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Hooked Home Brewer

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  • Hooked Home Brewer

    Hi All,

    First off, thanks to those running and participating in this forum; what a fantastic place filled with friendly like minded people. I'm very happy to have stumbled upon this site during my many googles over the last two weeks.

    So, I'm another lock-down noob. I've wanted to brew forever but was always a bit short on cash to 'spring' for a beginners kit (I have probably looked at the Mangrove Jack kit a hundred times over the last two years.) - Anyway, long story short, interest rate cuts meant I had extra spending money so I finally went online to buy myself a kit. The timing was perfect given that we're in prohibition times. BUT, every brew supply site was sold out of beginner kits. So, I decided to see what's included in the kit and buy each part separately. (I had to buy from three different brew shops given the stock issues). Which I did. EXCEPT - Extract kits too were sold out, so I quickly put a nice looking all grain kit in my basket and clicked 'Checkout'.

    More Googling... "What is All-Grain Brewing"... eish, I don't have half the equipment I need. I ended up reading John Palmer's How To Brew cover to cover; bought the supplies to make a mash/lauter tun, and yesterday, got brave enough to start my fist brew.

    Boy oh boy did I love it! What an amazing way to spend an afternoon. If you're still reading, you may be interested to know how it went:

    I brewed the American Pale Ale Recipe designed by BeerLab. I will post it here if anyone asks.
    Observations:

    • Water takes a long time to get to temperature. - My strike water needed to get to 74 and sparge to 78. Each took an hour on two gas hobs. I think this was because of the cold front currently in process and my hobs being outside.
    • Water and Grain are HEAVY! - My poor back. I will certainly need to streamline the process and start thinking about pumps gravity set-ups etc.
    • Irish Moss. The kit doesn't come with it. Research has revealed that unflavoured gelatine (a couple of days before bottling) will act similarly in clarifying the beer. I will let you know how that goes.
    • Why do I have so much? - The recipe is a 20l recipe. I filled my 20l fermenter and still had some left over. (I put the leftover in a separate bucket with a homemade airlock and some baking yeast - it was either that, or pouring it down the drain which I couldn't bring myself to do.)
    • Don't overfill the Fermenter - Woke up this morning with gunk in the airlock and on the lid. This stems from the fact that I had so much wort post boil. (OG was on target so not sure what happened). - anyway, I will watch it carefully but may need to consider switching the airlock for a blow off.


    Well that's all for now. If you are interested, I've attached my brew day photos. comments and constructive criticism are invited.

    IMG_2944.jpg
    IMG_2946.jpgIMG_2949.jpgIMG_2950.jpgIMG_2955.jpgIMG_2959.jpg

  • #2
    If your OG was on target and you overshot your volume, your efficiency is better than expected. It's a good problem to have! Keep that in mind though, calculate your efficiency and use that as the basis to buy malt in the future. You'll probably end up having to order a few hundred grams less malts to get the same beer in the future. Again, a nice problem to have!

    Comment


    • #3
      I love it when people are not scared to jump straight into AG

      Welcome to the best hobby ever
      The Problem With The World Is That Everyone Is A Few Drinks Behind.!

      Comment


      • #4
        Thanks both. I've now swopped to a blow-off hose. I was a bit annoyed at first when I realised I went for the more complicated style of brewing and that I needed extra equipment, but building the mash/lauter tun was as fun as brewing. Now time to get a extra fridge so I can make lagers (which is my preferred type of beer).

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        • #5
          If you read far enough you'll find it somewhere on here but ill just repeat.
          There are 3 step changes in any home brewers beer .
          1 from extract to AG
          2 temperature controlled fermentation
          3 when you've reached consistency in your process and can predict your beer to within 0.001 gravity point.

          Lager, ale even Kveik yeast. All perform better if you can prevent temperature Swings.

          These 3 together will bring you to the point where you will prefer your beer to pretty much anything else.

          Sent from my SM-A750F using Tapatalk

          Comment


          • #6
            Originally posted by jannieverjaar View Post
            2 temperature controlled fermentation
            This seems to be the holy grail

            Comment


            • #7
              I bid you welcome. Well done on your first batch. My 2 cents - don't be in a hurry to drink it. If I could do that first batch over, I would leave it in the bottles for 2 weeks instead of only one week before I started guzzling mine down.

              Well done on going all-grain right off the bat. I went extract for my first batch, but that's because I got a kit with my starter set. The plan is to switch to all-grain asap though as it is WAY cheaper. Got a blonde ale recipe that comes in at R9 a litre.
              There once was a man from Nantucket.
              Who brewed his beer in a bucket.
              He put the wort into there,
              to cut down on the air.
              Then drank it all up like a muppet.

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              • #8
                Looks absolutely lovely BushWanderer! And welcome

                Would you mind posting a link or your process for your mash tun creation? I'd love to start getting my parts together.

