Gladfields Peat Malt/1st all grain mash

[RobMichelle]

So my first all grain mash and i used gladfields peat malt 25kg bag, this is the first half of the bag. I only have a basic set up for mashing, 50 ltr beer keg with the top cut out and a 2 ring gasmate burner and a drill & paint stirrer, and a grain mill.
So I used
12.5 kg grain
30 ltr water heated up to 74c
Whilst my wife slowly tipped the milled grain into keg I had the painter stirrer going until the grain was added. The keg was covered with a wok lid and some old blankets etc temp was 66c
20 min later uncovered stirred again temp was still 66 took an sg reading this time 1095. Covered back up for an hour then stirred again sg 1095, iodine check stayed the same so conversion was done, confirmed with a C pic to Bryan who v said recover and leave till morning, so that’s what happened.
So this was Sunday arvo, Monday morning before work on thought this won’t take long,it’s in the laundry so away we go, uncover check sg 1100 something I forgot v to write it down, I only have 30 ltr fermenters x 3 so in put a biab into a fermenter and start taking grain out of keg with a 1 ltr pot, now a large biab bag is bigger than a 30 ltr fermenter whilst transferring the grain the bag falls in so the mess begins but I keep c going lol squeeze the bag empty grain into a another big B pot, & repeat till done, about 24 ltr. The grain went back into keg and I put about 8 ltrs of hot tap water on top recover and a quick clean up and v off to work till lunch time. Lunchtime, take keg outside as there’s still a bit of grain Aaron’s the laundry floor etc, grab a colander and the little pot and squish out the wort into another fermenter, about 5 ish ltr with sg 1049.temps were 34c so I leave fermenters on bench till after work. After work temps down to 28 so throw some yeast v in, I’m trying Angel yeast m-1 , half hour v later they start bubbling away nicely, middle of the night they are going v off the head , I put them in a insulated panel box set up we made night, checked in morning temp was v up to 34c so took off front panel and roof panel and off to work again. It’s Wednesday morning now and ferment is slowed right down. I used 1 gram of yeast per litre. So for the next 12.5 kg mash I’ll start on Friday after work so I have the weekend to transfer etc instead of thinking I can do it all on a work day lol. Bit long winded but that was my first mash.
Cheers :techie-typing: :obscene-drinkingchug:

[WoodyD40]

Great write up Rob.
I have been leaving my ferments for two weeks, but that's because it suits my work/life balance.
My ferments have been going down to SG average between 1005 and 995. I'll be interested to see where yours end up when you run them.
So you are the third on this forum now to try the Gladfields heavy peat malt. :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[RobMichelle]

Gday David, Bryan suggested that I do the write-up David that’s why I did it.
just to clarify a couple of things I balanced out the two fermenters so I ended up at roughly 18 L each with an SG. I think it was 1079 and 1080 and I’ll repeat the process Friday like I said. today lunchtime slowly bubbling away still and yes I’ll probably leave it for the week. I might run it next weekend. we see how it goes. I did learn that my wife doesn’t like the smell of fermenting heated moult and woke up alone. She was in the other room with the door shut the fans going because the smell of fermenting Peter was making her feel very sick so lesson learned possibly fermenting outside from now on.

[RobMichelle]

Couple of pics, so I can’t upload a short video not sure why but it was just mixing the grain in keg.

[RobMichelle]

Slowing down today, also doing cuts on ffv after work, 2 more to go lol

[RobMichelle]

So I’ve done my second Peat malt mash. I got hot water out of the tap at 67°. I heated that to 74° in the keg on the gas burner. I added the grain whilst stirring the SG After a few minutes steering was 1085 and climbing, 20 minutes later. Check the temp at 66. The SG was 1104. Let it sit for another hour gave it another stir SG was 1105 then I’ll put it to bed for the night .the next day at lunchtime it was 53°. The SG was 1111 so I strain the mash in a brew bag. I got 24 L after straining the SG was 1109 then I put another 10 L of hot water on top of the grain again covered it back up and left it for a few hours so after a few hours the SG was 1061. I squeezed it all out. I’ve got about 12 L out of that so I’ve got 24 L from the mash and 12 L from the spage that gave me 36 L so I split that over the two fermenters. I ended up putting 22 L in one fermenter and only 15 L in another fermenter because it’s only a 20 L fermenter so SG‘s were 1083 and 1081 so pretty happy about that. I checked the pH on both ferments, one was 5.4 one was 5.38 and I didn’t have to adjust the pH level as I do when I do a sugar wash so I’m not sure what the grain mash does to the pH to what a sugar wash doesn’t. Maybe somebody can shed some light on that?. I also rehydrated the yeast this time didn’t just put it on top and stir heck out of it Once again one gram per litre of angel a.m. 1 whiskey yeast put them in the shed as not to stink the house out again and see how it all goes.

[RobMichelle]

So after 2 weeks the sg on first peat malt mash is 1000 for one fermenter and 1010 for the other, not sure why they would differ but there ya have it. Might let them rest another few more days and see if anything changes.

[bluc]

I have no doubt you will enjoy it.. :handgestures-thumbupleft: