5 Gallon AG#1 My Pale Ale V1

[TRXnMe]

Well, got my first 5 gallon AG brew day lined up tomorrow, it's going to be a hoppy pale ale :)

5 kilos maris otter at 5 EBC
0.5kg crystal malt 63 EBC
0.25kg torrified wheat
Planned 90 minute mash with batch sparge in two stages
Planned 90 minute boil
Cascade hops
50g at start of boil
40g for last 10 minutes
10 gramme as the power goes off
S33 yeast pitched dry

My wife just gave me my birthday pressie a few days early, a wort chiller, so my AG kit is complete now :party:

I promise to take photos as the day progresses and the thread will be updated once I've cleaned up.

AG2 is already planned, same ingredients except I'll be using Calypso hops and Safbrew T58 yeast as I want to see how that works out taste wise in comparison :)

 

[bobsbeer]

Good luck and enjoy it, but take your time. Take lots of photos too. :thumb:

 

[jonnymorris]

Good luck with #1, it'll be great. I look forward to the photos.

 

[pittsy]

good luck with it all , seems a good recipe there :thumb: take notes on exact volumes and temps , and have fun

 

[TRXnMe]

good luck with it all , seems a good recipe there :thumb: take notes on exact volumes and temps , and have fun

Exact???? :nah: :lol:

I'll get close to what I've used, but I'm brewing for fun. I spend my working life writing down exactly what has been said and done (H&S) so my brewing will usually be a seat of the pants :pray:

The PID controller and beersmith will handle the temperatures nicely, so I can 'chill out' and let the tech do the hard work.

Don't get me wrong, I'll know to within half a litre of the resulting wort, and I'm intending to be reasonably precise about the mash volume and the sparge volume (using beersmith, so that looks after the hard thinking for me).

Ruddy nora, I'm starting to sound like I'm taking this seriously now!! :ugeek:

Edit:

PS is it normal to get this excited about a first brew?

 

[puravida]

My only suggested tweak to that recipe would be to go 25g and 25g equally on your last two hop additions.

Looking forward to the photos!!

 

[TRXnMe]

My only suggested tweak to that recipe would be to go 25g and 25g equally on your last two hop additions.

Looking forward to the photos!!

I assume that will give me more of the cascade aroma and only slightly reduce the bitterness?

If so, I may be up for it, I do rather like beers with cascade hops in, both taste and aroma :)

 

[puravida]

Exactly!! :thumb:

 

[TRXnMe]

Got off to a late start, but finally at the mash stage, got the sparge water heating up in the HLT to save a few minutes latergot another 70 odd minutes of primary mash to do before we start the batch sparges.

I have photos, I'll post them when the brew is in the FV :)

 

[bobsbeer]

Sounds like it's time for a brew while you wait. Have fun. :thumb:

 

[TRXnMe]

Once I've done 'playing' with hot liquids and electricity I will be having a beer, until then it's just tea

 

[abeyptfc]

good luck with it, sounds like a tasty brew. :drunk:

 

[TRXnMe]

The boil has started.

I'm quietly chuffed with myself, despite my 'winging it' approach to sparge quantities I've got a corrected pre boil gravity of 1036, as against beersmith's estimate of 1037

Looking like I'll get my 5% ABV beer

23 minutes until the first lot of hops go in, so back to being bored, and excited at the same time, this is a really odd experience :)

 

[TRXnMe]

Pics of the day.

The setup

The grain bill

The hops

More to follow

 

[PD]

Easy innit....

Nice one.

 

[dennisking]

:hat: Another virginity gone :thumb: hope you realise there is no way back now.

 

[TRXnMe]

Right, PC sorted, I'm back with the rest of the photos :)

We have a boil

Wort chiller in

Turned out my hop filter is pants, absolutley rudddy sh1te to be honest I dunno what I'm going to put in it's place as lots of slits didn't work, think I might try the stainless mesh as I've got nearly a metre of that left.

Anyway, yeast pitched at 22 degrees, OG post boil was 1041, pretty much bang on the money according to beersmith's estimate. I did end up with a couple of litres more wort than expected, the FV is nearly full, but I'm not going to complain about that.

Due to the crappy hop filter I've got LOADS of trub through into the FV, so it's going to have to into a secondary in a couple of weeks, if not earlier..

Well, BIAB is easier (no ruddy hop filter), guess I'll see how the beer comes out in a few weeks.

 

[abeyptfc]

I take it that was an old chair u were sitting your boiler on? nice setup man. hope it turns out well

 

[TRXnMe]

I take it that was an old chair u were sitting your boiler on? nice setup man. hope it turns out well

It is old, but it's also part of the dining suite we still use, fortunatetly we don't entertain often and since the dog tried to eat the damned chair I refuse to buy new until the thing stops trying eat other stuff. Don't get me wrong, he's a lovely mutt, but so far he's eaten the dining chair, 3 lounge rugs and the arm chair...

 

[PD]

I use a bazooka filter ( stainless mesh ) for the hop strainer...great piece of kit