OK, so I wanted to do a thread that was a tutorial on all-grain. It's intent is to be a good guide for new AGers, but also for people to spot holes in my game and suggest ways for me to be better. This is only about my 5th AG batch, so feel free to suggest better ways to do things. The entire gallery of pics can be seen here.
First off, the recipe:
Nut Brown Ale
(based off Lil' Sparky's recipe at the above link)
First lesson is read the recipe correctly. I only used 8 lbs of pale instead of 9. Duh. Only other change is that I used Safale-04 instead of the hard-to-find Nottingham.
8 lbs. American 2-row info
1 lbs. Crystal Malt 60°L
8 oz. American Victory
4 oz. American Chocolate Malt
1 lbs. Oats Flaked
1 oz. Fuggle (Pellets, 4.75 %AA) boiled 60 min.
1 oz. East Kent Goldings (Pellets, 5.00 %AA) boiled 15 min.
DCL Yeast Safale S-04 Top Quality Ale Yeast
I always use this Mash Calculator for my strike and sparge water. Now, call me crazy, but it always gives a larger volume of water for the sparge, not the strike, so I always reverse them. Makes sense to me to add the larger volume first, where grain absorbtion is higher. Anyway, I heated my strike water and added it to the mash tun first:
Then I doughed in, stirring and breaking up dough balls as I poured the grain in:
So about 45 minutes later (I stirred the mash 3 times), it was time to collect the first runnings. First step is my favorite brewing word: vorlauf. Vorlaufing is when you drain off a pitcher or two of the runnings and dump them back into the mash, recirculating about a gallon to filter out grain particles that make it through the manifold. Two of my pitchers and mine is usually cleared. When pouring back in, lay out a piece of foil to disperse the wort and protect the integrity of the grain bed:
At this point, I drain the first runnings into my kettle:
Eventually, the wort will stop. Meanwhile, I had my sparge water heating in a different kettle to 180*. At this point, I put my first runnings on the propane and get them up to a boil while pouring my sparge water on my grain bed, stirring, and closing the lid for another 10 minutes.
After 10 minutes, vorlauf again (your 2nd runnings will be much clearer):
and drain the 2nd runnings into your kettle (which should have gotten pretty close to boiling while you were prepping the 2nd runnings). Here, I'm measuring the amount of 1st and 2nd runnings with a graduated CPVC tube that I made:
After your 2nd runnings are drained, fire that kettle up. It shouldn't take long if you already started heating the 1st runnings. When you have a controlled boil, add your first hop addition:
Nothing to do now for 45 minutes, so I recommend cleaning out the mash tun. I use my pitcher to scoop, then a paint scraper thingee to get the small stuff out.
My manifold is CPVC, so I disassemble it to clean and dry:
At 15 minutes, I made my 2nd/last hop addition, added Irish Moss and yeast nutrient, and put my immersion chiller in to sterilize. The IC will quickly reach 200 degrees, so be careful touching it from here out:
At flameout, I take the kettle off the heat (IC still inside, hoses draped over my shoulder) and hook up the hose. I also take out my hop bags. I insert a sanitized thermometer and let the water do its work:
I captured 12 gallons of hot water which I later used to fill and PBW my kettle. I always save this water for cleaning. After the chilling was complete, I created a whirlpool in the kettle by stirring and let it sit covered for 30 minutes to settle. Then I racked to my carboy:
Whirlpooling helpes the trub collect in the middle of the kettle so you can drain from the outside. The results of the whirlpool:
I pitched my yeast later in the evening - my hose water could only get the wort down to 85 degrees - when the beer was cooler. The only pic I forgot to take all day was me hitting the wort with oxygen right before pitching the yeast.
I will continue to give fermentation through bottling updates as they become available. I do want to send a special thank you to Edwort for his Haus Pale Ale recipe. It's in my keg right now and fueled this brew day for me!
Again, The entire gallery of pics can be seen here.
All-Grain Tutorial/Nut Brown Ale
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