First AG done and dusted

[Ged]

And it seemed to go okay... Recipe below...Can someone demonstrate how to calculate my efficiency please?

It's based on an IPA but is dark given my pale malt had some chocolate and crystal mixed in, its going to be a dark one :)

5.5 KG Pale Malt
0.25Kg Crystal 40L
0.25Kg Chocolate

30gm Super Alpha 12.3% at 60
24gm Super Alpha 12.3% at 30
25gm Cascade 6% at 15
15gm Casace 6% at 5

The estimated preboil gravity should be 1.047 and mine was 1.043 based on 28.53L

The post boil OG should be 1.054 and mine was 1.052 but the 1.054 was based on 23l in the fermenter and I eventually ended up with 22.5l...

Took 6 hours from start to finish with an extra 30 minutes to wash up...

First pant crapper experience was when I mashed the grain into 74 degrees water...It was still a bit high at 69c so i added some cold..69c..a bit more cold 69c..a bit more cold..69c..a bit more cold..61c ???...FURK!!! $13 digital thermometer not behaving.....Had to dump some hot water back in and ended up at 66 for the single infusion mash...The lautering worked beautifully with the rubbermaid cooler and false bottom..It cleared after about 3 litres...Totally clear of grain bits...

Tasted hugely hoppy at the end but thats okay as I'm trying to emulate the twisted hops seasonal IPA which hit the taps on Friday...Makes your cheeks pucker...

Thanks for the tips on calculating efficiency.

Ged

[denimglen]

Pay 20 bucks and get beersmith, that's the easiest way to calculate eff :-) I can't be bothered buggering around with the numbers myself.

I know the feeling about the infusion mash temps, I just don't worry about it anymore, beersmith tells me what to do and it works. Give or take 0.5C

I can't tell you how to work out eff but BS tells me your numbers are roughly (assuming you got 28.5L into the boiler)

Brewhouse eff - 64.8%
Eff into boiler - 66.4%
Eff into fermenter 63.4%

So I'd just base all my recipes on about 65%.

[Ged]

Hi denimglen. Thx for that. I have brewsmith but didn't realise it could also calculate efficiency so I'll go play with it. 65 percent sounds a bit crap however given I based the original calcs on me hitting 75 percent. Cheers

[denimglen]

Meh, the difference between 75% and 65% is only like 700g of grain for 20L at 1.050. I don't really worry about it too much, as long as it's constant I'm happy. Although it does feel good when you run the numbers and have like 95% extract efficiency, but that only happened to me once haha.

How's your water? I got a decent jump by adding gypsum because my water is low in both sulfate and calcium, calcium helps the enzymes to break down sugars apparently. Also check the gravity of your last runnings, if they're above 1.010 there's still sugar left in the mash to extract, so if you can boil longer or get a bigger boil-off rate then you can pull a bit more wort from the lauter tun.

[James P]

Congratulations!

I am still envious of the rubbermaid cooler.....

[Rusty Chch]

Me too.

At last, the best equipped man in Chch joins the dark side! ;-)

Congrats Ged!

[Ged]

Rusty. Keep calling me the best equipped man in cchurch and the ladies will come flocking :). She's bubbling away in the garage at 22C. Will add some finings in a day or two as I didn't have any irish moss for the boil

[Rusty Chch]

No worries Ged, I take payment in the form of AG homebrews!

22C seems like it might be pretty warm bro, what yeast are you using?

I made a starter for a kit brew last night with my Erlenmeyer flask. Perhaps boiling the wort on the stove while 'er indoors was making the gravy for the roast was a bad idea but hey, we're homebrewers, we defy convention. I felt like a P-cooker with all my awesome chemistry equipment!

[Ged]

S-04. Dry ale yeast 15 - 24 range

[James P]

Drop it to 18 if you can, that should help reduce some fruityness / esters...

[Kempicus]

unless you want that, nothing wrong with 22 degrees!

[James P]

Touché!