My first AG brew!

After 3 kits I decided it was time to go down the full AG route...so I jumped in with an attempt at something in the style of Old Hooky.

Grains:
3kg Maris Otter
410g Flaked Maize
245g Crystal 60L
100g Black Malt

Hops:
20g Challenger (90mins)
20g East Kent Goldings (15mins)
12g Fuggles (10mins)
30g East Kent Goldings (Dry Hop 4 days)

Others:
330g Sugar (15mins)
1 Protofloc Tablet (15mins)
S-04 Yeast


I started by heating 37.5l water to 82°C. After transferring 12l of this to my mash tun I got 72.5°C, which after adding the grains was 66°C.

60 minute mash later, I'd only lost a degree, so was happy with the DIY mash tun!

My sparge water (~25l) was heated to 86°C, which settled at 75-77°C when added to the grains. A quick stir and drained out into the boiler.

This gave me a pre-boil volume of 32l - my pre boil gravity was 1.030.

A 90minute boil later - I used a copper wort chiller and I had an S.G. of 1.042 approx 27l of wort. I transferred 24l to an FV and the rest had to be discarded.

By this time it was 12:45 A.M.
It turned out I didn't leave the wort chiller in quite long enough...and pitched the yeast at 26°C.
It seems to be fermenting well though - the airlock is bubbling away at a steady 20.5°C.

My plans are 7 days primary 7 days secondary and then kegging with a small amount of priming sugar.


This was calculated using brewers friend - the predicted gravity at each stage so far has been spot on - the only difference was I ended up with about 4l more wort than expected. I was therefore thinking of reducing my sparge volume for the next brew - would this make sense?

So how did my first AG brew go?
I was pretty pleased with it all, and enjoyed every minute - the smell was amazing! Can't wait to try it now :thumb:

Glad you enjoyed your first AG brew day.

Good choice of yeast for a beer in the style of Old hooky. I've been looking into the posibility of bottle culturing the hook norton strain to discover it's similar to S-04

You could have possibly kept the extra wort, frozen it and used it for starters

Glad you enjoyed your first AG. You have done really well and obviously done your research :)

I would get a bigger FV so you can use that extra wort....:)

:thumb:

I drank my first pint of Old Hooky Wednesday night in a pub and quite liked it. will be interested to see if your brew turns out similar or better?! I could be reverting back to your recipe at sometime.

Sounds like a good brew day.

Hope you enjoy the finished product!

Great post mate, no stopping now :) personally I've never put my brews into secondary, always just let it ferment out then move to a cooler place for a few days before bottling/kegging.

Enjoy
Jay :)

Thanks for the comments all - I'll keep the thread updated with progress!

MyQul said:

Glad you enjoyed your first AG brew day.

Good choice of yeast for a beer in the style of Old hooky. I've been looking into the posibility of bottle culturing the hook norton strain to discover it's similar to S-04

You could have possibly kept the extra wort, frozen it and used it for starters

Click to expand...

Ah, I didn't realise that. I will bear it in mind for the future!

jayjt29 said:

Great post mate, no stopping now :) personally I've never put my brews into secondary, always just let it ferment out then move to a cooler place for a few days before bottling/kegging.

Enjoy
Jay :)

Click to expand...

I've not put any of my kit brews into secondary. I'm still not 100% whether I will or not...I'll mull it over for the next few days!

I've never had a problem with it and it saves time and more cleaning!

Cheers
Jay

Forgot to add in the original post, the IBU is 33 and the SRM 14.5 (or should be according to the calcs, anyway!)

Took a sample today after a week, it was 1.009 down from 1.042 so 4.33%. I've decided not to transfer to a secondary - I'll be kegging it next Sunday.

I'm unsure of how much to prime this with in the barrel. I don't really want much carbonation...any suggestions?

Kegged it today - F.G. was 1.006 so I'm looking at just under 4.8%.

I've added 50g of sugar to the barrel as priming sugar, hopefully it'll give me the result I'm after. 2 weeks now in the warm then I'll move it into the garage to condition further I think!

This has turned into an excellent pint. Lovely malty, nutty goodness! Nice creamy head which stays throughout the pint, and crystal clear. Not had a chance to compare it to the "real thing" yet, but I don't really need to in order to tell how nice it is!

00bygrees said:

This has turned into an excellent pint. Lovely malty, nutty goodness! Nice creamy head which stays throughout the pint, and crystal clear. Not had a chance to compare it to the "real thing" yet, but I don't really need to in order to tell how nice it is!

Click to expand...

Nice... that looks a fantastic pint. Love the glass too. It might only be ten to eleven in the morning, but that looks so good, I could sup that right now..!!