my strike temp. added water @77 but mash ended up @64, had to add some boiling water to get it up.

Dropped my digital thermometer in the mash, finally found it and surprisingly it still worked!

Sparge went well, the wort would fly out if I let it, finally realized you have to take it slow not to pull a heap of crud through.

The 4ring burner with a HP gauge got the boil going pretty strong, boiled off about 6L in 45 mins!!! Will have to slow that down in future!

Ended up with only 16L in the fermenter so had to top it up with tap water.

No Chiller so the fermenter is sitting in the fridge getting down to temps, pulled some wort out this morning to get the starter going. Using the Wyeast 3068.

All in all ended up 20L nice tasting sweet wort at 1.043 with 68% efficiency.

A hellofa lot easier than I thought

cant wait to try the first beer.

 

[Steve]

onya tipsy!! :beer:

What AA% were your Northern Brewer hops?

Cheers
Steve

 

[tipsy_mcstagger]

onya tipsy!! :beer:

What AA% were your Northern Brewer hops?

Cheers
Steve

9.1% from memory

 

[Goat]

Well done Tipsy !

Don't worry about the mash in temp - that is one of the many intangibles that can only be sorted once the system is in use.

Did you use a calculator (software/pen & paper) in the preparation of the recipe ? What IBU's were you after ?

 

[Steve]

tipsy - why did you mash for 2 hours instead of 1 and only boil for 45 mins?

 

[tipsy_mcstagger]

tipsy - why did you mash for 2 hours instead of 1 and only boil for 45 mins?

Used Beersmith and was aiming for about 16 IBU's

The 2 hour mash I read in Millers complete handbook while the 45min boil was so just so i had some wort left in the kettle. burner was going crazy.

 

[Steve]

Used Beersmith and was aiming for about 16 IBU's

The 2 hour mash I read in Millers complete handbook while the 45min boil was so just so i had some wort left in the kettle. burner was going crazy.

interesting - never heard of a 2 hour mash.... wonder what the benefits are over the usual 1 hour mash. Gotta trade in me 3 ring for a 4 ring!
Cheers
Steve