Tackled my first ever all grain brew today. A Timothy Taylor Landlord kit from brewuk.co.uk.
First stages went well, with a trip out to get some items for sparging during the 90 minute mash.
In the end went for a length of hose with a sprinkler attachment with different patterns. Through some trial and error found the ‘central’ setting provided a good even flow of fine droplets.
Some notes from the experience:
PREPARATION

- Prepared 35 litres of water previous night and left it to stand overnight to get rid of chlorine. Tried to find Campden tablets in local chemists but no joy. Certainly the younger members of staff looked somewhat confused by the request. Will need to get some online. Overall water quality in Harborough is good so not intending to get into full water treatment until got some more brews under my belt.
- Worked out that boiler retains 3l in the bottom and mash tun 4 l.
- Volume of liquor for sparging was not enough. Had calculated the loss from the bottom of the mash tun but not accounted for the volume of water the grain itself held onto. As such had to tip the boiler to get as much water through as possible.
THE MASH

- Grain was 4.x kg in total. Mash liquor used 2.5 litres / kg = 11.25 litres
- With water in the boiler at 77C managed to get the mash spot on at 66C.
- Mashed for 90 mins (although did nip out to the shops and timer was going off on return)
THE SPARGE


- Liquor bought to 77C. Wort drawn off through outlet and gently returned to the mash tub until no more grain particles seen. Ended up being about 5 litres.
- Sparge worked well although not enough liquor in boiler to get desired volume without tipping the boiler. The grain holds onto quite a bit of water so need to prepare more.
- Tubing and sprinkler head worked well, although with temperature of the water the tubing softens quite a lot and needed some jubilee clips to keep it secure on the metal fixings.
THE BOIL

- Wort transferred into the boiler and bought up to temperature. Lovely stage of the proteins forming a head which bubbled like lava.
- Hot break occurred and timer started for a 90 minute boil. First stage hops added.
- Boiler set to simmer and quite happily maintained a good rolling boil.
- Kid was left off and did lose a lot of volume through evaporation. Need to look at this for future as ended up with just over 17 litres! Topped up with water to retain volume but not sure whether this was the right decision or not.
- Quarter protofloc tablet added at 75 minutes and second stage hops added at 80 minutes.
THE COOL

- Cooling was with a copper coil which had been sterilised in the boiling wort for the last 10 mins of the boil.
- Found a rubber tap connector in Wilkinsons which (just) fits over the laundry tap.
THE PITCH

- Pitching temperature was 20C and got lots of air into the liquor as it transferred to the fermenter.
THE FERMENT
- Fermenter was initially left in the laundry but temperature can vary more in there and was too warm so moved into family room.
- Was working from home next day so was able to monitor. As soon as temp dropped to 18 I wrapped fermenter in tin foil and then bubble wrap to insulate and try and maintain correct temperature.
- On both this brew and my previous Wherry kit the ferment has happened very quickly – to the point of being concerned whether something has gone wrong. Could see mark around inside of fermenter so something had taken place.
- Beer was left for a week here and then moved into the garage for a lower temperature (should have been 12C but can’t control this with current setup.