Have a go at simple AG

[Mungri]

First attempt at an AG brew. Simple recipe as follows.
1kg Maris Otter pale malt
100g Crystal malt
5g Mosaic hop pellets added at boil start
1/4 Britewort tablet added at 50 mins into boil
10g Mosaic hop pellets added at 55mins into boil
4g PaleAle Yeast from Crossmyloof
Put recipe into brewers friend which says,
SG 1052, FG 1013 giving an ABV of 5.1 percent. Hope I get somewhere near.
Start time 08.05
Started quite well, no dramas getting mash start temp to 68° Ended an hour later at 62° so maybe a bit low. Don't know how much difference 1° will make.
Strained off to second pan which ended up being 3 pans. Not ideal. Didn't expect the 1.1kg of malt to bulk up that much. Will be ready for that next time.
Took a pic after straining the mash, think I created some kind of swamp monster!



Did the sparge at 80° Added the mash liquid and endedd up with 5.75ltrs. Pretty close to Clibit's suggeted 6ltrs before boil, so happy with that.
Waiting to get to boiling point on ceramic hob.



Reached boiling point at 10.30, 2 hours 25 minutes in (time flew).
Had a good rolling boil considering the pan was twice the size of the hob ring.



Added Mosaic and Britewort at the relevant times. Cooled in sink with frozen water bottles surrounding the pan. Cooled quicker than expected at about 35 mins.
Straining wort into FV took ages. Had to use a sieve with a sanitised cloth spread over. This took forever to filter through. Need to get something made for the job next time.
Don't know if I filtered too much out, only ended up with 3.5 ltrs in FV and a lot of crud in the cloth. Topped up to 5ltrs, stirred and did SG check.
Gutted, only 1040 SG. Not sure what went wrong. Everything seemed to go pretty much to plan, apart from using three pans to strain the mash. Ah, all of the mash liquid didn't go through all of the grain. The sieve was nowhere near big enough to hold all of the grain at once.
Nothing to be done now, pitched yeast at 23° and sealed FV. At least it smells nice (to me anyway).
Going to call it moaning missus pale as she never stopped complaining about the smell.
Finished and washed up by 1.00pm.
Here's to next time and hopefully a closer SG to that expected.

 

[bobukbrewer]

strain with a coarse sieve on top of a medium sieve on top of a fine sieve on top of a fine sieve with a sheet of kitchen paper in it.

 

[BeerisGOD]

mungri, first off great effort mate

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EetWOTNZ-As[/ame]

I follow craigs vids whilst doin brews. I went through a phase of thinking he was a bit big headed but in all fairness, hes a great step by step brewer and after watching his vids he agrees he aint perfect and hes reassuring to listen to. pause each part as ur brewing, you wont go wrong.
just scale down ur brew sizes if your not (like me) doing full sized AG brews. oh also have a lb to grams convertor open on another tab handy.

 

[chub1]

I do 5 litre batches.usually mash in 5 litres,dunk sparge in 2.75 litres,giving the bag a damn good squeeze, then boil it,lid half on pan to try and conserve the boil off. Usually get pretty close to my 5 litre quantity.
I strain through voil which seems to work quite well for me:thumb:

 

[Mungri]

strain with a coarse sieve on top of a medium sieve on top of a fine sieve on top of a fine sieve with a sheet of kitchen paper in it.

Thanks mate. I didn't even know that there were different grades of sieve.

 

[Mungri]

mungri, first off great effort mate

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EetWOTNZ-As

I follow craigs vids whilst doin brews. I went through a phase of thinking he was a bit big headed but in all fairness, hes a great step by step brewer and after watching his vids he agrees he aint perfect and hes reassuring to listen to. pause each part as ur brewing, you wont go wrong.
just scale down ur brew sizes if your not (like me) doing full sized AG brews. oh also have a lb to grams convertor open on another tab handy.

