1st brew day :)

Anything and everything about beer and brewing it.
Post Reply
gobbledigook
Posts: 12
Joined: Sat Jun 18, 2011 1:01 pm

1st brew day :)

Post by gobbledigook »

so hey!

got all my gear together eventually :) first beer was going to be a summer lightening, but due to the brewshop not having any maris otter malt... i just used a generic youngs pale malt, not too impressed with the malt but i think its turned out alright, although i was really hungover when making :)

5.2kg youngs crushed pale malt

58g challenger 6.9% - 90mins
10g goldings 5% - 15mins

done in 2 16ltr batches
1st 1hr water at 71c when i poured it but didn't take the temp again, forgot :( stirred about every 20mins
2nd water at 71c again and gave it a good stir, left for 15mins then stirred again

got 23ltrs from mash @ 1030

boil went off without a hitch, but lost 8ltrs of water to evaporation, not sure how normal that is? should i have left the lid on? upside is the gravity pre pitching was 1042 :) used a wort chiller for about 15mins to get down to 32c

used safale us-05 a dry ale yeast.

comments and suggestions please.... although the truth will be in the drinking ;)

bubbling away nicely :)
User avatar
I_used_to_brew
Posts: 2356
Joined: Sat Nov 20, 2010 1:06 pm

Re: 1st brew day :)

Post by I_used_to_brew »

I think you have a positive result so far, you have produced a sweet wort and boiled it with hops and it's now fermenting :)

You have 15 litres @ 1.042 which is about 40% mash efficiency which is rather on the low side (you could have used less malt and got the same result - saving money!!) but that's something to work on, not a disaster by any means.

Your loss to evaporation is higher than the typical 10-15% but, as you have done, the lid should be kept off. Again, not a disaster and something to work on.

I'd work on a longer mash, aiming for 66C and leaving it for 2 hours, then run off and "fly sparge" - this is simply rinsing with water at 85C.

If you were aiming for 23 litres @ 1.048 (70% mash efficiency) then you would mash your 5.2Kg with about 10 litres of water and use a further 25 litres to rinse the grains to collect your pre-boil sweet wort. You'll probably collect 27 litres - depends on what's lost to the grain and your mash tun deadspace.

Again, after the boil, you'll have some further loss to hops and deadspace in the boiler, but you should end up nearer to 23 litres. If you've lost too much to evaporation then you've simply concentrated the wort and can dilute it back to 23 litres with previoulsy boiled water.
gobbledigook
Posts: 12
Joined: Sat Jun 18, 2011 1:01 pm

Re: 1st brew day :)

Post by gobbledigook »

thanks for the pointers :) i shall have to work on some aspects as you've suggested, but for now i'm just happy to have actually tried the process...

although tbh i think this batch is gonna be a loss as there's still 10 and a bit liters of air in the fermenter, was ok after the first week, but doesn't smell great after the second!! might bottle some later just to see what it's like...

next month i'll get 25kg of maris otter and practice fly sparging :)

edit:
actually after i got it from the fermenter into the bottling bin all was fine! had a sup and tastes goood:)
Post Reply