2 weeks and finally, AG#2

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Fore

Fore

Landlord.
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AG#2: Cascade APA. Created my recipes in BrewMate quite some time ago, and no longer sure where I picked this one up. It has Magnum as the bittering hop.

Went much smoother for #2. No rain, no breakages, targets better hit (if not perfect). No stuck mash; very very fast to draw in fact. New brew table, a work give-away, is very sturdy. Buffalo didn't cut out. Only a small leak on my HLT to sort out. I resized my tubing so I only have the lengths I need. Ended up with 1 litre too much into the boiler, then only 0.5 litre too much at end of boil, then 1.5 litre too little into fermenter. Was aiming for 1.051 and hit 1.047 with 73% efficiency set. A bit disappointed with that. Might have to look again at the mill gap given 0.9 was stuck mash, and 1.1 absolutely flew out. So some tweaking then to get me even closer for AG#3.

Would mill speed play a role in the crushed grain profile? I ask because for AG#1 I had no idea what I was doing and ran the drill at full blast. This time I did it as slow as it would go. Could speed in itself have played a role in my efficiency? Could I go back to 0.9?

Capturebrew_zpsc7xlwhyd.jpg
 
Glad to hear your second beer went well.
I don't mill my own grain but would think a good course of action would be to drop the gap to 1 with the slow speed and see how it goes.
 
Thanks. The margins are really tight and difficult to set, but no harm in trying.

Another question related to today's brew... I had a 0 minute hop addition. Is it normal practice to leave that sit and steep some time? I started cooling straight away and wondered if that was a bad idea.
 
http://forum.northernbrewer.com/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=76188&sid=3ae7fb1d34a8460f04fce4bc1229e20e

Have a quick look at this! I usually let mine sit for 20 - 30 minutes before I start to chill.

Fore said:
Thanks. The margins are really tight and difficult to set, but no harm in trying.

Another question related to today's brew... I had a 0 minute hop addition. Is it normal practice to leave that sit and steep some time? I started cooling straight away and wondered if that was a bad idea.
Click to expand...
 
Interesting. Looks like I should have let it sit a bit then. You probably have a reasonable balance there; not too much IBU added with 30 minutes. I agree with one of the posters that dry hops add a grassy flavour, so if I can get extra fresh hop aroma without that grassiness, then all the better. I'll try 30 minutes the next time a recipe asks for 0 minute hops and shave a little time off the flavour hops.

And now I have another question :smile:.

I'm well read on this hobby, but at AG#2 obviously still short of practical experience. I was always under the impression that the filter and the filter bed would filter out the cold break. I come from kit brewing, and you get perfectly clear wort except for whatever the yeast create. Yet in my 2 AG's, after it's all settled, I have like 3 times the height of the normal yeast bed. There is a lot of **** there! Is it normal to transfer over so much gunk? I'm not talking particles, no hops there, just gunk. I should say though that after Ag#1 finished fermentation, the yeast bed didn't look all that bigger. The gunk obviously compacts right down. But should it be there and will it affect flavour?
 
This one flew out of the blocks, just like AG#1. Think I'd feel more comfortable with a slower ferment, but have no temperature control. Cellar at a stable 19 I would have thought was ideal.

It slowed down within 2 days, and now after a week, the yeast has dropped and sits at about 1.015. I was about to transfer to secondary but instead I'm going to rouse the yeast every other day for a week. I thought the transfer from boiler to fermenter was sufficient aeration, but next time I'll be doing some manual effort also.

So a cheeky sample. First was surprised to taste some English Ale background. Wasn't expecting that at all. But then it's definitely more fruity, grapefruit, than my AG#1 Bateman's Best. This one is much more up my alley. Think I'll like this a lot.
 
What yeast did you use. Tbh I'd just leave it alone and let the yeast get on with it. 19C is a good temp. Rousing it everyother day risks infection. I wouldn't rouse unless I had to.
 