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                • #9
                  Sure. I pretty much followed this build - https://beernbbqbylarry.com/2017/10/...a-diy-project/. I had to improvise with a few parts because I couldn't find all the right connectors at my local Builders Warehouse.

                  My advice is you need at least a 26 Litre Cooler box (I used a R136 one from Checkers) and also read Appendix D from John Palmer before starting. - http://howtobrew.com/book/appendices...or-in-a-cooler

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                  • #10
                    Welcome BushWanderer,

                    I'm pretty jealous as I'm in a similar boat to you just a few weeks behind. I also had heaps of drama trying to find equipment, we never had a lock down or prohibition here in Zam but there are zero home brew shops here so my timing was bad.
                    I've ordered everything but all my equipment and Malts still has to get on a truck from SA to Zambia and a few items from the UK.
                    I've also jumped straight in to AG after the wisdom of some friendly fellows on this forum. I have gone for BIAB to avoid a mash tun and make life easy.

                    I'm keen to here how the pale ale turns out so let us know.

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Welcome BushWanderer.

                      +1 what Jigsaw said. Be grateful that you were 'forced' into all grain. Nice looking kit and nice grounding on reading John Palmer..

                      Happy brewing
                      Cheers,
                      Lang
                      ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
                      "Dudddde...Hold my beer!".... ; "I wonder what will happen if I ...."

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        That fridge is begging for a keg, tap, tower and stc1000 temp controller if you ask me. use a blow off tube instead of the s bubbler, less mess. irish moss is a waste of time, just cold crash and fine.

                        Reminds me when I started, whilst my GF was being shipped I crash coursed into AG brewing. Brewed my first AG batch, no temp control, no bottles, in the 15 days the wort was turning into beer, thanks us05. I built my keezer, installed the kegs and taps, got the c02 going. Best beer I've ever had, in retrospect it was a pretty bad, unbalanced underhopped and waaay too strong with an overkill of cara malts, resulting in a sweet beer. I didn't care it was the best beer in the world and I made it !

                        edit: i went to look for my first ag reciper, how bad was this
                        3kg pale
                        2kg pils
                        500g caraamber
                        10.7 ibu from centennial whahahaha
                        bu:gu 0.2 !? wtf lol
                        abv5.6% hahaha
                        groenspookasem
                        Banned
                        Last edited by groenspookasem; 29 May 2020, 16:44.

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Originally posted by groenspookasem View Post
                          That fridge is begging for a keg, tap, tower and stc1000 temp controller if you ask me.
                          +1

                          Great little brewspace you have there!

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Originally posted by groenspookasem View Post
                            That fridge is begging for a keg, tap, tower and stc1000 temp controller if you ask me. use a blow off tube instead of the s bubbler, less mess. irish moss is a waste of time, just cold crash and fine.
                            If you have any advise as to how I could accomplish that I would love to hear it. The ultimate goal is to have a tap on that counter. (Also, note my lockdown lows with such an empty fridge - here is the pre-lockdown state of affairs (p.s. I love my bar fridge, if you couldn't already tell).
                            IMG_0741.jpg

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              There's a few things to keep in mind,
                              - what is your countertop made of? Do you mind drilling a hole in it?
                              - can you safely drill a hole in your fridge, avoiding the cooling line, some fridges have them all over. If you nick one, it's new fridge time.

                              If yes to the above, I'd get a tower and taps with 2m beerline (I use bevlex) Insulate the line leaving your fridge (sealant isn't a bad idea around the hole) right into the tower to the tap/s. Darren from Brewkegtap makes some industrial looking ones or Richard from Kegsolutions has clean looking ones.

                              Measure the height of your fridge, you need a keg to fit in there and a co2 cylinder. I have 2x, one on the line one on standby, swop when one empties and refill. I pay under R200 for a refill, which lasts around 3 months.

                              Corny (cornelius) kegs are cheap and popular and easy to use/clean/service. 19l volume, so your brewday will have some left over to bottle. Other kegs exist and might be needed (coupler connect style), but that depends on your internal height in the fridge. I'd put a quick connect in the fridge to easily remove from the tap to take the keg out. Two types exist. Pin lock and ball lock, just different ways to connect your beer and gas to the posts.

                              STC1000 is not necessary, but better than your built in temp sensor with a neat display to show temp. I like my keezer at 1.5C, I do get some chill haze, but cold beer should be cold :-) Personal preference applies here. Added bonus, you can cold crash in your fridge.

                              I started out with three kegs and three taps, two would've been enough, you can flip kegs and taps and always have something on tap whilst the other is being cleaned and filled. Planning comes into play to always have something fermenting/fermented to keep a tap in use.
                              groenspookasem
                              Banned
                              Last edited by groenspookasem; 29 May 2020, 21:22.

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