Nick's first AG!

[Nicks90]

Santa is coming santa is coming santa is coming!!!

30l boiler and various ingredients are inbound on Tuesday and I fully intend to be doing my first ever fullsize AG on boxing Day!
This is what I have plugged in to brewers friend, but if the collective wisdom can take a look and confirm this is a sensible beginners recipe that'll hopefully give me a nice session bitter...would appreciate it.

Brew Method: BIAB
Style Name: Best Bitter
Boil Time: 30 min
Batch Size: 18 liters (ending kettle volume)
Boil Size: 21 liters
Boil Gravity: 1.039
Efficiency: 60% (ending kettle)
No Chill: 20 minute extended hop boil time

Original Gravity: 1.045
Final Gravity: 1.010
ABV (standard): 4.61%
IBU (tinseth): 34.92
SRM (morey): 11.25

FERMENTABLES:
4 kg - United Kingdom - Maris Otter Pale (93%)
0.2 kg - United Kingdom - Crystal 60L (4.7%)
0.1 kg - United Kingdom - Crystal 140L (2.3%)

HOPS:
20 g - Challenger, Type: Pellet, AA: 8.5, Use: Boil for 30 min, IBU: 25.24
10 g - East Kent Goldings, Type: Pellet, AA: 5, Use: Boil for 5 min, IBU: 5.43
10 g - Fuggles, Type: Pellet, AA: 4.5, Use: Boil for 0 min, IBU: 4.25

MASH GUIDELINES:
1) Temperature, Temp: 67 C, Time: 60 min, Amount: 25 L

YEAST:
Danstar - Nottingham Ale Yeast


I'm going to no chill, so planning on leaving the hops in the wort until it hits 80c, then taking them out and dropping the wort in to the fv to cool overnight. If my efficiency is higher than 60% and I'm over 1.045 when it hits 20c, then I'll add some bottled water to the fv until I got my target gravity before pitching the yeast.
Does this all sound sensible?

 

[Oneflewover]

All looks good to me, but I reckon you'll lose more than 3 litres to boil off and kettle loss. I suppose you could afford to up the crystal a bit if you wanted, depends what you are after. I think Notty tends to attenuate quite low, so high mash temp (you could go a degree or two higher?) Is a good plan to get some body

 

[GerritT]

I'm curious how your FG will turn out.

 

[Nicks90]

Hi oneflewover - thanks for the wise words, but I am only going to do a 30min boil and my end volume is "kettle" volume. I have no idea how much trub will be left so I got BF to do kettle instead of fv final volume.
As for mash temp. It's going to be a mystery. New boiler, no idea how much temp it loses over an hour and it's all new .So was thinking of using a strike temp of 75 and see how it goes. So it might end up on the higher end anyway and I would be happy to sacrifice some abv for more body.

 

[IainM]

I can't comment on the added IBUs you get from no chill, because I've never done it, but otherwise this looks like a perfect beer to do for your first full size AG. Personally, I'd swap the fuggles and EKG around, but it shouldn't make much of a difference. Have fun!

 

[Nicks90]

********.
Opened the box containing the boiler and they sent me the 22l version and not the 30l.
So I .....
A) keep it and just reduce my brew sizes
B) send it back and wait

Tempted with a because smaller brews means I can do more of them and more variety

 

[GerritT]

Send back, you can still do the smaller brews with a big one .

 

[LeeH]

Definitely wait, what a bugger though!

 

[Nicks90]

Quick update and the seller is being an **** about swapping the boiler.
So nothing brewed yet...

He said he doesn't have any 30l kettles and mine has a fill capacity of 25l. Checked it and it is true, it's actually a 25l to the "full" line.
So he's offered £10 refund and that's my lot. Decided to take the tenner and get cracking.

So my plan now is to still use my recipe above and do 20l strike water - giving enough head space to add the grain - and then dunk sparge in 5l water. This should keep my preboil volume at 22l with a bit of bag squeezing.
I'll do a 30min boil and see what my final volume will be, but I guess it'll be about 18l, and then dilute with some of ashbecks finest if the OG is above 1.050

I'm hoping my efficiency will be above 60%, in which case I might be up to a full 23l brew to get my target og

 

[Nicks90]

Well I couldn't be arsed with messing around with sparging etc, so just used a straight 20l and 3kg of pale. Everything else stayed the same.
With absorption and boil off I now have 15l sat cooling in my fv.
I'll know tomorrow what the OG will be before I pitch the yeast

Was just getting inpaimpat and wanted to brew!

Lessons learned from ag#1?
None.
It all went perfectly to plan thanks to the fantastic advice and information from this forum
Top blokes all of you!

Edited to add, OG 1.058 - so I'm impressed. No idea what that efficiency is, but I'll be diluting with 2 l to bring it down a bit

 

[Nicks90]

Primary fv finished and it's now time for a week's rest in the airing cupboard to finish off.
Had a sneaky taste and it's similar to flat black sheep.
Ohhh yeah that'll do nicely

 

[foxbat]

Quick update and the seller is being an **** about swapping the boiler.
So nothing brewed yet...

He said he doesn't have any 30l kettles and mine has a fill capacity of 25l. Checked it and it is true, it's actually a 25l to the "full" line.
So he's offered £10 refund and that's my lot. Decided to take the tenner and get cracking.

So my plan now is to still use my recipe above and do 20l strike water - giving enough head space to add the grain - and then dunk sparge in 5l water. This should keep my preboil volume at 22l with a bit of bag squeezing.
I'll do a 30min boil and see what my final volume will be, but I guess it'll be about 18l, and then dilute with some of ashbecks finest if the OG is above 1.050

I'm hoping my efficiency will be above 60%, in which case I might be up to a full 23l brew to get my target og

Hang on... have I got this right? You ordered a 30 litre and they sent a 22 litre hoping you wouldn't notice? Which shop is this?

 

[Nicks90]

And here it is