My first AllGrain

[LordEoin]

hopefully I won't need it, but I might take you up on it. Thanks Garry.

playing around with beersmith, it looks like if I hadn't added the LME it would have ended up at almost exactly what the kit said at 23L, 1.038.
But as it is, it's 23L at 1.062

So it looks like I did alright!

[johnrm]

Good man Eoin, whatever comes out will be good!

[LordEoin]

It took 24 hours before there was any sign of fermentation. The brupaks yeast takes a bit to kick off.
But now my room is smelling great

[johnrm]

I'm thinking I might do an AG ESB too.
I have S-04 itching for a party.

[Bzfeale80]

Here's my kettle, a 50L beer keg with 2 Argos kettle elements - circumcised and shined up )
I had it hooked up to my STC1000 to keep it at the right temps, but it blew the fuse
It has a slow leak at one of the elements, but it's doing well!

The kettle elements should be wired to a relay block in order to avoid blowing the fuse of the stc1000 which is capable of switching on/off the required amps for the kettle elements.

It would be better to upgrade the wiring of the kettle elements to 3 g 2.5mm sq flex so that the wiring does not end up fusing together and shorting out after a few brews. A standard kettle flex is about only 3 g 0.75 mm sq flex for an electric jug kettle which would only be used for 5 minutes or so to boil 1.7 liters of water. A couple of small mods and you will be sorted with that mash tun keg.

As regards cooling the wort you could probably make a home made immersion wort chiller from some copper tubing. Another mod to the keg which might be worth making would be to add a layer of the skinny foil backed insulation around the keg to improve heat retention during the boil which would reduce the amount of electricity you end up using.

[LordEoin]

Thanks. the kettle itself is working fine, but I will be adding some insulation to it at some stage and now I'll also probably do the cables. Cheap upgrade

I have a coiled copper pipe chiller, but it was just too big for this kettle.
I'll have to make another smaller one.

[LordEoin]

I moved this to secondary today to get it off the trub, which was about an inch deep and well stuck together.
The wort is a nice dark copper colour, fairly well balanced and with a nice roasty flavour.
Dry hopped with 25g Styrian Goldings

SG 1.016 but I'd say there's a bit more to go.
It'll probably be ready to bottle next week or the week after.

[LordEoin]

I bottled this on the 6th.
FG 1.012.

I couldn't wait any longer so I cracked one open for 'quality control'
It's got an aroma like candyfloss, lovely balanced hoppy taste, great mouthfeel.
Head is a bit thin as it's so young, but this is a great tasting beer!

[johnrm]

I hope your notes are good, so you can make all the same mistakes when you try to brew it again!

[Garry]

Did you use the kit yeast in the end?

I still haven't bottled my extract version  It's clearing nicely in the cold garage though.

[LordEoin]

Yup, I used the supplied yeast.
Looking forward to tasting the extract version too

@john - the main mistake I made was thinking that I made a mistake! 

[johnrm]

Theres a word for that, its 'Panic' 

[LordEoin]

I'm sure Einstein panic when he was stealing all those patents, but look where it got him!