Tomorrow is my first all grain brew day... I'm nervous and I hope all goes well. I need tips and advice, common problems to run into, what to expect, and maybe some stories from your first all grain brew day. I have a 10 gallon home depot cooler with a ball valve and hose filter, 5 gallon HLT cooler, 8 gallon brew pot, 5 gallon brew pot, hop spider, and a electric stove top. I have 9 lbs rahr2row, 1 lb c40L, 1 Oz centennial, 3 Oz cascade, 4 Oz of citra. White Labs California Ale yeast. Any recommendations on hop schedule? Mash temp? Fermentation? Dry hop schedule? Please help and make me feel comfortable.
Tomorrow is my first ALL-GRAIN Brew Day!
- Thread starter langdonk1
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Congrats on moving to all grain!
My advice:
(1) heat your strike water 10 deg higher than strike temp, add to the cooler and let it drop down to your intended strike temp. This will help preheat your mash tun and take some of the stress off timing when to dough in.
(2) heat more sparge water than you think you need. When you collect your first runnings, measure the volume -- the difference between this volume and your intended boil volume is the amount of strike water you'll need.
(3) after collecting all runnings, pull a sample of the pre-boil wort and cool it to room temp in your freezer as your wort is coming to a boil. Measure the gravity and compare against your predictions --- if you're super low, have some DME on hand to supplement. That way you won't have to change your hop schedule on the fly.
Good luck!
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My advice:
(1) heat your strike water 10 deg higher than strike temp, add to the cooler and let it drop down to your intended strike temp. This will help preheat your mash tun and take some of the stress off timing when to dough in.
(2) heat more sparge water than you think you need. When you collect your first runnings, measure the volume -- the difference between this volume and your intended boil volume is the amount of strike water you'll need.
(3) after collecting all runnings, pull a sample of the pre-boil wort and cool it to room temp in your freezer as your wort is coming to a boil. Measure the gravity and compare against your predictions --- if you're super low, have some DME on hand to supplement. That way you won't have to change your hop schedule on the fly.
Good luck!
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I'm doing my first couple all-grain brews this weekend too, and this seems like good advice, thanks.
Would you also recommend potentially buying a refractometer? It seems like it might come in real handy for measuring specific gravity quickly and making adjustments on the fly. I was eyeballing this on Amazon.
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I have a refractometer that measures brix % and specific gravity. It works wonders. Definitely worth the 50$ or so.
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Foosier
Well-Known Member
I am going to throw this out there as I am not sure what you are working with. If this is your first all grain brew day, be sure to use a tried and true recipe which others report success with. There are a ton of great recipes in the Recipes tab of this site. Look for the ones which have the most comments. Those are almost always good recipes to work with. Besides knowing that the beer comes out well, these recipes include all of the key information you need like hop schedules, grain amounts, fermentation temps, etc. Formulating your own recipe is a challenging process if you don't already know your ingredients and what they bring to the table.
I personally have yet to make my own recipe from scratch and I have been brewing 2 years. Not that I have never adjusted my recipes to fit what I am looking for. We all do that, but starting from scratch is different. You can d it certainly, but you really may not know what you are going to get out of the batch. You could get lucky which would be great, but then maybe not. Given the cost of brewing I prefer to err towards safety at this point. Besides, there are so many great recipes allready out there I ahven't had time to figure that I need to create something brand new myself.
Just my $0.02. take it for what it is worth.
I personally have yet to make my own recipe from scratch and I have been brewing 2 years. Not that I have never adjusted my recipes to fit what I am looking for. We all do that, but starting from scratch is different. You can d it certainly, but you really may not know what you are going to get out of the batch. You could get lucky which would be great, but then maybe not. Given the cost of brewing I prefer to err towards safety at this point. Besides, there are so many great recipes allready out there I ahven't had time to figure that I need to create something brand new myself.
Just my $0.02. take it for what it is worth.
