Popped my AG cherry

[homers brew]

Hi all,

At the weekend I started mt first AG brew. My decision to brew my own is two fold - I resent the amount that is paid in tax on alcohol and like the securit in the knowledge of what is exactly in it - especially in todays profit driven business world.

So, why AG, well I'm pretty handy, and thought it looked simple enough having spent a few days reading up. Although I do have a confession of having messed a stage up. I forgot to take the original gravity of the wort.

My first step was a trip to my local homebrew shop. The first one I went to I found was closed (boarded up). A quick search on the internet and i had found that i had another homebrew shop less than a couple of miles from my house and I didn't even know about it. I had the intention of building all my own kit as seen on this site and various others on t'internet, but thought I would go and have a chat with the shop owner first. He didn't try the hard sell but convinced me that it would be much easier and not much more money to buy it all from him. Some peices of kit I thought were a bit expensive, i.e. £60 for a boiler with single element and thermostat, but thought what the hell at least I could get a brew on that day. £250 lighter, I left with the kit to get me going. Boiler, sparging arm, 2 fermentation bins, chiller, pipes, ingredients, book (how to make beer like the ones you buy), hydrometer, thermometer, chemicals, bottles and bottling equipment, etc. The only problem encountered with the kit was with the chiller (immersion, i think) where the pipe fittings were not good enough and required circlips - which I didn't have at the time. So, unfortunately, it had to cool naturally rather than have water dripping into the wort. I do hope this does not turn out to be too much of a problem.

I started with a London Pride copy from the book. I had decided this at the shop earlier and the owner had sorted the ingredients for me. Incidentally I am not a huge fan of the book since I do not really like comercial beers. More of a belgian dubbel man myself. And may try a Chimay as second brew.

All seemed to go well apart from the aforementioned chiller problems and the forgetting to take the gravity of the wort. Oh and the reluctance of the wort to drain through the ingredients (bagged during mashing), and through the hops, etc after the boil. I may have to fit a better filter at the bottom of these barrels. The brew started at around 7pm - thinking that it would be finished around 11pm. Wrong. Finally went to bed at 1:15 having pitched the yeast at 35 deg C as couldn't wait any longer for it to cool - was drinking beer while brewing and a bit wobbly myself by then.

4 days on took a gravity reading last night and is reading 1010, so still a way to go yet. There is still some activity although it has slowed down cosiderably. I though the fermentation bin may have broken over the first day, heving caught it numerous times bulgeing and having to release some pressure (no airlock). It even smells pretty good and quite close to the original. I only took the tinyest of tastes but it tastes like beer also, which I suppose is a bonus. Doesn't look too pretty on top but i expect this.

So this is my experience of my first brew. Please feel free to comment or even criticise it to aid my learning.

I will report back on how it turns out anyhow.

Homer

[Tequilla6]

Just to say congratulations on your first AG Brew, it only spurs me on to get all my AG equipment purchased and ready to brew, so I can follow in your footsteps to AG Heaven...

Cheers

[NickK]

Congrats Sounds like a good day (you've not paddled in a sea of beer yet!).

I just leave the FV lid slightly popped off - the CO2 will sit on the top of the beer as it's heavier than the other gasses in the air (ir displaces it). The cooling causes a better the cold break - although my curreng AG didn't even show signs of cold breaking with an IC from 100degC to 18degC in 30 minutes.. fermenting fine and tastes very good.

Just remember to try a small sample over the conditioning period too - use an espresso cup and draw 1/2 every 4-7 days.

[Shifter]

Nice one!! Was going to pop my own tonight but in the light of your experience may well leave till tomorrow when a day off will leave time to get everything in order, and just concentrate on drinking tonight

[DarloDave]

Good to see im not the only one who didnt check that they had the right fittings to connect the IC up before thye brewed! .

[Philipek]

How big is your brew?
It's encouraging that your first all grain seemed to go so well.
I have everything I need for micro mash - 5L, and the hyper-credit crunchy budget option. I just need to get the rollers on my pasta roller roughed up so I can mill my grain - the homebrew shop doesn't mill.
If it all goes well I'm going to buy copper piping for an immerson chiller and step up to 25L.

[homers brew]

Thanks for all your comments so far. Nice to know i am not the only one to have made mistakes and gladly not paddled in it yet - although does sound very lavish to have paddled in a sea of beer.

Brew is 5 gallon, and seems to be fermenting well - just hope the gravity will hurry up ad drop some more. I will check it again over the weekend. I wish I had took the OG as now I will not know how strong or weak this brew is. I am assuming there is no danger in this though as the strength is limitted by the maximum (100%) conversion of the mash - is this the attenuation?.

Next on the to-do list is a temperature controlled cupboard to control the fermentation temperature. Being an electronic/ process/ control systems engineer this will be easy. It seems like the beer I actually want to brew, belgain dubbel, etc, are vulnerable if not brewed accurately.

[harvs]

Hi
Congratulations on your fist AG brew!Just thinking about your temperature control - you might want to consider an immersion heater as an alternative. You can get the fish ones off ebay quite cheaply and may be less hassle / quicker that building your own set up. But obviously less fun

[homers brew]

You can get the fish ones off ebay quite cheaply and may be less hassle / quicker that building your own set up.

I thought the temperature controlled environment may be a more sterile environment rather than chucking a heater in it. is this the normal method for homebrewers. I have seen the belts and mats but wanted to go one better and have a heated insulated cupboard sort of thing for better temp control.

[harvs]

If you properly sanitise the immersion heater it will be fine, and is used by quite a few home brewers I believe (me being one of them, although I am pretty new at the game too!). It's really no different to sticking in a sanitised spoon from a risk point of view.

[homers brew]

Cheers harvs, it may be an option. The problem I seem to have is a never ending list of jobs to do, so may be a possible short cut.

[Parva]

Just to add to this, your gravity at 1.010 is perfectly good. The lower the final gravity, the higher the alcohol, the thinner the beer (generally). All of mine finish between 1.012 and 1.015 and I'm happy with this as they retain a lot of 'body'. Don't be disheartened if it doesn't drop below 1.010, if anything I'd be happy at that.

[homers brew]

Thanks parva.

Tested SG agin yesterday and hadn't moved over a couple of days - 1010 wednesday, and a nats knacker under 1010 on saturday - just a pig I don't know the orginal gravity. So have decanted to secondary fermentation bin to let settle and will bottle with half a tspn (maybe full tspn) of glucose per bottle next week.

Is this the best course of action or is it better to bottle now?

Is there anythin I need to put in the second fermentation bin?

BTW, it looks good, and tastes pretty good - reasonaly close to the original - especially the colour.

[Shoit]

Thanks parva.

Is this the best course of action or is it better to bottle now?

Is there anythin I need to put in the second fermentation bin?

BTW, it looks good, and tastes pretty good - reasonaly close to the original - especially the colour.

I've just completed my 3rd AG and haven't ever bothered with secondary fermentation - my understanding is that you don't need to put anything in the secondary fermentation bin - just try not to disturb it too much and let it sit there. Personally, I've always bottled after 7-10 days in primary fermentation and never had any problems but have found that the longer the wort/beer is left in the FV the longer it takes to carbonate. As your using secondary FV you don't need to worry about any off flavours from the wort sitting on the yeast.

I guess you can just bottle when your ready. I'm sure someone else can give you more idea than me!

Kev

[homers brew]

Cheers Kev,

Gonna get them bottle in sterilisation now then and bottle today.

So, is 1/2 tspn or 1 tspn of glucose per pint bottle correct?

Homer