AG#1 Rauchbier

[Kevin Wood]

I've previously only brewed a few kits, with reasonable, but not stellar, results. Some would say that some perseverance would have paid off here, and, no doubt, that's true, but I've always had an urge to get into AG brewing and the flexibility that unlocks. I also quite enjoy building my own kit and, with the help of the excellent information available here, that's what I've been doing for the last few months.

So it was that on Sunday I was looking at a complete home made AG brewery and a load of ingredients from the LHBS, ready to get started. :shock:

The equipment comprises the following:

HLT: 33 litre bucket mounted on a base with Burco element fitted in the bottom. Tank flange for outlet.

Boiler: Similar 33 litre bucket with Burco element. Length of stainless braid as hop filter.

MT: Cheap cool box with slotted copper pipe strainer in the bottom, Valentine arm made out of copper pipe on the outlet to control the level during sparge.

Wort chiller: 10m of 8mm microbore tube coiled around a paint tin. Fed from a hose pipe er.. not that I'm allowed to use one currently. :whistle:

Temperature controller: Home made affair giving 2 channels of PID temperature control and an additional 2 channels of temperature measurement only. DS1820 onewire temperature sensors and Fotek 25A SSRs all tied together with an AVR.

I liked the look of BrewStew's guided tour http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=493 and the Rauchbier recipe sounded intriguing, so I decided to follow that for starters.

It didn't go entirely smoothly, giving me a couple of pointers for next time:

1) Don't panic about the mash temperature until everything is thoroughly doughed-in and settled, especially if your temperature sensor is a way down the MT. I panicked that it was a bit hot, added cold water, then found that as the grain hydrated and sank to the bottom, the temperature plunged way too cool, and there wasn't any more room for any hot water to be added to correct it. :whistle: Drained out some wort, re-heated it and added it, repeated until temperature was correct again.

2) If using a pump, make sure that the hoses aren't likely to fly off and spray you with sticky wort when you least expect it. Remember that hoses can soften when hot and that wort makes the floor unpleasantly sticky. :lol:

3) If you need to top up your HLT a little during the mash to ensure you have enough liquor for the sparge, don't forget to do so, then end up running around like a lunatic frantically boiling kettles.

Despite the above, I didn't have any other issues and the kit performed nicely with none of the stuck sparges or clogged hop strainers I'd been dreading. Ended up with 23 litres of wort at an OG of 1058, and it's now fermenting nicely. Fingers crossed that my mashing slip-up hasn't done too much damage.

I guess this will get slicker with practice but I found it a very satisfying way to spend a Sunday. I'll keep you updated on how it turns out.

Kevin

 

[BrotherMalice]

Sounds like a good first go, do you have any pics? would love to see your set up :)

 

[pittsy]

Another brewer doing the move , well done there :thumb: keep us posted on the sampling

 

[Kevin Wood]

OK, As requested a few pictures:

Above is the overall setup taken during the sparge, while I was waiting for more water to heat. Not pretty at the moment as it was all just lashed together. Left hand white bucket on the bench is the HLT, right hand is the boiler. Blue cool box is obviously the MT with the Valentine arm on the end nearest us. The kettle at the bottom is just acting as an underback. One day I plan to try RIMS with it, but I need to modify my PID controller to limit the maximum heat output to avoid scorching. If that doesn't work I'll fit a heat exchanger coil to it.

Above is inside my picnic cooler mash tun. Fairly standard stuff. You can see one of my temperature sensors cable tied to the plumbing at the bottom. These are "OneWire" DS18B20 style temperature sensor chips potted in a waterproof stainless steel can. You an buy them on Ebay for about £3.

Above image shows inside the boiler. Burco element plus a length of stainless braiding from an automotive oil hose as hop strainer. HLT is identical, without the strainer, but I did extend the outlet pipe above the level of the element to guard against boiling dry.

A rather shoddy photo of the display on my home-made PID controller.

Hops just added to the boil. Not a huge surfeit of capacity in the boiler but it worked OK without boiling over.

Last stages of the boil, ready to start chilling. No! that's not really the previous brew being used to relieve the boredom of the boil.

Chiller output was used to refill HLT and the warm water then used for the clean-up.

The last of the wort draining into the FV.

The remnants of the boil showing the wort chiller.

Ready to be tucked up for the ferment. Outer red bucket is full of water and heated to 20 C by an aquarium heater, controlled by my PID. A blanket then covers the whole lot to keep the heat in.

 

[TheMumbler]

looks like it went well, I nearly went for that as my first AG, I think I ended up doing a wheat beer for the quick turn around in the end. I never tried that recipe... let us know how it turns out :)

 

[BrotherMalice]

Looks like a good setup you have there, I cant wait till I buy a house so I can have a shed/garage to brew in, I have a kitchen & wife :?

 

[Kevin Wood]

Well, it's dropped to 1020 and smelling rather good. Will keep an eye on it over the next couple of days.

Spent a couple of hours bottle washing yesterday, so everything in place for when it it's finished.

 

[Kevin Wood]

Well, it settled at about 1018, and seemed to have stopped there so I racked it off into a pressure barrel, primed it conservatively, and bottled about three quarters of it, leaving the rest in the pressure barrel for sampling purposes.

That was a week ago. Curiosity got the better of me yesterday and I tried a little. Wow! It's a whole meal in a pint glass. :drink:

A deep ruby colour, crystal clear, kind of reminiscent of fruit cake with a hint of vanilla. The smokiness is evident but not overpowering and it's nicely balanced by a little bitterness.

Even at this early stage, far and away the best beer I've brewed. I only hope I've got the patience to let it reach its' best. :drunk:

Suppose I'd better get AG#2 underway ASAP. :lol:

 

[Dave1970]

Congratulations on AG#1 :thumb:
Nice setup, I'm still using a Buffalo boiler as HLT & Boiler, sparge into 2 FV's and then pour them back into the Buffalo for the boil. Your setup looks sophisticated next to mine.
Did you leave the Valentine arm on during the mash? When I did that I had real trouble with the mash losing temp...the arm must have been acting as a radiator...didn't feel hot but I took it off next brew and got a much more stable temp from my coolbox tun.

 

[Kevin Wood]

Hi Dave,

Yes, I did leave the arm attached during the mash. I didn't have a tap on the MT so I left myself no other option, but it's interesting what you say about losing heat through it. I suppose it does have the potential to act as a heat sink, conducting heat out of the box. :wha:

To be honest, getting the mash right was a bit fraught first time round, so it's hard to say if I had a problem :lol: , but it's something I'll keep an eye on in future. I don't remember losing more than a degree or so.

One thing I will say is that I have a plastic john guest fitting either side of the tank flange, one straight connector inside the MT to allow easy removal of the strainer, and a right angle fitting at the base of the arm to allow it to be angled to adjust the height. Maybe the combination of these are enough to break the conductive path through the copper?

I guess I could fit a tap between arm and MT to allow removal of the arm, or make an insulating jacket to go over the box plus the arm?

The boilers turned out reasonably inexpensive. About £10 for the bucket and £12 for the element plus a few bits of plumbing and some wire and a plug (cheapest way was to buy a cheap 5m extension lead from Sainsburys. Cheaper than the 3 core cable alone!). I figured that it would give me the convenience of not having to transfer the wort back to the same boiler and being able to start heating while still sparging, plus a backup if I had an element fail during the boil. The downside is more kit to find storage space for between brews, of course! More so as they don't stack now I've fitted them onto plastic bases.