Critique My AG Process - 3rd AG Batch with pics

I know everyone has their own way of doing things and there really are no wrong answers as long as a few basic steps are followed and sanitization isn't an issue. I just figured I'd see what the folks here at HBT have to say about how I brew.

A little background:

1 - This is my third all-grain batch. I have been brewing for three years. A friend of mine got me into extract brewing when we brewed beer for my wedding in '08. I started brewing mini-mash about a year ago and decided to make the switch to all-grain after becoming comfortable with the mash/lauter process.

2 - This is my first batch doing a gravity fly sparge. I didn't have any issues with the flow rates or anything like that. I did come in over my target boil volume by about half a gallon so I extended my boil time to compensate.

3 - The tarped off section on my back deck where I am brewing in the pics is set up like that because I have been doing some woodwork in my house and needed to be able to use my saws in the rain (Michigan in April/May). There is a canopy over the deck but the blue tarps are only a temporary thing.

Let's get this rolling...:rockin:

I formulate my own recipes in Beer Tools Pro software and get my grains and yeast (Wyeast Smack Pack) from my LHBS and usually get my hops in larger quantities from Northern Brewer or More Beer.

Here's what I made today:

Smoky Amber Ale

Target OG: 1.055 (13.˚P)
Target pre-boil volume: 7.25 gallons
Target post-boil volume: 6 gallons
Boil length: 60 mins
Anticipated efficiency: 70%

10 lb American Pale Ale Malt
2 lb Briess Cherrywood Smoked Malt
1 lb Caramel 40L Malt
1 lb Belgian Aromatic Malt

60 mins - 24g Perle @ 7.8% AA
5 mins - 1 Whirlfloc Tab

Wyeast 1272 American Ale II

***A note about this recipe: I normally brew this with 8lb German Rauchmalt and 4lb Pale Ale Malt but, my LHBS had about 3/4 lb of Rauchmalt left so I had to improvise. I'm curious to see how it turns out.

When I'm ready to brew I heat my strike water in my "HLT" (a plain SS kettle with a weldless valve) on my LP burner (Bayou Classic SP50 Tall Burner Stand) to 10˚ over my strike temp. Then I pour it into my MLT (10 gallon cooler with a SS false bottom) and let it heat up the cooler and settle down to strike temp over 5-10 minutes.

I use a digital probe thermometer to monitor temps in the brewhouse until the boil. It can be set to sound an alarm when a specified temp is reached. This allows me to do other preparations while the water is heating without overshooting temps. The cable for the thermometer can be seen in the following pic strung over to a small table out of the shot.

When the strike water settles to the target temp, I slowly pour in the grains and stir with a 2 foot SS spoon (notch to indicate kettle volumes) that I got from the local restaurant supply store. I use the digital probe thermometer to make sure that I hit my target sacc rest temp (154˚ for this particular recipe), lid up the cooler, cover it with a blanket, and set the timer on the thermometer for 60 minutes.

Once the timer goes off for the hour mash, I check for conversion with iodine and check the mash temp (not that I'm going to do anything about it at that point). I haven't had a mash need to continue past 60 minutes for conversion. Maybe because I haven't brewed a high gravity beer yet?

For this particular batch, I had my table saw handy so I used that as the "top tier" in my first attempt at a fly sparge. I set my HLT (with pre-calculated volume and temp) on the table saw, put the MLT on a chair below it with a section of hi-temp tubing from the HLT that coiled around the wall of the cooler, and set my boil kettle under the MLT on the deck. After recircing a couple two or three times, I opened the valve on the HLT to what I guessed was a quarter open (it just created a very light whirlpool in the water on top of the grain bed). Then I opened the valve on the MLT to approximately match the flow coming in. It turns out I didn't have to adjust the flow at all to keep the volume the same in the MLT through the lautering process.

Once the HLT was empty and the flow stopped out of the MLT, I had 7.7-7.75 gallons of wort collected in the kettle. I put it on the burner, fired it, and, when the temp got near boiling, added bittering hops. I've found that adding the hops before the wort comes to a boil helps to reduce foam formation as boiling is reached. Maybe the hops aren't a factor as I monitor the throttle on the burner pretty well once the temp is over 200˚. Once a stable boil is achieved, I dial in my boil vigor and start the boil timer.

Obviously, some recipes are more high maintenance than others but, this recipe had an initial bittering addition and a 5 minute fining addition, so I had some time to clean the MLT, set up the chiller, sanitize a fermentor (I kegged a pale ale after pitching on this batch) and keg, and pour a frothy one.

I run hot wort by gravity from the kettle to a CFC into the fermentor. As I was kegging after this brew session, I filled a 6.5 gallon carboy with Starsan solution and, when there was 5 minutes left in the boil, racked through a SS cane, through the CFC, and into an empty keg (to sanitize for later). Normally, I would rack sanitizer through the CFC into a plastic bucket to sanitize blow-off tubing, air locks, etc.

When the boil is over, I kill the flame and move the kettle over to a high-top table (table saw for this example) and do a 5-10 minute whirlpool. I just started, a few batches ago, using a paint mixer on my screw gun to get the wort spinning in the kettle. The I lid up and let it rest. This batch I got the wort spinning in the kettle faster than I had in the past and WOW did the trub and hops pile up in the middle kettle! The wort was SO clear coming out of the kettle! You can see in the pics the big nasty trub cone and crystal clear wort floating around it. I can only attribute this to the very fast speed of the whirlpool.

