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First AG didn't go as smoothly as hoped...

Post #1 made 9 years ago
by bensville
I attempted my first AG brew last night and it was not without incident...

I followed the BIABacus for NRBs All Amarillo APA recipe aiming for 20l into the FV using my new 40l Buffalo urn. I heated the strike water up to 68c and doughed in. After a good stir for a minute or two I took the temperature with my electronic meat thermometer - 64c. I should have waited longer I think, but instead I turned on the heat and stirred for a few minutes until the temp was back up to 67c. All good I thought. Insulation on, and off I went to eat a bowl of soup. When I came back ten minutes later the temp was now reading 71c Arrghhhh! I took off the insulation, open the back door to let in cool air and stirred frantically. The temp went up to 72c. In the end I resorted to getting my IC the kettle and got the mash back to 67c. Insulation back on. A few minutes later the temp is rising again. IC back in, again back to temp. The temp again started rising, this time so fast I got suspicious and pulled out my thermometer which kept rising, even when out of the liquor. In fact it started reading 45c in my cool kitchen. I went and found another glass thermometer and stuck this in the mash and it read 58c. By this point I didn't know what to believe and 90mins was nearly up so I turned on the heat to bring up to mash out (78c by glass thermometer). My gravity readings were 45min 1.034, 85min (start of heat for mash out) 1.038 and after pulling bag (115 min) 1.043. These all seem pretty low! I don't know what temperature I had mashed at in the end. What a disaster!

I thought that would be my excitement over, however then came the boil. My kettle took about 25 mins to get up to the boil from mash-out. My glass thermometer was reading 104c (seems too high?!) as the wort just started to roll. I had decided that it was too late in the day and I was tired so I was only going to do a 60min boil, hence I added the 60 min hops. The boiler then clicked off. My boiler is the new version Buffalo GL349. I had removed the thermal cut out, and insulated the thermostat with silicon tubing such that it didn't ever switch off during a test boil with water. I didn't know what what to do so I just waited. About 5-10 mins later the wort had obviously cooled enough and the boiler kicked in again, just getting up to the first few rolls of a good boil and then cutting out again. This patten continued. I would have liked to extend the boil, but as I had already added the 60 min hops I decided not to. I finished the boil, cooled uneventfully and racked the wort off into the FV. I ended up with 22l (2l extra), no doubt due to low evaporation. The SG was 1.046, 12 points lower than expected. This morning (6hrs later) no signs of fermentation, but early days.

Lessons learnt:
1) Patience. Give the water time to come to equilibrium at strike temp, and again after doughing in before doing anything rash like adjusting temps.
2) Buy decent thermometer(s).
3) Better just completely remove the thermostat on my boiler. I had hoped I could use the thermo stat to heat strike water on a timer to approx temp to save time for after work brews.

I'll be interested to see how this brew turns out!
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Post #2 made 9 years ago
by Lumpy5oh
Ouch what a day. I believe there are thermometers linked at the bottom of the page from amazon. Thermoworks usually have sales on their site and I know a lot of people like the thermopen. I use 2 of their thermometers along with 5 others during brewday. I don't know anything about your urn but I would wait to do anything with that yet; someone here can help you with that.
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Post #3 made 9 years ago
by mally
Well done on your first brew bensville.

Thermometers can be a real PITA, there is thread on here from pistolpatch that deomnstrates the inaccuracies of various thermometers. From memory I think there were 12 that gave different readings!

I have the Thermapen as Lumpy mentioned and have never looked back. I am not saying it is a silver bullet, but it works for me.

I also used to have your Buffalo predecessor (CC193 from memory). The only thing I did to that was the silicone isolation of the probe. It would still do the odd cutout like you mentioned, but was normally in the last 15-30 minutes of a 90 minute boil, and even then it would kick back in after a minute or two.

maybe have a read of this thread?
Last edited by mally on 12 Apr 2016, 20:11, edited 1 time in total.
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Post #4 made 9 years ago
by bensville
Thanks for the advice on the Thermopen guys. I like the look of them - simple but good quality.

I have seen the thread you linked Mally, that is where I got silicon tubing idea from. I think I probably just need to get some thicker silicon. Mine doesn't look as thick as in the picture in the other thread.
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Post #5 made 9 years ago
by PistolPatch
Welcome to the forum Bens and congrats on getting your first AG under your belt :salute:,

Firstly, your beer will be fine. That recipe is very robust so, as long as your hops were great, I think your beer will be as well.

As mally and Lumpy have indicated, you can never have enough thermometers. (Here's the test mally mentioned.)

My best thermometers are the white ones in the pic in the link above. They are pretty cheap now and are also great for fermenting especially if you have a thermowell. Pierce a plastic lid with the probe and you can float it on top of your mash but, as with any thermometer, agitate the mash before reading the temp.

One problem you can get with probe thermometers is that they can stick. They read one temp and then suddenly jump much higher. Clean your probe occasionally by boiling it (and some of the braiding if it has it) in water.

Anyway, get your thermometer sorted and your cut-out before you brew again and then it will be all plain sailing. Having troubles on your firt brew can be a good thing. It shows you that all-grain is very forgiving and stops you getting over-confident too fast.

:P
PP
Last edited by PistolPatch on 12 Apr 2016, 22:15, edited 1 time in total.
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Post #7 made 9 years ago
by bensville
Seven days in, I took my first gravity reading last night 1.012. It still looked fairly active when I took the FV lid off, with the krausen still floating. I suspect it is going to go quite low. Reassuringly the sample tasted lovely! :yum:
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Post #8 made 9 years ago
by thughes
That's good news, it's actually very hard to screw up making beer(as you have discovered). Ready for batch #2?


---Todd
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Post #9 made 9 years ago
by Goodtime
Hey bensville, just to give you some feeling of comfort I had a very similar experience with my first brew over the weekend.

It's all a learning process and I certainly picked up a few pointers on the first brew.

The great thing is, as pointed out by thughes, that it does seem difficult to totally mess up your beer. The sample I have tasted of my first AG effort is far superior to anything I have done in the past.

Looking forward to the next one...need to create some keg space!
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