First ag brew.HBC olgas oregon stout.Story/questions

[Alcoholx]

hi all, ive been away from home brew for many years, but found myself googling ect one night and have now got the bug again, re-buying all the stuff i gave away 15 years ago! :lol:.. made myself some wow wine that turned out really good, amazingly simple /cheap , i then was inspired by the simple all grain recipe post by clibit.

i never really got on with beer kits years ago always thought they had an odd "homebrew" taste so thought i would have some fun with the all grain, i tend to jump right in at the deep end so baught myself the hbc starter kit and olgas oregan stout, thought i would buy the stronger kit incase my methods were not up to scratch with the mash ect.. anyway after reading , reading and more reading i gave it a go.

things i learnt.. when the kit arrived i was surprised how much grain there was, enough to feed a horse!

I found the whole process relatively simple but youve got to be organised or you can get in to a flap very quickly.. i was cruising along but considerably understimated the size the grain bag is when you sparge... cracked my fv bucket whilst doing the sparge by being over zealous trying to squeeze the bag in a metal colider into the bucket.. its bloody hot and heavy, had to send the mrs off too the range to grab another while i looked after the brew!

luckily no damage was done no leaking but i couldnt trust the bucket... this threw me a bit though lost my cool... floor got alot stickier!.. luckily i had set it all up outside.

the panic with the sparge ment i ended up with a bit too much water in the boiler, and so it took a while to get too boil.. and i had to leave it to boil a bit longer, this threw my hop timings off and the hops ended up in the boiler for longer than they should of been.. but i did stick to basic idea.. 60/15/0 ect but the times where longer 90 mins instead of 60, also i found the boil not to be very ferocious.. but its was definately boiling and evaperting the wort.

almost forgot to add the whirlfloc tablet so turned the heat back on and left it for an extra 15mins... not boiling though

the wort chiller worked great.. chilled it down to about 25-30 in about 40 mins but it was getting colder outside now as the brewday had got longer with me not really knowing what i was doing and darker!

drained the brew into the new bucket.. there was very little trub in the boiler.. dont know if this is a good thing or not, but i had used bags for everything so i guess it all stayed in the bags so... i took it inside added the yeast and covered it with the lid... ive no airlock on this bucket so i clicked the lid down but left a small bit just loose enough for the gas to escape.. i dont know if this is a good thing to do or not

i measured the wort with a hydrometer and it had an og of about 1.060+, by my calculations that seemed a bit strong!, again not sure if thats right.. so i added an 2 extra litres of water, gave it a stir and it then measured 1.056..

i was happy with that as it gave me about 25l so i have some headroom to remove the beer from the yeast cake and get a good amount of beer... again i am not really sure if i should of done this.. any advice would be great!

fermention seems to of gone well it started after about 24 hours and was quite lively.. the brew had a 3-4 inch head on it at one point..

so this is about where iam up to.. the brew is about 7 days old and has a light yeast covering.. i checked the og and its had come down to 1.016 ( about 5.3?), iam thinking that it probably is about stopped but i will check it again tommorow.... i was going to rack this beer off into a new bucket with a tap on so its easier to bottle with the little bottler.. this was my original plan untill i broke the other bucket.

ill pick up a new bucket tommorow, but i was wondering how long can the beer stay in the fermenting buckets?.. will it go off? or do i need to bottle it soon, i was going to rack it off the trub and leave it for another week to settle before i bottled it.. would this be ok?

sorry for the long post... i had planned to take pictures and show the brew as i did it ect like some of the other brill post on this site... but in the chaos of my first brew and broken buckets i forgot to take any pictures ect :lol:

the beer smells and looks great... so far for me i think its a success story but... ill hold judgement for tasting :)... and remember to take a picture!

thanks for listening!

cheers geoff

 

[rodabod]

i was wondering how long can the beer stay in the fermenting buckets?.. will it go off? or do i need to bottle it soon, i was going to rack it off the trub and leave it for another week to settle before i bottled it.. would this be ok?

Common wisdom up until recently was to rack beer out of the first fermenter within a few weeks, because there was a risk of yeast autolysis. However, it has rarely proven to be an issue, so much so that people often leave their beer sitting on the yeast for several weeks without worrying. It could be to do with the availability of proper ale yeasts these days.

I always wait until there is absolutely no activity, and sometimes raise the temperature to the low 20s to make sure that it's fully done.

With darker beers, clarity is rarely an issue, so I wouldn't worry too much about a little trub transferring over when you rack. It'll still look black!

 

[ManseMasher]

Good post! What a fair few folk go for is 2 + 2 + 2 - 2 weeks fv (make sure it's finished fermenting obviously) then 2 weeks in the bottle at the same temperature as fermentation, then 2 weeks somewhere cooler, 10 - 12°c if you can. Seems to work for me anyway...

 

[Cwrw666]

Sounds like a typical first AG brew day to me.:lol: Obviously the stronger the brew, the bigger the grain bag will be after the mash - when I did the Olga's I seem to remember when I hoisted the grain bag out there was virtually nothing left in the boiler til I'd squeezed it out. I do my brewing out in a shed so I have a hook in the roof with a thin rope which I tie to the grain bag - it takes the weight when I hoist the bag out. Also no mucking about with balancing the bag on a collander, and it leaves both hands free for squeezing it out.

