20 years and finally, AG#1

Finally it's done, after 20 years of brewing kits. Although well prepared, of course it didn't go according to plan. All in all though, I'm still hopeful I'll get a good beer out of it, with some luck.

AG#1: 23l Batham's best. Brewferm Mill. Colemans Xtreme 36Q cooler with ball valve tap & bazooka. Modded Buffalo boiler with ball valve tap & bazooka (+ extra element). Brewferm 25l chiller, including a recirc pump for iced water.

I think I hit 5.2 pH in the mash. Not bad. Next time I'll aim a little higher. I kept arriving under mash-in temperature; some lessons learned there. The volume taken from initial batch sparge was on target.

Then the wife decided to break our agreement and went out, leaving me in charge of our 11 month old son. Then it started to rain, and yes I was brewing outdoors. I smashed a glass and dropped my auto syphon, from which the non-return valve popped out. Hopefully I can fix that. Then the second sparge seemed to get stuck. I think I might need to increase the mill gap; was about 0.9mm. I managed to get everything out but at a bit at the expense of clarity. Even after running for a while, the sweet wort drawn into the boiler didn't look particularly clear to me; maybe also a fine crush problem. Final measurement looked about 1 or 2 litres short. Activities were losing a bit of accuracy at this point.

Boil went OK. At some point the Buffalo element topped out and switched off. Quite late on though, and lucky I had the second element running. I'll be putting some silicone between the temp gauge and the pot to sort that out. Final volume looked way short. I almost added boiling water to the boil but decided instead to address this after the gravity reading.

Chilling started, but was paused a few times. Definitely stirring & or moving the chiller is needed; you can feel the difference in the out pipe. One of the pauses... should I tell you this... I forgot to put the bazooka in the boiler. Should I tell you this?... so I sanitised my hands and arms to put it in place. At about 45 degrees I switched to my iced water recirc plan, using an aquarium pump. This part went really very well. Pretty pleased with that little "project". All in all I used a lot less water than I was expecting. It still took about 40 minutes to reach 23 degrees, but it was the pauses that delayed things a bit.

Had forgot to run some boiling wort through the boiler tap and silicon out tube, but at least I remembered to starsan it. Then on the run off, the boiler tap got stuck. This (I believe) is largely because my supplier didn't have leaf hops in every case, so I was forced to use pellet. Even though I used a sock, pellet and bazooka really don’t like each other. So I lost quite a bit of wort in the boiler, and also drew through quite a bit of **** into the fermenter. Final measurement should have been 23l but was 16l. WHAT!? That's miles off! Measured the SG and it was well over, so I decided to water down. Took 3 extra litres to reach target SG, so clearly my boil-off % needs looking at, as does my loss to hops. So managed 19l into the fermenter, not 23l, and with all the crud I pulled over, it's looking like I'll lose some more yet. On the plus side, it'll all fit in my Cornie, no bottle malarkey.

From there it was second nature as I've been doing it for years, except the clean-up, which was pretty easy.

I broke the brew table while carrying indoors and avoiding a child’s toy, smacked against a wall.

So, a few breakages (3), fingers crossed for infection, many lessons learned. What a 7 hours that was!

Really enjoyed reading that. Sounds like you have put quite some effort into your set up - I'm still really using kitchen utensils and the bath.

I've done 3 AGs so far - only been brewing 1 year - mainly due to Clibit's excellent advice and tutelage.

Do please post the full recipe - I love Bathams - are you Black Country yourself?

Keep us posted how it goes on.

Cheers

Martin

great write up..

can take a while to work out what u lose during boil etc...

and LOL at the sanitised arm into boiler ive done similar a few times and so for no harm..

20 years :-o:-o:-o, I've heard an all grain beer takes a while but ....:wink:
Seriously,well done.
Jealous

Thanks guys. The measure of success will come from the finished beer. I'll let you know how that goes.