Cheers for the advice. I will have a look at that vid.
It wasn't a total waste of time. It's kicked off in the fermenter now and if it gets to target FG will be about 4 percent. Also there are a few things I would do differently next time, even though it went OK. It's a massive learning curve.
Nice to get some feedback :thumb:

 

[Mungri]

I do 5 litre batches.usually mash in 5 litres,dunk sparge in 2.75 litres,giving the bag a damn good squeeze, then boil it,lid half on pan to try and conserve the boil off. Usually get pretty close to my 5 litre quantity.
I strain through voil which seems to work quite well for me:thumb:

Thanks chub
Is that biab then? I am thinking of getting a bag. Looks like it might be a bit easier to sparge. The biggest problem I have is that my pan is only a 7ltr one.
Thought it was massive before having a go at AG.
I really was surprised by how much space the soaked grain took up.
Think I'm going to need a bigger pan.

 

[chub1]

Thanks chub
Is that biab then? I am thinking of getting a bag. Looks like it might be a bit easier to sparge. The biggest problem I have is that my pan is only a 7ltr one.
Thought it was massive before having a go at AG.
I really was surprised by how much space the soaked grain took up.
Think I'm going to need a bigger pan.

Yes biab.I am limited to space etc so it suits me doing small brews,plus i can do more variety:mrgreen::thumb:

 

[Mungri]

Yes biab.I am limited to space etc so it suits me doing small brews,plus i can do more variety:mrgreen::thumb:

Limited space for me as well. If I can fit 5ltrs and 1.1kg of grain in my pan I will have a go at that method.

 

[BeerisGOD]

Yes biab.I am limited to space etc so it suits me doing small brews,plus i can do more variety:mrgreen::thumb:

Do you use a 23l fermenter still mate? or those 10/12l ones?

 

[Mungri]

Do you use a 23l fermenter still mate? or those 10/12l ones?

I use a 23ltr and a 30ltr. My AG is in the 23ltr. Seems to be doing fine in this.
Only been brewing for 5 or 6 weeks. Keep adding bits of kit to my starter kit. It's all still very basic compared to most members on the forum. No less fun for that though. Really got the bug now.

Sorry mate. You were asking chub1.

 

[chub1]

Do you use a 23l fermenter still mate? or those 10/12l ones?

Sometimes,i do have some 10 litre ones as well however

 

[Mungri]

First attempt at an AG brew. Simple recipe as follows.
1kg Maris Otter pale malt
100g Crystal malt
5g Mosaic hop pellets added at boil start
1/4 Britewort tablet added at 50 mins into boil
10g Mosaic hop pellets added at 55mins into boil
4g PaleAle Yeast from Crossmyloof
Put recipe into brewers friend which says,
SG 1052, FG 1013 giving an ABV of 5.1 percent. Hope I get somewhere near.
Start time 08.05
Started quite well, no dramas getting mash start temp to 68° Ended an hour later at 62° so maybe a bit low. Don't know how much difference 1° will make.
Strained off to second pan which ended up being 3 pans. Not ideal. Didn't expect the 1.1kg of malt to bulk up that much. Will be ready for that next time.
Took a pic after straining the mash, think I created some kind of swamp monster!

View attachment 8709

Did the sparge at 80° Added the mash liquid and endedd up with 5.75ltrs. Pretty close to Clibit's suggeted 6ltrs before boil, so happy with that.
Waiting to get to boiling point on ceramic hob.

View attachment 8710

Reached boiling point at 10.30, 2 hours 25 minutes in (time flew).
Had a good rolling boil considering the pan was twice the size of the hob ring.

View attachment 8711

Added Mosaic and Britewort at the relevant times. Cooled in sink with frozen water bottles surrounding the pan. Cooled quicker than expected at about 35 mins.
Straining wort into FV took ages. Had to use a sieve with a sanitised cloth spread over. This took forever to filter through. Need to get something made for the job next time.
Don't know if I filtered too much out, only ended up with 3.5 ltrs in FV and a lot of crud in the cloth. Topped up to 5ltrs, stirred and did SG check.
Gutted, only 1040 SG. Not sure what went wrong. Everything seemed to go pretty much to plan, apart from using three pans to strain the mash. Ah, all of the mash liquid didn't go through all of the grain. The sieve was nowhere near big enough to hold all of the grain at once.
Nothing to be done now, pitched yeast at 23° and sealed FV. At least it smells nice (to me anyway).
Going to call it moaning missus pale as she never stopped complaining about the smell.
Finished and washed up by 1.00pm.
Here's to next time and hopefully a closer SG to that expected.

