Planning First AG!

[JackA]

Hi everyone, I've been hanging around these forums (on and off) for over a year now and I've finally taken the plunge and put some kit together. So far I have a coolbox mash tun, a 'mango chutney' boiler with two elements and an FV - it should all be good for a 23L brew : I've yet to make an IC and buy a thermometer, hydrometer and sterilising equipment, but I'll hopefully pick those things up tomorrow.

Anyway, I'm a bit nervous about the first brew, so I'm hoping you guys can offer some advice

1) Can anyone see anything I've missed equipment wise? I plan on using my boiler as an HLT and I'll be batch sparging.
2) Can someone suggest a recipe? I've just ordered Graham Wheeler's 'Brew Your Own British Real Ale' but Amazon free shipping takes 3-5 days I'd really like to get the grain and hops ordered tomorrow morning from Barley Bottom (so hopefully I can brew on Friday!). Does anyone have the book lying around and be willing to copy out Graham's Batham's bitter clone? That would be really appreciated! Otherwise I'll put off Bathams for a later brew - if anyone has a suggestion for a similar style beer that would be great
3) I plan on buying some spring water and using the bottles to condition the beer (to save investment in a keg to start off with). Does this seem reasonable?
4) Is doing a half sized brew (e.g. 11.5L) a good/bad idea? My reasoning is that if it goes badly and isn't drinkable I only waste half the ingredients... but is having a lot of air in the FV going to cause oxidation problems?
5) I think I'll be using Jim's calc (http://www.jimsbeerkit.co.uk/batch_calculator.html) to work out my batch sparge volumes... this will probably get me through my first brew, but is it worth investing in some software like BeerSmith?
6) Any suggestions on where to buy the thermometer/hydrometer? Would like something cheap but sufficiently accurate!

That's about it for now... I wont be asking any more questions, honest

Thanks!

[Dennis King]

Some good recipes here viewtopic.php?f=5&t=8174
never used spring water or plastic bottles so can`t help there
I would go for a full length brew, just because if it turns out good you don`t run out as quick
no need to pay for brewing software, find Grahams calculator free to download on this site somewhere
if you don`t have a local hb shop try hop and grape for your bits

[chris_reboot]

wilkos do glass brewing thermometers dead cheap, but I'd invest in a digital catering one off ebay for about a tenner.

hydrometer from wilkos too if you dont have a LHBS

BB have some pre-made up recipe AG packs. go see paul's site

[JackA]

Thanks for everyone's help I now have everything I need and I'm almost ready to brew. Final question: I'm batch sparing - what temperature should the top up water and 2nd batch water be? Some people say around 80 degrees celsius... is this a critical number?

[chris_reboot]

yes 80C (but I'm not sure why when mash temp is lower ).

whether a couple of degrees either side makes a difference I shouldnt think so, but wait to stand corrected in a minute by the more experienced here!

[delboy]

80c is recommended, its a temperature that should denature the enzymes responsible for mashing thereby preventing the beer from continuing to mash and thin too much, its also a temperature at which the sugars in the grains are more readily dissolved and thereby washed out of the grains.
Its alos a temperature that is regarded as safe for tannin extraction ie tannin is not extracted from the grains at 80 C (tannin gives an undesirable astringency).

That said though i think the critical temperature is not that of the sparge water but rather the grain bed itself, if you sparge with 80C water and monitor the grain bed you will notice that the temperature doesn't rise as much as the sparge water since the grain bed acts as a considerable heat sink.

But long story short sparge with 80C if you are over or under by a few degrees don't sweat it as its not really a highly critical step IMO.

[chris_reboot]

cheers delboy.
think I'd read that before tbh, but my brain is a bit like a grain bed most of the time, info just passes through!

[JackA]

Did my first brew yesterday... bit of a nightmare. The holes I drilled in the copper filters for the MT and boiler were too small and I really struggled to draw the liquid out, especially after the boil. I ended up tipping it out through the top of the boiler through a sieve. Anyway, I used a band saw to cut half way through the pipe (as I see other people have done, instead of holes) so the next brew should be much smoother!

I ended up using the Batham's recipe (GW's book arrived on brew day ). The problem I have is with fermentation. I'm concerned it didn't get aerated enough when I tipped it out of the boiler, as it doesn't appear to be fermenting. There is no head after leaving it overnight, although I haven't checked the gravity yet. I rehydrated Muton's gervin yeast using 29 degree water, left it for 15 mins then mixed with some wort and pitched (as suggested by GW's book). Any ideas what may have gone wrong, or am I just being impatient? Would you expect a head by now?

[vacant]

If you use Danstar's yeast (e.g. nottingham), they don't need aeration.
http://www.danstaryeast.com/tds/nottingham.pdf

I'd give it another 24 hours then pitch again. Do you have an airlock on that?

[JackA]

If you use Danstar's yeast (e.g. nottingham), they don't need aeration.
http://www.danstaryeast.com/tds/nottingham.pdf

I'd give it another 24 hours then pitch again. Do you have an airlock on that?

Thanks for your help, I'll leave it for now. There is no air lock, but I fit the lid loosely. I also have a blanket over the top of it... maybe this is silly, but I think I remember reading it's best not to keep the beer dark?

Oh, and the current temp is 20C, which is bang on according to GW.

[JackA]

It's fermenting!

It's now down to 1025 (target is 1011). When should I be putting the lid on to stop oxygen getting in?

[JackA]

Cheers Chris. Just taken a peek and the head is now very thin, seems like it's stopped. Are there any usual signs fermentation has stopped, besides taking the SG?

[JackA]

Just taken a reading - there was no head, no bubbles, so I'm guessing it's stopped. SG was 1014, down from 1043, which gives ~3.77% ABV. Not a complete disaster if it's stopped then!

The beer itself was pretty murky. Do you think it will settle and clear up? I'll probably leave it until Sunday and see what it's like before bottling it up


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