With good brewhouse efficiency, it'll be at 1/3 the price of kits. It's looking like I won't hit that, but it'll still be about 1/2 the price of kits.

So Martin, that's a hint that I'm not Black Country, Yorkshire origin actually, but not lived there 20 odd years. My recipe came from Graham Wheeler's British Real Ale, one marked as having won a competition. Not sure I should post that due to plagiarism, but I guess it can be found on the web. I have a pretty poor memory for remembering my prefererd beers; I just form an opinion as I drink it. Not fussy I guess. Kits never really gave me that pub beer smoothness or smell, so I'm hoping I'll get a bit of that with AG. If it doesn't, I'll be pretty upset, but still, my on cost is cut in half, at least.

Arms don't seem to have suffered from their sanitation, and a lot of work on measurements is needed. All good fun. Just need to go and buy a new brew table.

Fore said:

. Kits never really gave me that pub beer smoothness or smell, so I'm hoping I'll get a bit of that with AG. If it doesn't, I'll be pretty upset, but still, my on cost is cut in half, at least.

Click to expand...

You'll be amazed at the results of AG. I would much rather drink my own stouts than anything I can find in a pub. I'm hoping for similar results from my bitters now I've started treating my water. Bottled an ESB yesterday and judging by the samples from the FV I'm going to be very pleased once they've had a couple of weeks conditioning (but might have to have a 'quality control' bottle on Monday eve )

Looking forward to that first sip. Would be a disaster if there was an infection. That said, think I've only suffered 1 in 20 years, but never stuck my hand in the wort before .

A bit surprised how dark the wort is. Bathams Best uses only pale ale malt, so was expecting it to be as blond as very pale Pale Ales. But not at all, more like Tetley. To get that really pale wort, is it about sourcing a lighter shade of pale ale malt, or is it something else completely, like using pils malt?

The malt I sourced was pretty cheap, 1 EUR per kg, about 72 pence per kilo. It's a real good price so I might have to live with the colour. Am I right in thinking that the colour is a secondary consideration, that you can achieve pretty much the same flavour with any base malt and the colour is more aesthetic?

Pale malt should be pale. What exactly did you buy, and where?

I got in touch with a Brauwland distributor; Alsace, not far from where I live. Originally I ordered the Brewferm 7-10 EBC, but he then offered me a better price and precise quantity for grain he buys in bulk. It was an open bag, so I can't say for sure that the bag is relevant, but it says Castle Malting, Belgium, Chateau pale ale. I just checked their website and it also says 7-10 EBC.

It's just that some of the kits I've done were definitely lighter in the fermenter than this has turned out. I used 100% pale ale so I could not get any lighter with this malt. How would you replicate a much lighter beer? Would you source lighter pale ale, say 6 EBC, or is it OK and just as easy to mix in pils malt?

7-10 EBC should produce a very pale beer. So it's odd.

http://www.beercolor.com/products.htm

Well it absolutely shot out of the blocks. Cellar at 20.5 degree but the activity had fermentation at about 23.5 - 24 degree. Slowed right down after 3 days and so I just took a gravity reading. At 1.011. And of course an opportunity to taste...

Very different from anything I have ever produced before. That was immediately apparent. What came to mind was flat pub beer. It's quite smooth, no harsh bitterness. I couldn't pick out any chemical taste. I know already this is a success. Can't wait to have this kegged and gassed. But I'll be leaving it at least another week in primary, then a week in secondary.

Oh and it is quite a pale beer after all; sorry for being daft.

I didn't mention before, but the Nottingham yeast really frothed up when I made the starter. None of my kit yeast have ever done that, not even the huge 20gm packs.

You've just stepped into the light. I mean the dark. :thumb:

OK, it's pretty much carbonated up and I'm now drinking my long awaited AG#1. Wow, a 20 year wait for this. Still a little green, but very clear.

