Evan!
Well-Known Member
I had all of last week off, so I set aside a day to brew my first AG batch. Curiously enough 
, it was pretty much exactly like PM, just on a bigger scale. I made the move because I recently "inherited" a 50L stainless lauter tun w/ spigot and professionally-made false bottom.
The recipe was a hybrid British Brown / Brune Abbey. It has the hops and OG of an English Brown, but I subbed in some Aromatic and Sp. B, and used Wyeast 1214.
Mash went well...I just used my 32-qt kettle, then transferred over to the lauter tun when sparge time came. Did a stepped mash, as I do with PM, and it went fine. Sparging was a breeze using the 50L tun---I just batch-sparged. The one thing I noticed was that, no matter how many times I recycled the wort through the grains, it kept coming out with particulate. Oh well. I got it as clear as I could.
Boil went fine, as always. Put my brand new immersion chiller that santa brought me to use for the first time, and wow! No more ice baths, and I went from boiling to 75f in 15 mins. Hell yeah. Used the spigoted kettle to do a hop-back...which had the added benefit of allowing me to set up my carboy with the funnel strainer directly below the spigot---meaning that I would no longer have to pour or siphon the wort from the kettle. That was so nice.
Took a hydro reading, and lo and behold, I hit my target gravity of 1.056! 72% efficiency h'aint half bad for my first AG, no doubt.
The yeast got reused from my cranberry dubbel. The first time I used it, I didn't make a starter, and my lag time was 3 freakin' days! This time, I made a big 1L starter, and lag time was 2 or 3 hours. Fermentation was vigorous as hell, and finished very quickly. I pitched on Friday afternoon, and airlock activity had pretty much stopped by the time I woke up on Sunday. Took an SG reading yesterday...1.011! And it tastes excellent---nice and roasty/bready, with a little bit of stinkiness like I like in my Belgians.
All in all, I'm very happy with the whole process. Since I don't have a grain mill, I'm not sure if I'll be doing AG all the time, but it's nice to do it here and there.
, it was pretty much exactly like PM, just on a bigger scale. I made the move because I recently "inherited" a 50L stainless lauter tun w/ spigot and professionally-made false bottom. The recipe was a hybrid British Brown / Brune Abbey. It has the hops and OG of an English Brown, but I subbed in some Aromatic and Sp. B, and used Wyeast 1214.
Mash went well...I just used my 32-qt kettle, then transferred over to the lauter tun when sparge time came. Did a stepped mash, as I do with PM, and it went fine. Sparging was a breeze using the 50L tun---I just batch-sparged. The one thing I noticed was that, no matter how many times I recycled the wort through the grains, it kept coming out with particulate. Oh well. I got it as clear as I could.
Boil went fine, as always. Put my brand new immersion chiller that santa brought me to use for the first time, and wow! No more ice baths, and I went from boiling to 75f in 15 mins. Hell yeah. Used the spigoted kettle to do a hop-back...which had the added benefit of allowing me to set up my carboy with the funnel strainer directly below the spigot---meaning that I would no longer have to pour or siphon the wort from the kettle. That was so nice.
Took a hydro reading, and lo and behold, I hit my target gravity of 1.056! 72% efficiency h'aint half bad for my first AG, no doubt.
The yeast got reused from my cranberry dubbel. The first time I used it, I didn't make a starter, and my lag time was 3 freakin' days! This time, I made a big 1L starter, and lag time was 2 or 3 hours. Fermentation was vigorous as hell, and finished very quickly. I pitched on Friday afternoon, and airlock activity had pretty much stopped by the time I woke up on Sunday. Took an SG reading yesterday...1.011! And it tastes excellent---nice and roasty/bready, with a little bit of stinkiness like I like in my Belgians.
All in all, I'm very happy with the whole process. Since I don't have a grain mill, I'm not sure if I'll be doing AG all the time, but it's nice to do it here and there.
