Brew #1 - Epicish Pale Ale

So after getting Beervana, work, finances and life in general out of the way, I was finally able to put down my first solo batch of home brewed beer on the weekend.

With fear and a bit of worry, I kicked off on a beautiful Swamp day. I went in with this simple motto in mind: be methodical, be thorough, be sure.

I decided to copy a recipe posted on the RealBeer forum, touted as an Epic Pale Ale clone. As I say here, Epic Pale Ale was the beer that got me into "the good stuff" so brewing a clone of it seemed as fitting a brew as I could think of. I've just substituted NZ Cascade for US Cascade to make things easier.

I had already boiled the water two days ago and let it sit open to get all the chlorine out of it, so it was just a case of getting it up to temperature. However, I hit a snag - while I headed up my mash tun with some hot water already, it clearly wasn't enough. So the temperature dropped to well below my target for mashing in.

There was a point where I thought about just dumping in the grain and rolling with it, mainly because I was trying to figure out how to get about 15L of water back into my HLT at the top of my shed. But that voice in my head came on again: be methodical, be thorough, be sure. So I spent a good 20 minutes lugging crap around my shed to get back, essentially, to Square One. Taking in the time to heat up water again, it put another 50 minutes into my brew day - I could live with that.

So, I finally mashed in - this time pretty much hitting my target temperature - and waited.

And waited.

And waited.

And waited.

How's that for some insulation on my mash tun

Throughout the day, I quickly learned that brewing is really about sitting on your bum all day waiting for things to happen. But I tried to keep busy, mainly by cleaning.

Pots be great for recirculation.

After recirculating and sparging, I ended up with about 26L of wort for the boil. However, I lost a CRAPLOAD. I ended up with only 15L in my fermenter. There was probably about 2-3L in the kettle due to it not clearing out as much as I liked, but that still seems like a lot of wort-loss. I tried to keep things at a low rolling boil to ensure I didn't lose too much, but it seems like that didn't work.

It also ended up very murky going into the fermenter. After some post-brew Tweeting, Kieran let me know I should have added some calcium chloride to my water to help with clarity. Something to remember for next time.

Here's the recipe I ended up using and times of my brew day:

4.7kg Golden Promise
.41kg pale crystal
50g NZ Cascade @ 60 min
50g NZ Cascade @ 10 min
50g NZ Cascade @ 1 min
Dry hop with 100g NZ Cascade after krausen calms down
US-05 yeast

The total hop bill (incl. dry hopping). Omnomnom... I hope!

8am - HLT on. 45L of water @ 30C
9.35am - screw up strike water
10.25am - Mash in. Mash start temp = 67C
11.58am - begin recirculating. Mash temp = 65C
12.30pm - sparge
1.10pm - start 90min boil
2.44pm - flame out, chiller on
3pm - turn off chiller, wort = 20C
4.05pm - run into fermenter
4.15pm - pitch yeast into 14L of wort. Temp = about 18C

24hrs into fermentation - bubbling in airlock once ever 8 seconds. Temp = about 16C
48hrs into fermentation - bubble every 2 seconds. Temp = about 20C

Keeping my temperature level is going to be the hardest part from here on out. I've just scored a fridge from a mate, so I'm going to convert that into a fermentation chamber sometime soon.

But ultimately, I think I'm happy with how things are going so far. And as a way to both pat myself on the back and keep the ego in check, here's what I know I did well and what I'll need to improve on next time.

Chur:

- Recirculation: I know this is important to try get crystal-clear beer. When I did the brew with Chris and Stu, we had a pump to make life easier. At home, it was a two-pot collect-and-pour job. It took longer than I expected, but I knew I had to get it right to get the beer clear. And I did have a damn nice looking wort afterwards.

- Clearing and sterilising: Making sure everything was clean was a priority. I made sure to scrub the day before, then wipe on the day, then sterilise everything twice. I was using a no-rise formula, so I didn't worry about using too much. I reckon things were damn clean, so it should help the beer come out nice.

- No shortcuts: As I said before, I had a disaster at the beginning. For a few seconds I thought about dumping the grains on the too-cold water, but quickly got that out of my mind. I presume shortcuts in brewing usually lead to crap beer, so I took the time to lug things around a wait. I'm sure the brew should work out better for it.

Unchur:

Fermenter chilling on a bed of heat pad, upside-down
baking tray (to let the cable out) and carpet, wrapped
in a sheet for extra snuggles.

- Water: I forgot didn't add any calcium chloride to my water, which I've been told helps wort get nice and clear. I also didn't get a full analysis of the town water supply to ensure I treated it right to give myself a good base to go off. I won't be making that mistake again.

- Air: I probably didn't aerate the wort enough when I transferred it from the kettle to the fermenter. I used a hose to transfer it, but probably didn't hold the hose high enough to let it get enough air in. Next time, I'll be sure to use a smaller piece of hose to make sure the wort can splash enough on it's way to aerate properly.

- Expectations: I expected to be making crystal-clear, beautiful beer from the get-go, with no issues during brewing. I now know this is stupid, and I'll have to be patient while learning. I'm only learning and will need time to get good at doing this. But when I get good, I will know all those mistakes I made and lessons I learned will have been worth it.

So, there it is. First batch on the way. Is there anything I need to watch out for? Is there anything you would do differently to this recipe? Any brew tips I should know for next time? How can I not lose so much wort during the boil?

Hit me with your advice, because I'm a dry sponge and ready to soak it all up!