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!

[Reviled]

"Try and keep it from rising too much though."

Does this even apply to US-05?? ;oP I regularly abuse the shit out of it and get great results! Ask Martin about my 26*c Cream Ale ;o) lol

[denimglen]

Consistent good results and luck are two different things ;-)

Over 21C I've had that yeast start throwing a little ester, nothing major but not as clean as a few degrees cooler. Personally, I've had that yeast at 24C and no dramas, but yeah, I reckon that 18 - 20 is still better range for cleanliness.

[James P]

Yeast at 36C makes it taste like ginger.... or so all the guys in the very first case swap told me :)

[Patrick]

Sweet as, it is pretty consistently cool in the garage (it is under the house) so it shouldn't get any warmer, if it does I will sit it in the aluminium kettle with some water and ice bottles in it.

[denimglen]

It will heat up a little as it takes off as the fermentation itself gives off heat. But sounds like you've got it sorted mate.

[Patrick]

OK the fermentation was pretty vigorous for Tuesday and Wednesday (bubble every second or two) and I notived it has slowed down a fair bit since last night. I am going to leave it alone till mid-late next week anyway.

One thing I was concerned about is the amount of gunk (yeast?) in the bottow of the fermenter. It is actually above the level of the tap. Is this going to cause hassles when bottling? What I was thinking about doing is giving it all a good swirl to lift the yeast off the bottom, then propping the fermenter up on a slight tilt so that when it settles again the tap is no longer obscured. Is this a good idea?

[warra48]

Yes, that will work.
I regularly tilt my fermenters about 10 to 20ºC back from the tap side.
Having fermenters on a tilt is no problem. The commercial boys conical fermenters all have tilted sides at the lower end of their fermenters, and they seem to ferment just fine!

[Patrick]

Thanks mate, I went ahead and swirled in on the weekend and the yeast has now settled away from the tap (just). Fermentation seems to be finished so I will take a sample tonight and anoter one tomorrow night and see if there is any change.