First impressions: slightly underwhelmed :hmm:. But don't worry, it's more complex than that. First off, this is definitely the closest to something "commercial" I have ever brewed . And that's quite a big deal after 20 years of kits. It reminds me of the beers lined up in bottles at Sainsbury's, not the big brand ones, the more interesting ones off to the side. On my trips back to England, I tend to grab random ones from those shelves and couldn't say which my own brew is most like, but it certainly reminds me of one of those bottled beers.

And there's a hint. I was hoping more for a draft flavour, not a bottle flavour. I also have a feeling that this, Bateman's Best, is not my favoured "style". But that's just part of the adventure of discovery. For example, I now know what EKG tastes like. Not that I've never tasted it before, just that when you buy a beer in the pub, they tend not to tell you what hops are in the beer. So you are familiar with the flavour, but could never say what hop it was.

I also note that it's very watery with a dry finish. I can tell straight away that is not my preference. I prefer those rich smooth warm feeling beers. I know I need to aim higher with my mash temp to edge towards that. I already completed AG#2, but AG#3 will now be targeted at 67 degrees. It doesn't seem a big temperature difference to me; let's see if the body turns out different.

I think without realising it, my years on the continent have led to a preference shift towards different beer styles. In particular, Belgian style. My AG#1 is definitely reminiscent of the English style. I think my dad would love this, but I'm after something different.

I'm still going to enjoy every last drop of this, but I think I might need to edge away from Graham Wheeler's book quicker than I was expecting. The adventure has just begun. May the force be with me.

You're going to enjoy AG brewing! Learning what different ingredients taste like, how yeasts behave, mash temperatures, hopping techniques, etc!

You can use mash temp to make a less dry beer, but you can also use different yeast, and different grains.

I'm already loving it :-D.

I just read Wheeler's description of Bateman's Best, and it describes exactly what I'm drinking. Definitely a "light refreshing beer"; he even adds "with a dry...finish". Of course EKG needs to be your thing, and I don't think it's exactly mine. But it only took one brew to figure that out.

My fave beer of recent times is called 'Amarillo'; obviously the main hop addition. I have no recipe tied down for an Amarillo brew yet, but I think I need to quickly head in the direction, more in the direction of my preferred tipples.

It sounds like you need to try some Belgian yeasts. Buy liquid yeast or grow some up from bottles. Chimay red is meant to work well. But others too. Ekg is used a lot in Belgian beers. The yeast is what makes them different. But the new Belgian beers with American hops are getting very popular I believe. I had one on Saturday night, was lovely.

Some while back had a Chouffe Double IPA tripple. Very nice :clap:; enough said.

OK, yeasts :hat:. Not quite comfortable with the idea of growing them up myself just yet, but Belgian yeast and styles, here I come.

Do you think the Amarillo beer would have been brewed with a Belgian yeast? I know it's a random call, but maybe it's the "norm" with such hops. I wonder also if it was brewed with lager yeast or ale yeast? Again another tough call unless you have a good reading of such things. I read in a hops profile that Amarillo has a flavour of oranges, and that's about what I get. Love it.

Do you know what brewery made it? Was it a bottle? Or a local French draught beer?

Made by Perle, quite a small local Alsatian brewery that supply local stores with bottles. I'd be surprised if you had heard of them. I dug into their site, http://www.biereperle.com/archives/category/bieres. It looks like they have a beer named "hop", and they rotate the hop... "celebration of the hop where each brew explores a new variety". Currently Simcoe, so likely my Amarillo is now history :sad:.

I also note they say "held cold for a long period", so likely lager yeast then. Still, worth me searching out an Amarillo recipe, as I already know I like the hop.

Come to think of it, this Perle hop beer will be a good way for me to try out the different hops before I opt to brew with them.

Yes, sounds like it's lagered. You need to decide whether you think the yeast contributed much flavour or not. You could use a neutral American yeast. Or an English yeast. Or, maybe, the Achouffe yeast, which is WLP550 or Wyeast 3522. \You then want to decide on a grain bill and hop schedule, and decide how strong and bitter you want the beer to be.