AG#1 - A Clone Stout (Clout !)

[chrisb2k]

Finally pulled my finger out and cracked on with my first AG. Great day, despite a lot to think about and the odd mishap :)

Recipe used was a clone stout and was very similar to:

3700g Maris Otter
225g Munich
225g Crystal
200g Chocolate
115g Flaked barley
60g Roast barley

28g Northern Brewer (-90 mins)
7g Cascade (-15 mins)

Wyeasts 1098 British Ale Yeast

which looked something like this (a pre-mix shot which, I'm led to believe, is necessary in order to appease the brew gods). Excuse the randomness of the pics, I was concentrating on getting the brew right and forgot to take pics a lot of the time

HLT heated the liquor to 78'C and achieved 68.0 at dough in (67.7 advised by clone book so close as can be without faffing). Mash bin covered in duvets to preserve heat:

Mash out temp was 67.6'C ! lost less than half a degree so pleased as punch with that as a first effort. Let the sparge commence!

Love handles ! I never knew I had those ! :'(

Boiling away merrily. In went the Northerns at -90 mins, and Irish Moss and Cascades at -15 mins as per recipe.

Chiller - British engineering at it's finest. Shame the hose clips were seemingly tightened up by a four year old child

Yeast pitched at 22'C with an OG of 1055. The recipe said 1051-1052 so we were a little off but not too bad for a first effort.

A few hairy moments. The FV under the mash tun got stuck under the tap and freed itself violently over brew buddy Rich's shoes. Lost very little though thankfully. Second "oh ****" moment occured when the hose popped of the chiller at about 45'C pouring about half a litre of cold dirty hose water into the wort. Fingers crossed there will be no ill effects :)

Only concern is that I misjudged a few quantities and wound up with closer to 17.5L as opposed to 19L. Will need to work on the boil I think and try and squeeze more out of my 25L FV's ...

Really enjoyed it and will be churning out another within 6 weeks I'm sure!

 

[Muddydisco]

Nice one. It wouldn't be your first brew day if there wasn't a few mishaps. Even I still have them 2 yrs down the line :lol:

 

[luckyeddie]

Very nice.

Your 17.5 litres as opposed to 19 explains you getting an OG of 1055 instead of 1052.

As has already been said, what's a brewday without a disaster or two? I doubt your wort chiller blowoff will be too much of an issue.

Welcome to the Dark Side.

:drunk:

 

[simonranson]

Well done Chris :)

There seems to be quite a few doing AG#1 at the moment

:
Simon

 

[snail59]

Congrats on popping your brewing cherry :thumb: As MD said you will have moments first time out I know I did and like him still make the odd little mistake. Hope the brew turns out well :drink:

 

[chrisb2k]

Found a couple more snaps. One of the sparge:

and one of the wort pre-boil - torch needed to see through the stuff, dark as night in there :)

Thanks for the kind words all! :drink:

 

[dennisking]

Well done, good photos too :clap:

 

[dennisking]

Using liquid yeast on your 1st AG as well, hope this turns out well, you deserve it.

 

[chrisb2k]

just to round of my first AG post, here's the brew bottled after 18 days in the FV 1055 dropped down to 1015 which gives 5.3% ABV - Luvly! Anyone know how much drops off in the bottle during carbonation ? Can't imagine it's a lot

A disappointing 28 bottles in the end, around 14 litres. Definitely need to liquor back or something next time.

Big thanks to the excellent guide by BrewStew for this the first of many :)

 

[Moley]

1055 dropped down to 1015 which gives 5.3% ABV - Luvly! Anyone know how much drops off in the bottle during carbonation ? Can't imagine it's a lot.

A disappointing 28 bottles in the end, around 14 litres. Definitely need to liquor back or something next time.

Carbonation will add another percentage point or two, so round that up to 5.5% abv :

Volumes increase with practice, I also under-estimated the losses on my first couple of brews.

Looks great, well done :clap: