First brew apparently successful

[Patrick]

OK I had a late start as we had people over for lunch (they were delicious thanks) and just finished cleaning up a few minutes ago.

Everything went really well, the mash was a little too hot, I heated 28 litres of water to 70c, added the grains, gave everything a good stir and put the lid on and wrapped it all in a blanket. I checked the temp and it was around 67 after 30 minutes, then down to 65 after an hour, then at 64 when I started the burner for the 90 min boil. The whole mash was supposed to be at 64 so I don't know what effect that will have! So then I pulled the bag out and gave it a bit of a squeeze and put it in a bucket. Figured there was about 25-26 litres left in the kettle so I rinsed the grains in the bucket with enough 78 degree water to bring it up to about 29 litres.

I managed to add the hops at the correct times and had no boil-overs. Added the immersion chiller at the 20 min mark and it chilled down to about 21 in about 20 minutes which I was happy with, and strained the wort into the fermenter thru a colander lined with swiss voile (mesh is a little too fine for this, slow going)

I ended up with 21 litres at 1058 and diluted it to ~23 litres at about 1054. Pitched the yeast (US05) and put water that had been boiled and cooled into the air-lock.

I am happy with the sugar level although it might contain more unfermentables because of the hotter mash. I will update this thread to let you know how the ferment goes.

I enjoyed the process, although I will definitely start earlier next time!

[JoKing]

You'll be sweet mate - 67 is a very fermentable temperature range.

[Patrick]

Cool. I was surprised at how high the OG reading was, the wort was at about 22 degrees when I tested it. Will be interesting to see how low the US05 takes it.

[Tony]

Good luck Patrick, welcome to the fold.

[HerrSchnapps]

Great stuff, once you start drinking your AG homebrew it's impossible to not become a bit of a snob - knowing yours is far superior to most!

[Patrick]

WE HAVE FERMENTATION!!

There is a bubble coming out of the airlock about every 15 seconds. The fermenter is on the garage floor under the stairs. The stick-on thermometer is reading 20 degrees. Will this be OK? I am using US05 yeast.

Cheers!

[denimglen]

Yup, I usually ferment at 19 - 20 C with that strain. Try and keep it from rising too much though.

[James P]

My pseudo lager strain when fermented at 16C, as DG said don't let it go too high unless you like overly fruity esters.

[denimglen]

Not to stray too far off topic but...

I'm looking at doing some psuedo-lagers in the near future. Anything to watch out for with using 05 for the job? Bigger pitch at that temp? Diacetyl rest? Etc?

Cheers.

[JoKing]

Just a regular pitch @ 18C and a couple degrees per day down to your required ferm temp after signs of fermentation. After it's done - a couple days at 20 to kleen it up.

[James P]

Sulphur @ 16C is evident in the ferment, cleans up in the lager (4 weeks @ 4C, but normally subsides after 2 weeks).

Normally pitch extra yeast, from early days Mr Malty told me 1.5 packets for a 1050 25L batch give or take for smaller / lower OG. I used to be anal and weigh the yeast.... but now I realise that's just another contact point for contamination and an extra 2 minutes I don't need to use!

D rest as per all my pilseners.

The BIGGEST thing to watch out for with using US05 for pseudo lagers, is becoming lazy and not going back to REAL lagers...

[Reviled]

"D rest as per all my pilseners"

Do you reckon this is nessecary James? Ive never done a D rest in any of my lagers and havnt had a problem, allthough I do make sure I pitch onto a massive cake at around 10*c

[denimglen]

The BIGGEST thing to watch out for with using US05 for pseudo lagers, is becoming lazy and not going back to REAL lagers...

That good eh? :-P