1st AG completed

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private4587

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At last I have finally gone and made my 1st AG brew. It was a single hop EKG taken from Greg Hughe's book scaled down to 13L I brewed yesterday and no chilled overnight. Made my post boil OG of 1.050. Sprinkled dry yeast today at 19 degrees and the into fridge set to 20 degrees. Now on to my questions, do I leave it now undisturbed for x number of weeks before turning out into batch bottling bucket? Do I crash chill before adding to bottling bucket? I am going to use both mini kegs and bottles, so do I need to add differing amount of conditioning sugar? How long to leave conditioning and at what temp? Desperate to try but know have to be patient. Sorry for all the questions but Ian sure will understand.
Peter
 
Yes leave alone for 2 weeks and then take a reading.
You can crash chill for a couple of days if you have a fridge, it will help it clear.
Yes you will need differing amounts so transfer from bottling bucket to mini keg before adding priming sugar.
Leave it condition for 2 weeks in the warm (around 20c) and then two weeks somewhere cooler.
 
I read it "somewhere". Something to do with the hops being subjected to heat for too long.

Perhaps, but I havent noticed any difference. But then again I never make hop bombs so may be the effect's of no chill are more pronounced with these sort of stlyes. But even if that is the case there are ways around it
 
I read it "somewhere". Something to do with the hops being subjected to heat for too long.

@JFB no chills and makes hoppy beers (and places in every forum competition with them) so I don't think it's a problem. You probably extract more bitterness so you'd need to reduce earlier hops a little to counter that I'd imagine.
 
@JFB no chills and makes hoppy beers (and places in every forum competition with them) so I don't think it's a problem. You probably extract more bitterness so you'd need to reduce earlier hops a little to counter that I'd imagine.

Interesting. Thanks
 
All I can say is that since I built an immersion chiller my beer have completely transformed. You can get flavours which are simply not available using a no chill method.
 
All I can say is that since I built an immersion chiller my beer have completely transformed. You can get flavours which are simply not available using a no chill method.

That's interesting, I can only no chill but how do you think the flavour change occurs?
I'm not scientific but I can't see how chilling it changes the taste
 
For "no chill" do you have to remove ALL air from wort container?
 
That's interesting, I can only no chill but how do you think the flavour change occurs?
I'm not scientific but I can't see how chilling it changes the taste

When you don't chill the temperature falls slowly. The warmer the temp. the more the alpha acids (main flavour of hops) are isomerised. This means that the chemical structure (shape) of the molecules changes even though the elements themselves remain the same. It's a bit like your left and right hand. Same type of fingers but arranged differently. Alpha acids don't taste particularly bitter. They have complex aromatic flavours. The isomers, meanwhile do taste bitter.
The quicker you cool, the more you preserve the aromatic and the less you increase bitterness.
I have a degree in chemistry. That's the only thing I've not forgotten, though the lecturer never actually mentioned beer:lol:
 
well it has been in the fermenter a week now and all looks OK, apart from the the air trap. Initially i had a blow off tube fitted for the initial fermentation and after this subsided after 3 or 4 days replaced it with one of those small air traps. My fridge is set at 20℃ and what i am finding is that the level of starsan in the trap keeps disappearing with what i think is evaporation i am topping it up but is this normal at these temps?
 
When you don't chill the temperature falls slowly. The warmer the temp. the more the alpha acids (main flavour of hops) are isomerised. This means that the chemical structure (shape) of the molecules changes even though the elements themselves remain the same. It's a bit like your left and right hand. Same type of fingers but arranged differently. Alpha acids don't taste particularly bitter. They have complex aromatic flavours. The isomers, meanwhile do taste bitter.
The quicker you cool, the more you preserve the aromatic and the less you increase bitterness.
I have a degree in chemistry. That's the only thing I've not forgotten, though the lecturer never actually mentioned beer:lol:
Oooooooooft.
That's the last question I will be asking!!!!!
Cheers for the answer 👍
 
well 10 days in and i took a reading, its gone from 1.050 to 1.014 so I am thinking its finished as was aiming for 1.013. My thoughts are to leave it another 4-5 days and then crash chill to 0 to -1 ℃ for 1-2 days and then minikeg/bottle and condition at approx 20℃ for 2 weeks. Does this seem about right?
 
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