New Brewery & first AG

[Matt Lory]

Hi Guys, my brother-in-laws and I are starting out on AG brewing.  I think I’ve pulled all the gear together that we should need (all mainly on the cheap!).  Just looking for any glaringly obvious issues with the set up before we have a crack at the first brew (pale ale) in the weekend.

I’ve ended up using plastic piping (still need to drill it out – thinking about just filling it up with 2mm holes) in the mash turn – is this likely to have any issues?

Cheers, Matt.

[Grant R Baker]

It looks pretty good.

On your kettle you may want to include a ball valve (I can't see one in your photo) and the best thing for most kettles or hot water tanks... a thermometer. Really useful to know exactly how hot your liquid is. I did almost two years of holding a hand held thermometer in water... those short stem weldless ones you see on the homebrew gear sites a really good.

 

I think yer 2mm holes will be okay.

 

Give everything a hot water run before you brew just to make sure you don't have any unexpected leaks at high temps.

[Matt Lory]

Thanks Grant.  I had a test hot water run yesterday & everything ran smoothly, apart from the immersion cooler blowing super hot water all over me from the discharge line while it was purging all the air out!  

I certainly understand your comment on the thermometer - I was using a hand held 'point-and-shoot' one that we use for the pizza oven & I was struggling to get a consistent reading on the temp in the pots. Will see how we get on with the first brew at the weekend.

Was planning on siphoning off the kettle into fermenter, presume this will work in the mean time?

[Chris P]

I do this as my pot is too thin to really weld a ball valve onto. I use an auto syphon  and think they go for around $25 at home brewshops. Also has a stopper on the bottom so it doesn't take too much trub with it.

[Grant R Baker]

Yep, only dropped my handheld in 3 times before splashing out of a proper one. Thanks to the inventer of barbeque tongs.

The syphon will work okay but you will lose more temperature the longer it takes you to transfer it to the mashtun.

I lose about 1C when transferring from my kettle to a mashtun using a 1/4" ball valve & hose (2C when brewing outside in winter)... so it is something you may want to consider. If you kettle walls are to thin then reenforce with SS washers inside and out (just bend them a little with a ball hammer to help them fit the curve of the kettle).

[Matt Lory]

Planning on boiling mash water in a couple of smaller pots (~7-8L each) and tipping directly into mash turn.  Then just use a pyrex jug to transfer hot water for mash out and sparge.  

One other question I've got - how much 'mashing' is involved when pouring the grain into the mush turn? Is it just a case of giving it a good stir when you fire it in or something more? 

Cheers.

[Grant R Baker]

You want to be careful not to add the water too hot to the grains... above 78C you will kill the emzymes that turn starch into sugar.

Really mix the mash well, you do not want any dough balls of grain in the mash. The dough balls will not release their sugars.

 

Basic temps 64-65C for a lager, 67-69C for an Ales (but that is not strict)

Mash for 60 to 90 minutes, drain 6 litres off and slowly return to mash , then drain to a clean container.

Spare - fly sparge (78-82C)  or batch spare (70-74C)

Drain 6 litres off and slowly return to mash , then drain to a clean container.

Add both lots of your drain sweet water to your brew pot and start your boil.

That's is the quick and nasty version... there are a few links here on how to brew All Grain.. The Library (LINK) is were I would start (if someone had pointed it out back then).

Fell free to PM me if you have any other questions.

[Matt Lory]

Well, bit of a report of the fist AG experience. Mashed in and hit 68.5 as desired.  Left for an hour and began running the wort back thru the  mash until (to my eye) it started looking clear, more a function of no bits of grain than anything else? Colour looked great.  Began draining off to a pitcher then into the kettle.  We didn't have much of a feel for how much strike water the grain would absorb (~5.3kg) so probably ended up putting in too much liquid at fly sparge stage.

90min Boil was uneventful until towards the end the 300g bag of cascade was looking mighty empty given we should have only used about 100g up to that point.  As it turns out the digital scales were reading wrong we have ended up with ~220g of 6.5% AA cascade in the boil & at flame out when it should have been ~120g.  Not good.

Ended up leaving maybe 5-6L in the kettle as the hop slop wouldn't settle out, yield was perhaps 15-16L.  Pitched S-05 last night at 18deg, so should kick into gear today.

I've still got about 60g of cascade i can dry hop with, but i'm not keen on investing too much more in it as it could be terrible! Any views (aside from throw the scales out..)?

[Matt Smith]

What was your OG? you may have just made yourself a kickarse Mini IPA.

[Matt Lory]

OG came out as per recipe at 1055, I couldn't decide if that was expected or not.

[Grant R Baker]

Yep the birth of another IPA.

I recommend using BrewMate software to help target you water requirements.

 

How late did those hops go in...? In only in the last 15minutes then it won;t be too strong, but it will be extra hop tasty.

[Matt Lory]

Haha, thanks guys, it'll be interesting if nothing else. We (should) have had 10g at 75min, 20 at 30 and 40 at 10. But had used about 220g by that stage, so I'd have to assume ratios like that so about 30g at 75 / 60g at 30 / 100ish at 10.

Any recommendations on a redeeming dry hop? Cheers

[Damon Colbert]

Sounds like a pretty awesome accident to me.  Something in the region of 100 IBU, depending on formula used. 

Keep dry hops short, 3-4 days, 5 max, to avoid grassy flavours.  If you want a bigger hop flavour (as if you won't have that already) then you can always do two dry hops.  I would try 30g cascade for 3 days (after fermentation has slowed/stopped, and krausen has gone).  Then you can taste it and decide if you want to do the other 30g.

Good luck.