First AG Brew

Methods, ingredients, advice and equipment specific to all-grain (mash), partial mash (mini mash) and "brew in a bag" (BIAB) brewing.

First AG Brew

Postby Hollafora » Sunday Aug 22, 2010 8:20 pm

G'Day brewers,
After a year and a bit of kit and partial brews I have jumped into the AG way over the weekend, made heaps of mistakes but had truck loads of fun.


The plan was to brew a James Squire Amber Ale clone, I came up with the following
4.50 kg Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 94.94 %
0.20 kg Carafa II (412.0 SRM) Grain 4.22 %
0.04 kg Chocolate Malt (350.0 SRM) Grain 0.84 %
15.00 gm Williamette [5.50 %] (70 min) (First Wort Hop) Hops 10.3 IBU
40.00 gm Williamette [5.50 %] (60 min) Hops 24.1 IBU
20.00 gm Williamette [5.50 %] (15 min) Hops 6.0 IBU
1 Pkgs SafAle English Ale (DCL Yeast #S-04) Yeast-Ale

Single Infusion, Medium Body, No Mash Out Total Grain Weight: 4.74 kg

Leasons lernt
1- Should have halved the choc malt, I finished up with a dark dark porter coloured wort (no style point for me) but crikey it smells and tastes delicious like fresh floral laced expresso
2-I wasnt able to hold my mash temp, was out by 1.2 degrees, i think thanks to the lovely Victoria weather/rain/wind on saturday arvo
3- Used williamette hop flowers, without a bag or a strainer on the kettle....so I blocked the outlet valve over and over and over again, not much fun trying to pick out hop flower bits at 90 + degrees
4-Forgot to use the Irish Moss at the end of the boil, could have been the few ales consumed during the brew process :D
5-I no chilled overnight in a 20 litre willow cube on the tiles outside (thanks Victorian weather) until about 10pm got the wort down to 14 degrees, fantastic, but today I decided to transfer from the cube to the frementor at bench hight in the laundry againt my better judgment and during tipping the cube upinto the frementor I projected about 2 litres of sweat sweat wort over the brand new washing machine and down the walls.....DDOOOHHHHHH I ended up getting about 18 litres into the frementor.

I measured the OG with a refractometer as I was transfering from the kettle into the cube at 1038 but today before pitching the yeast it was 1055. Why is it so?? Could the level of the sugars increased overnight in the cube? Was the heat of the wort at the original measure the culprit?

Does anyone else first wort thier hops before the sparge? I have read different articles that say it gives you a smother overall hop flavor? Can you really tell the difference?

After all was said and done and cleaned I have had a ball of fun, I have some kind of dark, coffee, hoppie magical liquid currently doing battle with the english ale yeast in the laundry and I cant wait to do it all over again.

Cheers
Holla.
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Re: First AG Brew

Postby hirns » Sunday Aug 22, 2010 8:45 pm

Welcome to the forum!!!

Sorry have not done the FWHS

Cheers :P
Hirns
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Re: First AG Brew

Postby Bum » Sunday Aug 22, 2010 9:06 pm

Welcome aboard, Hollafora!

Sounds awesome, bloke. Here's something important to remember about any mistakes you make (none of yours sound terribly awful, by the way) - when we're learning we learn more from our mistakes than we do from our successes. As long as a beer turns out drinkable when I'm trying something new (technique/style) and I can idenitify areas for improvement I consider it a win.

With your dropping mash temp - did you pre warm your tun? If not this may help on the next one. You can also insulate your tun further by wrapping it in blankets, etc. I've also been known to bung a layer or two of foil over the mash from time to time. As for this one - I very much doubt such a drop will stuff your brew. The effects will be subtle, especially if that drop is spread out over the entire mash rather than say the first half.

For your OG difference you can be pretty certain that the temp is responsible. I know there are conversion tools available online for converting refractometer results according to temp but I'm strictly hydrometer so I can't help out with specifics.

Glad to hear you had an awesome day of it. First of many!
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Re: First AG Brew

Postby Planner » Monday Aug 23, 2010 11:13 am

Congrats & welcome Hollafora

I'm only a couple of weeks in front of you with the move to AG (biab), I'll bottle mine tonight.
I see from your AHB (assuming you are also Holla) profile we're both in Shepp, will send PM later today.

Planner
Nothing interesting to see here, move along.
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Re: First AG Brew

Postby Hollafora » Monday Aug 23, 2010 8:21 pm

bum wrote:Glad to hear you had an awesome day of it. First of many!



GDay Bum, Thanks for reply. Mistakes are a chance learn and get better.
I pre heated the tun but i dont think I put enough heated water in for long enough. I have read a few posts with the same advice as you mentioned. foil on the mash or a sleeping mat in the top of the tun. I will remember that next time I try to brew outside in the midddle of winter :D

I have since gone back to beersmith and found the temp conversion calc for measuring OG of hot wort.
The best thing is I can hear the magical sound of the air lock bubbling away tonight, was a bit worried using an ale yeast at this time of year in Victoria given the frementor lives in the laundry. But I found a solution, wrapping the frementor with the wives expensive thermal sleeping bag...... :P Its sitting at a toasty 19 degrees ATM.

Thanks again for the reply
Cheers
Holla
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Re: First AG Brew

Postby Hollafora » Monday Aug 23, 2010 8:26 pm

hirns wrote:Welcome to the forum!!!

Sorry have not done the FWHS

Cheers :P
Hirns


Hi Hirns
Thanks for the welcome
I think I need to try 2 identical brew, one with fwhs and another without to see if you can taste the difference, does that count an an excuse to call in sick from work tomorrow and brew instead???

Cheers
Holla
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