Thanks for the tips. Im just most worried about hitting my efficiency. I read a lot about coming in under theyre target original gravity.
m1k3
Well-Known Member
Hey langdonk1,
When I gave my old all grain system to my father in law. I created this "owners manual". It was my attempt to give him the most important information on how to brew all grain (in my option, at the time).
This may help you. I have attached it in the MS Word format so you can edit it as you see fit.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/21906664/How%20to%20all%20grain%20brew%205%20gallons%20on%20your%20equipment.docx
When I gave my old all grain system to my father in law. I created this "owners manual". It was my attempt to give him the most important information on how to brew all grain (in my option, at the time).
This may help you. I have attached it in the MS Word format so you can edit it as you see fit.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/21906664/How%20to%20all%20grain%20brew%205%20gallons%20on%20your%20equipment.docx
Don't worry about efficiency too much yet. Get your processes down first. It may take a few batches to dial in your efficiency.
Watch the start of the boil carefully. An 8 gallon pot is on the small side for 5 gallon all grain batches.
Have you done a full boil test on your kitchen stove. Many cannot get the 7 gallons or so that you need to a full boil.
Mash temp, hop schedule etc. depend on what you are trying to brew. As already stated it would be best to work from a tried and true recipe or an ingredient kit from a respected source.
Make sure your grains are properly crushed. And you really should have made a starter for the liquid yeast 18-24 hours in advance. But that is another story and not critical.
Mostly don't fret and enjoy yourself.
Watch the start of the boil carefully. An 8 gallon pot is on the small side for 5 gallon all grain batches.
Have you done a full boil test on your kitchen stove. Many cannot get the 7 gallons or so that you need to a full boil.
Mash temp, hop schedule etc. depend on what you are trying to brew. As already stated it would be best to work from a tried and true recipe or an ingredient kit from a respected source.
Make sure your grains are properly crushed. And you really should have made a starter for the liquid yeast 18-24 hours in advance. But that is another story and not critical.
Mostly don't fret and enjoy yourself.
Make sure you heat your MT to about the same as mash temp. Didnt do that the first time and i couldnt get up to proper mash temp.
+1 for more sparge water than necessary available.
Also keep some boiling water handy to increase mash temp if needed.
+1 for more sparge water than necessary available.
Also keep some boiling water handy to increase mash temp if needed.
skw
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Don't sweat it. It will be beer.
Lesson learnt form my first AG: don't try fly sparking. Do a batch sparge.
Cheers! Have a great time! And Relax, it will come out great! 
Determine your boil off rate before hand. I personally would boil water for 30 minutes and measure the boil off and extrapolate from that. This way you can keep your volumes in line.
I didn't do this when I got a new bigger pot and my expected 1.090 OG ended up being 1.110 OG. Needless to say it was a sipper not a chugger!
I didn't do this when I got a new bigger pot and my expected 1.090 OG ended up being 1.110 OG. Needless to say it was a sipper not a chugger!
Upthewazzu
Well-Known Member
1.) Preheat the mash tun w/ 2-3 gallons of water @ 155°F.
2.) Make sure you know the boil off rate for your kettle. 5 different kettles may have 5 different boil off rates.
3.) When sparging, beat the grain like it insulted your mama, don't hold back (but hold back just enough so as not to splash hot water/grain all over the place). Then let it sit for 10 minutes for grain bed to re-form.
4.) Don't start drinking until the boil. Seriously, don't.
2.) Make sure you know the boil off rate for your kettle. 5 different kettles may have 5 different boil off rates.
3.) When sparging, beat the grain like it insulted your mama, don't hold back (but hold back just enough so as not to splash hot water/grain all over the place). Then let it sit for 10 minutes for grain bed to re-form.
4.) Don't start drinking until the boil. Seriously, don't.
Make sure you can accurately measure your pre-boil volume if you want to measure your efficiency. I usually target a low 70's efficiency in my recipes and with my cooler mash tun set up that's pretty consistent. Listen to the 10/19/09 episode of Brew Strong:
http://thebrewingnetwork.com/shows/564
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brewerJase
Well-Known Member
I would suggest downloading beersmith. Use the free trial and see how you like it. Set up you're equipment profile and beer smith will help with mash and sparge temps. My first all grain brew I hit my mash temps perfectly.
