Completed 1st AG batch - process critique

Hey everyone! I completed my first AG brew day two weeks ago and I think everything went really well. The beer has been fermenting away for the last tow weeks, and I plan on bottling next weekend. Here's a link to the mash process I used to make sure the desired mash temperature was reached.

I decided to go with a SMASH recipe, which I will be doing two more times over the next month. The first reason for the duplication is to make sure I can consistently hit my efficiency numbers, but also I want to have a side-by-side comparison of the effect of different mash temperatures. The first batch was mashed at 154*, the second and third will be done at 158* and 150*.

Equipment:
10 gallon MLT with false bottom
7 gallon kettle on propane burner for boil

Here's the recipe:
10 lbs Maris Otter
3 oz Amarillo Hops (1 @ 60min, 1 @ 15min, 1 @ flame out)
White Labs WLP005 British Ale yeast w/starter (2 cups water, .5 cup Amber DME prepared 2 days prior)

The process:
Target Mash Ratio: 1.4qts/lb = 14qts, or 3.5 gallons
Target Mash Temp - 154*

Calculated Strike Temp to be 166.29* (according to one of the online calculators) based on tun and grain temp. Used 168* to be safe.
Heat 4 gallons of water to Strike Temp
Add 2 - 2.5 gallons of Strike Water to Tun (I screwed up here and only added 1 gallon, but no harm done)
Add grains slowly, constantly stirring
Continue stirring, adding Strike Water to reach 154* (ended up using 15qts for a ration of 1.5qts/lb)
Mash for 60min, stirring and taking temperature readings every 20 min. - Temp at the end of mash was 152.2*
During mash, heat 4 gallons of water to 175* for sparge
Vorlauf, and drain first runnings into kettle
Add 2 gallons of sparge water, stir, and sit for 10 min.
Vorlauf, and drain second runnings
Add remaining sparge water, stir, sit for 10 min.
Vorlauf, and drain to reach pre-boil volume of 6 gallons (would prefer 6.5, but even 6 is pushing the limits of a 7 gallon kettle)
Pre-boil gravity: 1.049 @ 70*
Bring wort to boil, boil for 60 min, adding hops at above intervals
Cool wort in ice bath to 70*, transfer to carboy
Collected 4.5 gallons of wort, added .5 gallons to achieve 5 gallons total
OG: 1.057 @ 70*
Aerated using "shake and pray" method (my next purchase is an o2 kit)
Pitched entire starter slurry, fermented in swamp cooler

The first 24 hours of fermentation was somewhere between 75* and 80*, but I was able to bring that down to 70* using more ice. There are small hints of diacetyl, but not too bad. Hopefully some of it will mellow with age. Any thoughts on this are much appreciated. Also, if I'm calculating correctly I think I'm right at 75% efficiency, which I think is great for the first time.

Thanks!

that all looks pretty good! the only issues i'd mention are as follows:

-once you have liquid in the kettle you can start heating it. no use in trying to bring 6 gallons all to a boil at once. not sure if you turned on the heat after first runnings or waited, but there's time to be saved there.
-you could probably get away with a single sparge. it may drop your efficiency a bit but will also save you some time during the day. totally ok to keep 2 sparges tho.
-did you boil the top up water before adding it (or was it bottled water)?
-when possible you should let the yeast settle, decant all the wretched beer full of diacityl and such and pour in only the yeast. the "beer" you made in the starter is pretty hammered.
-temp control on the fermentation side will help a LOT!

slakwhere said:

that all looks pretty good! the only issues i'd mention are as follows:

-once you have liquid in the kettle you can start heating it. no use in trying to bring 6 gallons all to a boil at once. not sure if you turned on the heat after first runnings or waited, but there's time to be saved there.

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Thanks for the response!

That's a good idea on heating the first runnings while sparging, I'll definitely do that next time!

-you could probably get away with a single sparge. it may drop your efficiency a bit but will also save you some time during the day. totally ok to keep 2 sparges tho.

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I think I'll stick with two sparges for now, until I feel I have the whole process down, then I'll start trying other methods.

-did you boil the top up water before adding it (or was it bottled water)?

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The top up water was bottled water, actually all of the water was bottled water. I haven't gotten the water report from my county yet, so I'm a little afraid of using tap just yet. That's definitely a future venture, though.

-when possible you should let the yeast settle, decant all the wretched beer full of diacityl and such and pour in only the yeast. the "beer" you made in the starter is pretty hammered.

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The only reason I didn't let the yeast settle and decant is I wanted to pitch the yeast while it was active. I've read from others that they have good results with this. Although, for a pale ale of this nature, there probably will be a small effect on the taste of the beer. I think I will decant on the next two batches.

-temp control on the fermentation side will help a LOT!

Click to expand...

Yeah, I just figured out the swamp cooler method. I'll be using that from now on. At least until I have the room for a freezer in the garage.