For this one I used Safale 05.

For AG#1 I used Nottingham; that one got down to 1.011.

I understand the risk of infection. But with a Starsan'd paddle, just a few seconds taken, already high alcohol, and stirred so as not to introduce oxygen, I hope the risk is tiny. I just thought it worth a go. The way you read it in Graham Wheeler's book, it's sort of "normal" to rouse yeast, whereas others scare you off it.
 
Fore said:
Interesting. Looks like I should have let it sit a bit then. You probably have a reasonable balance there; not too much IBU added with 30 minutes. I agree with one of the posters that dry hops add a grassy flavour, so if I can get extra fresh hop aroma without that grassiness, then all the better. I'll try 30 minutes the next time a recipe asks for 0 minute hops and shave a little time off the flavour hops.

And now I have another question :smile:.

I'm well read on this hobby, but at AG#2 obviously still short of practical experience. I was always under the impression that the filter and the filter bed would filter out the cold break. I come from kit brewing, and you get perfectly clear wort except for whatever the yeast create. Yet in my 2 AG's, after it's all settled, I have like 3 times the height of the normal yeast bed. There is a lot of **** there! Is it normal to transfer over so much gunk? I'm not talking particles, no hops there, just gunk. I should say though that after Ag#1 finished fermentation, the yeast bed didn't look all that bigger. The gunk obviously compacts right down. But should it be there and will it affect flavour?
Click to expand...

Hi Fore,

The gunk does not affect the flavour, as far as I can tell. So in a sense, whether it should be there or not is a fairly cosmetic nicety, for me.

My kit brews all came with little more than half a litre of gunk, but the partial mashes, with up to 2.5kg of grain seemed to give about 2-3 litres of white gunk.

IMG_3168.jpg
 
To show a visual, I re-used some US05 yeast by leaving a fair amount of green beer from a brew, and transferring to 10-12 or so 250 ml bottles.

The amount of actual yeast in the bottle shown is not actually that great, and although the white stuff packed down eventually to about half the volume in the picture, there is lots of it.

The re-used yeast bottles worked fine over a 3 month period, so I am happy that there is unlikely to be any issue whatsoever.
 
ManseMasher said:
http://www.port66.co.uk/hop-standing/

It does, take a look at the above though - interesting read.
Click to expand...

Read a similar article on byo earlier today. It's all a bit of a grey area as to how much bitterness a hop stand gives so I'm going to try a few different techniques and see which, if any, works for me. For my last brew I chilled to 80c then added the hops I would typically add at flameout, will be interesting to see how that pans out.
 
Gravity is refusing to budge; still at 1.015. So that makes it a 4.3% brew, target 5.1%. Lost some ABV on the crush, lost some on the ferment. Come to think of it, I was a bit impatient with my yeast rehydration and dropped it in the water at 37 degrees. Technically that should be OK, but a bit borderline and it might depend on the yeast. Anyway, next time more wort aeration and lower rehydration temp.

I said it before, but the sample tastes really great. I could drink it just like that. I think Cascade will be a favourite of mine.
 
Oh dear, first few pints of AG#2 are a bit worrying. I get the tannin bite, like apple skin.

I slated my AG#1 after the first few pints, but it changed a lot at about pint 4 and turned out OK in the end. Kits were never like that; always the same from the start to the end. Well, I'll give AG#2 a few more pints then, but I have a feeling a change I implemented to improve efficiency backfired.

I upped the batch sparge temp to near the limit. Thought I would be OK as I added acid to the sparge water, and I didn't pass a 75 degree bed. But I think I misunderstood the difference between fly and batch sparge. I added 85 degree water to reach a bed of 75. In fly sparge I guess this works as the grain would never exceed 75 as the water dribbles in, but in batch you throw the lot in in one go, so the grain of first contact is going to reach 85. Anyway, I'm only guessing as I'm still learning. I think I need to worry less about efficiency at this stage and concentrate on process.
 

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