My first (unintentional) All Grain

After looking back on my day, all I can think is "What the hell happened?" It's not that I jacked anything up, it's just a little misjudgment here, a little number fudging there that turned into a FUBAR'd recipe. However, it was executed pretty well, considering.

Allright, first on the Autopsy was my Beersmith recipe. Now, this was modified due to my LHBS not having all of my required ingredients, and I choose poorly on (alternates). A slight mod of the BBD Brown Biscuit that came out so wellthe first time I did it...

5# US Pale 2-row
12 oz Special B
7 oz Biscuit (Ended up as 10 oz Victory)
7oz Carapils (10 oz)
7 oz US Pale 6-row (Not in stock)
3# Light DME (Rejected due to Beersmith calcs telling me my expected OG was way too high for an American Brown)
0.8 oz Fuggles @ 45 min
0.8 oz Fuggles @ 15 min
1 tsp rehy'd Irish Moss @ 10 min
1 vial Calrity Ferm (5 ml) at pitch
1 pack rehy'd Danstar Nottingham Ale yeast at pitch

Mashed all grains in 8.5Q of 165F water in a 12Q stockpot for a final mash temp of 156F after 5 mins of frequent and deep stirring. In the oven @ 150F for 1 hour.

Dunk Sparged w/ 11Q @ 174F (forgot to transfer thermometer into grain bag after this point) for 15 min, stirring deeply twice. Combined both volumes and squeezed appx. 2Q out of the grain for a 4.625 gal initial boil volume.

While I was mashing in, I entered my recipe into Beersmith using 70% efficiency and a 4 gal final fermenting volume. After choosing multiple mashing techniques and still coming up in the 1.07+ OG range, I decided to omit my DME (no big whoop, it's on the shelf for starters now). Boil went off well, ended up w/ a little over 4 gal after the end of boiling. Cooled to 85 in my pool after 15 mins, then whirlpooled and let sit for another 20. Siphoned into my carboy, ended up w/ 3.6 gal of fermentable. Here I topped up w/ 1500 mL of bottled water, since I really wanted the full 4 gal.

Expected OG was 1.048. I hit 1.044 on 2 of 3 hydrometers, 1.042 on 1. All at 70F.

While I consider this a minor success, I can't help but distrust Beersmith at this point. Admittedly, I am not well-versed in using the program, but the numbers I entered just didn't jive with the actuals I am used to using with good results. I haven't entered my actuals in yet since I'm not sure I have my profile set up correctly, but I anticipate this being a good efficiency rating, and just not using enough fermentables for an OG/Color that I wanted.

On a completely different note, I ended up scoring a 5gal Rubbermaid MLT at work free, and will be creating more all-grains in the future.

If you've gotten this far, I appreciate you taking the time to read through. I look forward to input for next time. Thanks! - Jeremey

The special B is a nice touch. It looks like a very good brown ale. It looks like you used 8# of grain to get about 44GP, very nice. Well done.

Yeah, I think my total grain bill was just over 7#. I mean, it's not like I'm disappointed I cranked out an AG batch without changing anything I'm doing steps-wise. I'm thrilled I can do AG batches on the stovetop without any problem. I was just venting on the fact that I didn't follow my plan.

I guess the only disappointment I have is the fact that I didn't come out and say "I made my first AG batch my *****!". I think I did though. A tad over 70% eff via Beersmith.