First ever AG (thanks Clibit)

Greenhorn · Jan 23, 2016

So, the day has finally come. After a Youngs APA, a lot of thinking, planning, worrying and reading, I'm doing my first AG.

I was after a dark red beer with an American feel, kind of like the ones I used to drink when I lived in Minnesota for a semester at uni. I started with Clibit's simple recipe and tweaked it using the Brewer's friend calculator.

I ended up with:

8L batch (9.5L boil)

Target OG 1.054
Target FG 1.012
Target ABV 5.5%

1.6KG Maris Otter. (87%)
160g Extra Dark Crystal. (9%)
80g Chocolate male (4%)

8g centennial (60min)
8g centennail (15min)
8g Amarillo (5min)

Mangrove Jack West coast yeast (half a sachet)

The mash is currently on and wrapped up at a nice 69ÃÂ°c.

Wish me luck.

Notlaw · Jan 23, 2016

Good luck kidder. I'll not be far behind you. Gonna try a SMaSH myself once I replace my hydrometer (trapped it in a drawer last night) and then get the kitchen to myself for a few hours.

Greenhorn · Jan 23, 2016

after 30 minutes the mash had dropped to 65ÃÂ°c, so I took the blanket off and added heat to the pan, stirring all the time to avoid hot spots. I've managed to stablise it at 67-69ÃÂ°c.

Sparge water heating.

clibit · Jan 23, 2016

My kind of recipe that. :thumb:

Greenhorn · Jan 23, 2016

Straining the mash into the FV, prior to adding the wort back into the kettle.

Using a baby muslin and a rockstrap bungee. maybe a little unorthodox but it seemed to work.

Ended up with 9L which is now on the hob coming up to boil. Smells great.

Notlaw · Jan 23, 2016

Baby muslins..! :doh:

Why didn't that occur to me? I've got dozens. Did you just boil that in a pan of water to get rid of laundry powder smells?

Greenhorn · Jan 23, 2016

It was well rinsed.

All done. Man, that was a task. Transferring into the FV was a bit messy but I think it all went fairly well. It boiled down to about 6.5L so I topped up with cold water to 8L.

Pitched yeast at about 18ÃÂ°c, OG target was 1.054 and ended up at 1.052 so I'm well happy with that.

Now in the FV.

H0PM0NSTER · Jan 23, 2016

Great job! You did well to hit your target og.

TartanSpecial · Jan 23, 2016

Greenhorn said:
All done. Man, that was a task.

Once you've done a few you'll get into the swing of it, cleaning up as you go along, but it still a long time...but worth it when you taste the beer.

MyQul · Jan 23, 2016

Well done on popping your AG cherry. No going back now!

cheapbrew · Jan 23, 2016

Nice one greeny :thumb:

glad it went well for you, its not half as bad to do as reading up before makes you think it will be is it, bet you were planning your next one as soon as you finished though eh.

Greenhorn · Jan 23, 2016

Thanks guys.

Planning the next one? I've got the next 4-5 planned already.

The next one will be largely the same as this one but without the chocolate for comparison, and maybe some dry hopped Amarillo.

Notlaw · Jan 23, 2016

Aargh! I'm itching to do one now. Went to get a new hydrometer today from Wilkies... Sold out.! I'll have to try again on Monday. Our lass is away on a hen do next weekend, so I might try two brews.!

Greenhorn · Jan 24, 2016

Krausen formed overnight and the airlock is now bubbling like a crazy thing. Too quickly to count accurately but somewhere around 90 BPM.

Very reassuring as the yeast was a bit underwhelming when I primed it.

Francois · Jan 24, 2016

Congrats! Nice looking recipe too, I've just had some extra dark crystal delivered so may have to try something similar... American amber/reds for the win :thumb:

Greenhorn · Jan 24, 2016

Francois said:
American amber/reds for the win :thumb:

Yeah, they're great. This one, probably a pale porter by the colour of it, is smelling fab.

The next one, without the choc and some more hops should be awesome.

Greenhorn · Jan 24, 2016

Airlock now at a steady 2 bubbles a second.

Woo hoo.

Joeyriles · Jan 24, 2016

Great stuff, bud. You are truly a member of the dark side!

Be prepared for the taste sensation when you try your first AG beer; you start to think "this isn't possible, I made this!"

Greenhorn · Feb 6, 2016

AG#1 bottling day - The great Kopperburg disaster.

Today I decided it was time to bottle my first AG.

I'd got talking to the landlord of my local who said he'd stick by some bottles for me. Just about the only thing it seems they sell in 500ml bottles is Kopperberg.

Which doesn't work with a hand capper. The rim seems to be the wrong shape and so I had 13 freshly filled bottles and no way of capping them, a load of wasted caps and two broken Kopperberg bottles.

Thankfully I managed to scrape together enough other bottles and hurriedly sanitise them.

Hopefully all this moving of beer will not have introduced too much oxygen or nasties.

Still, live and learn.

Tasted nice though.....

Greenhorn · Feb 6, 2016

Even more annoying is that the labels on kopperberg bottles just fall off in hot water. No scraping or anything.

Oh well.

First ever AG (thanks Clibit)

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