5 Gallon AG#1 My Pale Ale V1

[TRXnMe]

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

That's what I'm going to try next, it worked a treat in the mash tun, despite my fears of it getting squashed / clogged, so I plan to run a circle of it around the bottom of the boiler.

I'm also thinking of making up a false bottom to keep the wort chiller off the kettle elements, If I do that it will be a coarse filter, but hops seem to stick to anything (based on the cleaning time last night ) so even coarse will take out a few :)

 

[Dr Mike]

Congrats on your first AG.

Another vote for Bazooka hop strainers here !

 

[TRXnMe]

I bottled this off today, and it tastes ruddy marvelous, almost, so nearly exactly what I was looking for :)

The cascade hops come through beautifully, the colour is good, the pint is just a nat's away from being sweet, almost perfick

Of course that means I have to have another go it before long to try and make it absolutely bang on what I wanted, but for my first go at a big batch, I'm delighted with the results.

The bottles are currently nestling against the radiator in the spare bedroom, along with a few bottles of cider I filled while the tree and sterilising fluid were handy :)

 

[PD]

congratulations...... :party: :party: :

 

[tazuk]

:clap: lol you pop your cherry wow those 50ltr containers do look big mmmmmmmm :thumb:

 

[TRXnMe]

:clap: lol you pop your cherry wow those 50ltr containers do look big mmmmmmmm :thumb:

They are wide, but not that tall, I'm toying with the idea of maybe making a mash tun from a couple, but will wait and see how the mods I have planned to my current tun and regime work out, if my efficiencies go up I wont bother, if they stay poor I have to try summat :)

I took delivery of 30 odd kilos of grain today; 25 kilos Maris Otter, 3 kilos Crystal plus various other bits, the 25 kg went into one of the pots with a few iches to spare at the top, so I they also work as grain bins :)

 

[Pakman]

Instead of slits cut into copper tube i drilled a load of 1mm holes on the underside spaced about every 5 - 8 mm. It works really well and has not blocked up at all. I suppose I could use the same design for a sparge sprinkler :hat: