Dark Side calling

[LarryF]

Having done kits for almost a year now I think it’s time I dip my toe into AG brewing so here goes. I have a 21L pot and bag, that I’ve never used so I don’t know the amounts of water to grain that I should be using but guessing about 2.5L/KG and here’s what I’ve come up with:

10L strike water, 10L sparge water and will top up to give me a pre-boil volume of 20L and I’m hoping I end up with 18L of wort after the boil but that’s just a guess. For this I’m thinking of loosely copying Clibits British Hop recipe but with Perle and Summer hops.

4kg of Maris Otter Malt
300g of Caramalt

30g Perle hops 8.6% Alpha @ 60m
12g Summer hops 4.0% Alpha @ 20m
12g Perle hops 8.6% Alpha @ 10m
12g Summer hops 4.00% Alpha @10m
20g Perle hops 8.6% Alpha @ 0m
5g Irish moss.

If I heat 10L of water to 75-78c I’m hoping that when I steep the grain the water should be at about 66c, any advice on this would be very welcome. I’ll be steeping the grain for 60m at 66c wrapping the pot well then I’m looking to dunk sparge into a separate 6L pot. I’m thinking three runs should be the 10L of sparge water at 80c. I’ve run this through the calculator in Brewers Friend and got 5.75% ABV - 44.78 IBU, but this will depend on my efficiency and I have no idea what that will be but at the estimated 5.75% I can afford to lose some % on the ABV, any loss on the IBU should be made up for on an overnight cool, I’m going to boil for 60m. I’ll be fermenting into 2 x 8L FV’s and 2 x 5L ones if I need them and I’ll be using using Safale us05. As it’s going to be my first crack at AG I thought I’d ask if anyone has any idea if this will work, I thought it best to run it past everyone before ordering the grain.

 

[MyQul]

To hit my mash temp I use the strike temp calc on Jims. I find it fairly accurate

http://www.jimsbeerkit.co.uk/calc.html

 

[clibit]

Heat the water to about 75C, I think, to hit 66C mash temperature.

10L in the mash is fine, I tend to use a bt more, 2.75 - 3 litres per kg, and if you're aiming for 18L you could mash with 12L and sparge with 12L, which should leave about 20L pre-boil, which should get you to 17-18L in the FV. You can top up to 18L with cold water if necessary. If you can't fit all the wort in the 21L pot after the mash and sparge, boil a couple of litres separately.


Good luck. :thumb:

 

[tim1699]

i jumped over to the dark side about 6 months ago after following the thread by clibit on this forum i invested in a bit more gear and also the the brewing book by greg hughes and now i have 6 ag brews under my belt and have never looked back

 

[TartanSpecial]

if your grain is around 20-21 c (room temp) then I also find 75 deg c comes out with 66-67 deg c in the mash.. I jumped over to the dark side of the force a year ago after dabbling with a couple of extract brews, and tim 1699 says, I've never looked back.

 

[clibit]

No-one looks back....
















It's too dark. :thumb:

 

[LarryF]

I knew clibit would get me in the end, you can only fight the dark side for so long. Thanks to everyone for the advice, time to get ordering and hopefully this should be quite nice come Xmas.

 

[ManseMasher]

I also use 76°c, seems to be the magic number!