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AndytheBeave
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don't slack on sanitizing your gear!
Also, invest in a propane burner. Electric stoves may struggle
Also, invest in a propane burner. Electric stoves may struggle
skw
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I learned the hard way that braided hose mash tuns have a tendency for channeling.
Fly sparging has the potential for higher efficiency when it's done right. When you do it wrong, you get terrible efficiency. With batch sparging, it's hard to do it wrong and to me the difference in efficiency is not significant enough to make my every try fly sparging again.
For your first AG, don't sweat the details. Use the simple methods that give guaranteed results. There will be plenty of follow-up brews to go crazy with and to tweak all kinds of things.
brewbama
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kombat
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Aerate well. Don't pitch that yeast until you get the wort down to 65°F, and be diligent about keeping it there for at least the first 3-5 days. And next time, calculate the proper amount of yeast (using an online calculator like Mr. Malty) and make a starter to get there.
Flipadelphia
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Yeast starter every time with liquid yeast. Just get used to doing it.
I didn't make a yeast starter. My original gravity was 1.056. Didn't think this beer was big enough for a yeast starter. Proud I hit all my numbers though.
stewby117
Active Member
MR. Malty will definitely help with yeast. A starter is great way to save money on yeast you need approximately 4 billion yeast cells for a 5 gal batch and that is dependent on gravity. Higher gravity higher amount of yeast cells. All that said most liquid yeast are good just may need 2 packs for your fermentation. Definitely us a recipe here from the forum or pick up the book brewing classic styles by Jamil Zainasheff and brew those recipes.
here is one from the book: American Pale Ale
11.3lbs American 2 row
.75lbs of Munich malt
.5lb of wheat malt
Mash at 152
Hops:
Horizon 13%AA .66oz @ 60 minutes (60 minutes starts after hot break)
cascade 6%AA .5 oz @ 10 minutes
centennial 9% AA .5oz. @10 minutes
cascade 6% AA .5oz @ 0 minutes
centennial 9%AA .5oz @0 minutes
Yeast:
white abs California Ale wp001 or Wyeast American ale 1056 ( use mr.malty for # of packets) 2 packets are recommended
OG 1.052
FG 1.013
IBU 40
Color 7 SRM
Alcohol 5.1% abv
Boil 60 min
pre boil volume 7 gals
pre boil gravity 1.044
give this a try light and easy and enjoy!!!!
Flipadelphia
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And you'll be fine enough but you definitely underpitched. Good job on hitting your desired OG.
heckler73
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This might sound crazy but what if I swirled my primary every so often in the first 24 hours to act as a huge yeast starter. I was thinking it's similar in the sense that it get the yeast into suspension every so often so they can multiply....???? Maybe? Or absolutely not?
kombat
Well-Known Member
It won't add anything. Once fermentation gets going, there'll be plenty of convection activity in the fermenter to keep the yeast in suspension and active without you needing to encourage it.
I'm worried because it's been 17 hours and there is only about a 1/4 inch, if that, of Krausen. Should I give it more time? Did I underpitch? The wort is dancing and swirling inside so it appears to be a healthy ferment so far.. any experience with this.? I'm used to thick 3 inch Krausen.
kombat
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I thought we already established that yes, you did indeed underpitch.
If you're already seeing convective activity in the fermenter, then yes, things are rolling along. 17 hours is not long at all. I wouldn't worry unless it'd been 3 days and there were NO bubbles at all on the surface. Yours are just taking a little longer to ramp up because there weren't quite enough of them to begin with.
Be patient! Looks like things are rolling along nicely. Just make sure you do whatever it takes to keep the beer's temperature below 70° F (ideally between 63-65° F, in my opinion). If you let it get too hot, it'll all be for naught.