Got home from work last evening to find the wife had forgotten to turn the heating off as she went out. Opened my brew cupboard and my AG brew was at 30°. I think it's dead. It would have been at that temp for about 8 hours.
Only being 5ltrs it would have heated up pretty quickly.
Have a kit brew of 23ltrs along side and that was showing 27°. hoping that at least might be OK. The kit should be nearing the end of it's primary, but it's bombing along again now with that heat.

 

[BeerisGOD]

Got home from work last evening to find the wife had forgotten to turn the heating off as she went out. Opened my brew cupboard and my AG brew was at 30°. I think it's dead. It would have been at that temp for about 8 hours.
Only being 5ltrs it would have heated up pretty quickly.
Have a kit brew of 23ltrs along side and that was showing 27°. hoping that at least might be OK. The kit should be nearing the end of it's primary, but it's bombing along again now with that heat.

It might be ok if it's past the critical three days. And eight hours ain't a whole day. U maybe ok. When did u pitch the yeast?

 

[Mungri]

It might be ok if it's past the critical three days. And eight hours ain't a whole day. U maybe ok. When did u pitch the yeast?

The AG brew yeast was pitched on Monday. It was chugging along fine beforehand. No activity when I came home yesterday after it getting so hot. I lifted the lid a tad and it didn't' smell good.
I think the 23ltr kit is Ok. This one is 10 days into primary now and has slowed down again today.
I'll have another go at AG next weekend. Think I'll get a 10ltr fv to use this time.

 

[Mungri]

The AG brew yeast was pitched on Monday. It was chugging along fine beforehand. No activity when I came home yesterday after it getting so hot. I lifted the lid a tad and it didn't' smell good.
I think the 23ltr kit is Ok. This one is 10 days into primary now and has slowed down again today.
I'll have another go at AG next weekend. Think I'll get a 10ltr fv to use this time.

I was just about to chuck this, thought I would take a gravity reading first. It's down to 1010. How could it get from 1040 to 1010 in 3 days? It doesn't smell bad now either.
Wonder if it is worth bottling. What can I lose other than a few crown caps?

 

[bobukbrewer]

1040 to 1010 in 3 days is not that remarkable - bottle it and send me 12 for me to evaluate.........

 

[MyQul]

I was just about to chuck this, thought I would take a gravity reading first. It's down to 1010. How could it get from 1040 to 1010 in 3 days? It doesn't smell bad now either.
Wonder if it is worth bottling. What can I lose other than a few crown caps?

Because it's been at 30C it's going to ferment much faster (in a similar converse way, lagers, fermented at cold temps will take a lot longer to ferment out)

Fermented at 30C you may well have got some off flavours (or you might have gotten away with it). If there's a hot alcohol nail polish flavour, that fusil alcohols. Theres nothing you can do about them, you may as well bin it and start again. If there's a sweet,buttery like flavour it's diacytl. These can condition out for the most part. Leave it in the FV for 3 weeks before bottling then leave it for several weeks and it should mostly condition out

 

[Mungri]

1040 to 1010 in 3 days is not that remarkable - bottle it and send me 12 for me to evaluate.........

I'd love to send you 12 bottles Bob. Unfortunately it was only a 5ltr brew and I need some myself.:lol:

 

[Mungri]

Because it's been at 30C it's going to ferment much faster (in a similar converse way, lagers, fermented at cold temps will take a lot longer to ferment out)

Fermented at 30C you may well have got some off flavours (or you might have gotten away with it). If there's a hot alcohol nail polish flavour, that fusil alcohols. Theres nothing you can do about them, you may as well bin it and start again. If there's a sweet,buttery like flavour it's diacytl. These can condition out for the most part. Leave it in the FV for 3 weeks before bottling then leave it for several weeks and it should mostly condition out

Thanks MyQul
I tasted the sample and there didn't seem to be any off flavours, at least not yet.
It actually tasted quite light, not bad at all. Couldn't really detect the Mosaic hops though.