First time all grain attempt

Let me state that i am not trying to be style correct. My personal taste is toward fuller bodied beer but that does not mean i am not open to suggestions or corrections. Also this is my first time using beersmith so if something looks odd it's because i am still leaning the program

Type: All Grain Date: 6/24/2012
Batch Size (fermenter): 5.00 gal Brewer: Glynn Brown
Boil Size: 6.52 gal Asst Brewer:
Boil Time: 60 min Equipment: Pot and Cooler ( 5 Gal/19 L) - All Grain
End of Boil Volume 5.98 gal Brewhouse Efficiency: 72.00 %
Final Bottling Volume: 4.60 gal Est Mash Efficiency 82.8 %
Fermentation: Ale, Two Stage Taste Rating(out of 50): 30.0
Taste Notes:
Ingredients


Ingredients
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
10 lbs Rahr 2 row pale (3.0 SRM) Grain 1 75.0 %
1 lbs Cargill Caramel - 60L (60.0 SRM) Grain 2 12.5 %
1 lbs Vienna Malt (3.5 SRM) Grain 3 8.3 %
8.0 oz Briss Cara-Pils (2.0 SRM) Grain 4 4.2 %
0.25 oz Chinook [13.00 %] - First Wort 60.0 min Hop 5 10.5 IBUs
0.75 oz Centennial [10.80 %] - Boil 30.0 min Hop 6 18.2 IBUs
1.00 Items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 15.0 mins) Fining 7 -
1.00 oz Cascade [9.10 %] - Boil 15.0 min Hop 8 13.2 IBUs
1.00 oz Centennial [10.80 %] - Boil 10.0 min Hop 9 11.5 IBUs
1.00 oz Cascade [9.10 %] - Boil 5.0 min Hop 10 5.3 IBUs
1.00 oz Cascade [9.10 %] - Aroma Steep 0.0 min Hop 11 0.0 IBUs
1.0 pkg Wyeast American Ale II (Wyeast Labs #1272) [124.21 ml] Yeast 12 -
2.00 oz Centennial [10.80 %] - Dry Hop 0.0 Days Hop 13 0.0 IBUs
1.00 oz Cascade [9.10 %] - Dry Hop 0.0 Days Hop 14 0.0 IBUs

Beer Profile

Est Original Gravity: 1.059 SG Measured Original Gravity: 1.056 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.016 SG Measured Final Gravity: 1.012 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 5.7 % Actual Alcohol by Vol: 5.8 %
Bitterness: 48.7 IBUs Calories: 151.6 kcal/12oz
Est Color: 8.5 SRM
Mash Profile

Mash Name: Single Infusion, Full Body, Batch Sparge Total Grain Weight: 12 lbs 8.0 oz
Sparge Water: 4.09 gal Grain Temperature: 72.0 F
Sparge Temperature: 168.0 F Tun Temperature: 72.0 F
Adjust Temp for Equipment: FALSE Mash PH: 5.20

Mash Steps
Name Description Step Temperature Step Time
Mash In Add 16.63 qt of water at 166.4 F 155.0 F 60 min

Sparge Step: Batch sparge with 2 steps (Drain mash tun, , 4.09gal) of 168.0 F water
Mash Notes: Simple single infusion mash for use with most modern well modified grains (about 95% of the time).

Looks solid to me. Personally, I'd back the crystal/cara type malts back to under 10%, but that's me. If you like a bit more body and caramel malt flavor in your beer, keep it as is. Either way ya go, looks like a solid brew.

ok i dropped the 60 l to 1 lb which is 8.7%

That's what I'd do, but like I said, if you like a bit more body, having it at 12% surely won't hurt anything.

At the moment i am looking for a starting point and once i get this base recipe made and tasted. I'll tweak

Well, if you like more body you could always mash at a higher temp too.

Is that profile from Beersmith? Just curious. There is a pretty big discrepancy between your end of boil and final bottling volume. Maybe that's because of all the hops in boil and dry hopping. Not sure if those are the default settings or not but before you get going figure out a way to accurately measure what is in your boil kettle and carboys. That way you can more efficiently determine your boil off rate and how much liquid you are loosing. You can better formulate your recipes that way.

@cmybeer

Ya i just downloaded beersmith's trial version. i am still learning it. i want something that would help me out as a guideline with mashing and sparging volumes. I plan on a starting boil of 6.5 gal and and an ending of about 5-5.5 gal. I have all my boil kettle and primary carboy marked off. but there is definitely something off with this

Boil Size: 6.52 gal
Boil Time: 60 min
End of Boil Volume 5.98 gal
Final Bottling Volume: 4.60

Glynn said:

@cmybeer

Ya i just downloaded beersmith's trial version. i am still learning it. i want something that would help me out as a guideline with mashing and sparging volumes. I plan on a starting boil of 6.5 gal and and an ending of about 5-5.5 gal. I have all my boil kettle and primary carboy marked off. but there is definitely something off with this

Boil Size: 6.52 gal
Boil Time: 60 min
End of Boil Volume 5.98 gal
Final Bottling Volume: 4.60

Click to expand...

In your equipment profile check the cooling loss and trub loss as well as mash tun dead space. You can usually back track from batch size and see where BeerSmith is taking volume away through the process. Once you get that done, your recipes will be more accurate.

I am a big fan of malty beers and with the hop flavor profile I am thinking you are going to have a big hop flavor. I am thinking if you dropped 1 to 1.5 lbs of base malt and added the balance in Crystal 20 and/or 30, you could give just a little more malt character that may give some balance to the beer's flavor!

Just thinking out loud

You need to set up an equipment profile tailored to your stuff. For example, you picked a 5 gal pot (is that what you have?) but it has a pre-boil vol. of over 6 gals. Not possible. You will either use a 5 gal pot (and start the boil with less than 5 gals) then top off with water...or you are using a bigger pot and doing a full boil.

"IF" you are using an 8-10 gal (or larger) pot and start the boil off with 6.52 gals, post-boil after cooling shrinkage and trub loss you will get about 5-5.25 gals into the fermenter as a general estimate.

Your ingredient recipe looks good to me.

EDIT: I just double checked BS2 as I haven't used the "pot and cooler" combo one...it does say pot 7-9 gals. So, that just leaves a big discrepancy between your pre-boil vol, post boil and bottling volume. Adjust the boil off rate to closer to 1 gal/hour or do a test in your pot boiling water for an hour to see exactly how much your equipment boils off. I don't see starting with 6.52 gals and after an hour still having 5.98 gals before cooling loss and trub loss.

That is a pretty high estimated mash efficiency that it defaults to. Using a cooler and batch sparging, 70-75% is pretty common although everyone's system is different and higher is definitely possible. If you are like me and insistent on being as close as possible to OG numbers, make sure to take a pre-boil gravity reading and have some DME on hand to use to compensate if you have a lower than expected mash efficiency.

@strambo

for some reason my only options for pot size is 5 or 10 most like due to mine being a trial version