ClintNZ
New Member
Having done a few extract kit brews my lady & I decided it was time to get into all grain brewing & we just did our our first proper brew yesterday. This forum is a goldmine of info so big thanks to all the contributors!
Our brewery is mostly built from junk & stuff we had already, with the biggest expense being 50' of 3/8 copper tube for an immersion cooler. 40gal+ capacity although we'll usually do 20gal.
So to commission the new plant we got an easy 'chocolate biscuit ale' recipe pack from a malt supplier: http://www.hbmalt.co.nz/index.php?route=product/product&path=81_95&product_id=451 I think it was supposed to come with detailed n00b friendly instructions but it didn't so we just winged it with the info off the web page.
Only issue we had was that the malt sat a little high in the water. Partly cos we didn't start with enough water (as I later realised, doh!) but also because the bag wasn't a big enough diameter at the bottom. The site textiles technician (Rosie) will be modifying the bag before next brew. This made us worry about malting efficiency so we did plenty of stirring & recirculating with a jug. We got a few degrees warm on occasion as we got a handle on fettling the burner, but not too bad.
No problems with the boil, we figured out we would be down on volume towards the end & added a bunch of extra water. The chiller worked well getting down to ~20C in around 25 min.
It turned out we did ok with the mash efficiency, with 23L into the fermenter at 1.060 vs the 25L @ 1.057 target in the recipe. So a few questions on mashing after the first brew, I'm still finding my way around all the resources here so apologies if you answered these same questions just yesterday & my search missed it!
What is a reasonable amount of mash stirring & wort recirculating for a setup like ours?
Is it best to aim for as much strike water as possible & no extra water addition after, or is a fresh water sparge a really good idea?
I suspect a lot of this depends on the brew in question, equipment & personal preference, but any input is appreciated!
Cheers
Clint
Our brewery is mostly built from junk & stuff we had already, with the biggest expense being 50' of 3/8 copper tube for an immersion cooler. 40gal+ capacity although we'll usually do 20gal.
So to commission the new plant we got an easy 'chocolate biscuit ale' recipe pack from a malt supplier: http://www.hbmalt.co.nz/index.php?route=product/product&path=81_95&product_id=451 I think it was supposed to come with detailed n00b friendly instructions but it didn't so we just winged it with the info off the web page.
Only issue we had was that the malt sat a little high in the water. Partly cos we didn't start with enough water (as I later realised, doh!) but also because the bag wasn't a big enough diameter at the bottom. The site textiles technician (Rosie) will be modifying the bag before next brew. This made us worry about malting efficiency so we did plenty of stirring & recirculating with a jug. We got a few degrees warm on occasion as we got a handle on fettling the burner, but not too bad.
No problems with the boil, we figured out we would be down on volume towards the end & added a bunch of extra water. The chiller worked well getting down to ~20C in around 25 min.
It turned out we did ok with the mash efficiency, with 23L into the fermenter at 1.060 vs the 25L @ 1.057 target in the recipe. So a few questions on mashing after the first brew, I'm still finding my way around all the resources here so apologies if you answered these same questions just yesterday & my search missed it!
What is a reasonable amount of mash stirring & wort recirculating for a setup like ours?
Is it best to aim for as much strike water as possible & no extra water addition after, or is a fresh water sparge a really good idea?
I suspect a lot of this depends on the brew in question, equipment & personal preference, but any input is appreciated!
Cheers
Clint