 

[clibit]

Enjoyed reading that Alco, always gladdens my heart to see people throwing themselves into the deep end, without a fear in the world.

I thinking adding water was a good idea, your extra boil time will have increased the bitterness, and you were over strength, so a wise move.

One of the advantages of reduced batch sizes is not having to handle large quantities of grain and boiling liquids. It also heats up and cools down much more quickly.

Good brew choice, an all grain stout like that is going to blow you away, if you are into stouts, as you presumably are!

 

[Alcoholx]

thanks for the replies guys, i grabbed a new fv today ready for bottling.. checked the gravity again and it is still 1.016 so it looks like it has stopped fermenting and the layer of yeast that was on top of the brew is disapearing/falling.... from what you guys have said my plan now is to click the lid down tight now and leave it for another week to condition and clear... then rack off into my bottling bucket, should i leave it in the bottling bucket for another week? or 2 then bottle or just bottle it once racked and let it condition in the bottles?. the beer is sat at about 20c ( room temp) according to my glass thermometer thats lying on the lid... although the lcd thermometer stuck on the bucket says 20-22

the other problem is if i bottle it early i wont be able to resist drinking it.. its safe in the bucket with no tap! :lol:

Ive ordered 40 brown plastic 500ml pets for bottling, and also couldnt resist buying a crown capper while in the brew shop ( i always buy something extra!), to make use of the bottles than come home with me from the pub!

 

[ManseMasher]

Bottle it straight away would be my advice, after it has finished in the fv. Add the priming sugar to your bottling bucket in the form of a syrup, then siphon your beer into it. If you've got a bottling wand it will make your life a whole lot easier. You will however need a tap in your bucket for it to work.

 

[clibit]

Another week in the fv, then bottle.

 

[Alcoholx]

when I did the Olga's I seem to remember when I hoisted the grain bag out there was virtually nothing left in the boiler til I'd squeezed it out. I do my brewing out in a shed so I have a hook in the roof with a thin rope which I tie to the grain bag - it takes the weight when I hoist the bag out. Also no mucking about with balancing the bag on a collander, and it leaves both hands free for squeezing it out.

yea... the bag was like a water balloon!, took me totaly by surprise... or should i say my kit was found to be lacking... it was all going well, the bag was on the collander that was across the bucket and it was solid.. but as the bucket warmed up with the wort it became flexible and when i pushed to squeeze the bag the whole lot including the collander and me!.. shot into the bucket when it flexed... the bucket whent with a crack.. but luckilly did not split.. just fractured...

i have plans in my head to set up a pully and rope to make sure it doesent happen again and just to make life easier, but i have no shed so some imagination will be required :twisted:

i do have small tool shed/outhouse that iam going to setup a brick plinth for the boiler close to it.. then the plan is to fix some timber to the flat roof and hang a pully from it... i was a felt roofer in a previous life so no danger of damaging the roof

 

[Alcoholx]

Add the priming sugar to your bottling bucket in the form of a syrup, then siphon your beer into it. If you've got a bottling wand it will make your life a whole lot easier. You will however need a tap in your bucket for it to work.

ok, ive never done it like that before, i was looking a using about half a t-spoon per 500ml bottle when bottling, but your saying i should just multiply 1/2 tsp x 50? and dilute in warm water and just chuck it all in?

theres about 25ltrs of beer in the fv , ive got the tap and little bottler on my 2nd fv


cheers geoff

 

[ManseMasher]

If you go into calculators at the top you will find a priming calculator that will work out how much you need for the quantity you have. Boil some water, dissolve the sugar in it, cool it to same temp as your wort then put it in your bottling bucket. Siphon your beer into the syrup (try and keep the end of the siphon submerged as much as you can so as not to oxygenate the wort) and then bottle.

 

[Covrich]

Good man jumping straight in.. dont worry chaotic brew days are always fun.. will be interested to see what you think of it

 

[clibit]

Use 5g sugar per litre to prime the beer. That's a good guide.

 

[Alcoholx]

i never even noticed the calculators... good shout :thumb:
ill let you know how i get on

cheers..

 

[Alcoholx]

batched primed and bottled this today.. had a little taste and its great.. strong and powerfull flavour and with no homebrew taste at all... really looking forward to drinking this.. its looking like a winner fg was 1016, think it works out about 5.3%

 

[Alcoholx]

well almost 2 weeks since i bottled this.. so time to crack one open......

and iam impressed, this has turned out better than i ever expected for a first go.. its really nice, its a bit powerfull in flavour.. like mackesons on steroids!

when i first poured it out the bottle i must admit it looked a bit like fizzy coke with no head or body.. and i was a little disapointed.. i tasted it though and it was excellent... its was a bit like pouring beer into a soapy glass... kinda killed it, so then i poured it out of that glass and into another and the beer just came to life.. it just transformed it... all the head and body to the beer just kind of appeared from nowhere... very strange to explain.

so pleased with this and if it keeps improving in the bottles then it will be superb and a big thanks from me to this forum for all the fantastic help and info


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