After the whirlpool rest, I dump the remaining sanitizer from the fermentor, open the cooling water valve on the CFC, and open the kettle valve. I have a Blichmann Thru-Mometer to monitor post chill wort temp in real time and adjust the cooling water flow rate to compensate.

When the wort has completely transfer through the chiller, I shake the carboy a few times, covering the hole with a sanitized solid rubber stopper, pitch the yeast smack-pack, close up with an airlock or blow-off tube, and move to the basement (which stays consistently 60-65˚ almost year round).

I have never had an infected batch or any flavor issues that weren't remedied with a recipe adjustment rather than a sanitary issue. So let me know what you think!

Nice set-up man, thanks for posting!

Only question I have is how are you distributing the water when fly sparging in that set up? If the sparge is just streaming in, you run a pretty good chance of channeling, resulting in lower efficiency...

headfullahops said:

When the boil is over, I kill the flame and move the kettle over to a high-top table (table saw for this example) and do a 5-10 minute whirlpool. I just started, a few batches ago, using a paint mixer on my screw gun to get the wort spinning in the kettle. The I lid up and let it rest. This batch I got the wort spinning in the kettle faster than I had in the past and WOW did the trub and hops pile up in the middle kettle! The wort was SO clear coming out of the kettle! You can see in the pics the big nasty trub cone and crystal clear wort floating around it. I can only attribute this to the very fast speed of the whirlpool.

After the whirlpool rest, I dump the remaining sanitizer from the fermentor, open the cooling water valve on the CFC, and open the kettle valve. I have a Blichmann Thru-Mometer to monitor post chill wort temp in real time and adjust the cooling water flow rate to compensate.

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Doesn't this lead to hot-side aeration? It's a good idea but i'd rather see it done after cooling the wort (which would be a pain with your CFC).

heckels said:

Doesn't this lead to hot-side aeration? It's a good idea but i'd rather see it done after cooling the wort (which would be a pain with your CFC).

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Plenty of commercial breweries employ a whirlpool technique as they start cooling.

HokieBrewer said:

Only question I have is how are you distributing the water when fly sparging in that set up? If the sparge is just streaming in, you run a pretty good chance of channeling, resulting in lower efficiency...

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Like I said, the sparge water comes in slow making a slight whirlpool in the buffer water on the top. I actually got the idea from watching the video demo of the Sabco BrewMagic system on their website. Theirs is recircing through a pump but it is fed to the top of the mash by a tube that directs the flow along the wall of the mash vessel creating a whirlpool. I can't say about channeling but, my efficiency went up 5 points with this method over a double batch sparge with a bazooka screen on the previous two brews. If you ask me, that seems more likely to have an issue with channeling than what I did here.

BTW - this particular mash/lauter process outlined here is the first time I've tried it seeking to find what works best for me and my equipment. I am not set in stone on doing it this way so thanks for the concern. Keep it coming!

heckels said:

Doesn't this lead to hot-side aeration? It's a good idea but i'd rather see it done after cooling the wort (which would be a pain with your CFC).

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I can't say about hot-side aeration. I have never had a flavor issue with any of my beers with this method (probably 25-50 batches). I'm pretty sure I heard Jamil or John Palmer (in an interview with Charles Bamforth, I think) say on a podcast somewhere that hot-side aeration isn't much of a concern on a homebrewing scale. Maybe, maybe not. Like I said, I (and many many friends) have never noticed a flavor issue that was or could be attribute to hot-side aeration. I'm more concerned about things like sanitization and fermentation at this point. That's why I like to go right from the chiller into the fermentor, pitch, air lock, done. Maybe that's why I've never had an infected batch. Thanks, though!

Where did you get your paint stirrer? is it stainless?

lukeSp said:

Where did you get your paint stirrer? is it stainless?

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No, it's just a regular paint stirrer from the local Lowe's paint department. It has what appears to be a gray powder coat finish on it. I boiled it for an hour before I used it in hot wort to see if the finish would come off, leave an odor, etc. No problems and it works like a charm. I mean, did you see that pile of trub/hops?! I only used about half throttle on the DeWalt cordless.

headfullahops said:

No, it's just a regular paint stirrer from the local Lowe's paint department. It has what appears to be a gray powder coat finish on it. I boiled it for an hour before I used it in hot wort to see if the finish would come off, leave an odor, etc. No problems and it works like a charm. I mean, did you see that pile of trub/hops?! I only used about half throttle on the DeWalt cordless.

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I like it for my HLT!

lukeSp said:

I like it for my HLT!

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What are you going to do with it and you HLT?

to circulate the hot water, I dont want heterogeneous water conditions around my copper coil. then i can remove it and use it for a wort whirlpool

I'd like to make a CFC, but don't have a pump. I do 10 gallon batches and have been using an immersion chiller, how long does it take to drain from your boil kettle through the CFC into the fermentor? Does much wort get left behind in the CFC?

HawkATP said:

I'd like to make a CFC, but don't have a pump. I do 10 gallon batches and have been using an immersion chiller, how long does it take to drain from your boil kettle through the CFC into the fermentor? Does much wort get left behind in the CFC?

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I'm not using a pump. Gravity power, baby! It takes 8-10 minutes to transfer completely. There isn't much that gets left in the CFC; a cup or less.