3rd Brew day First All Grain

I brewed up my first all grain batch yesterday. I wound up with 5.5 gallons of 1.060G Wort and 80.6% efficiency. I guess I got a pretty aggressive grain grind from my LHBS.

This was an EdWorts Hause Pale Ale. I pretty much followed the recipe exactly except that I BIAB in a bag lined seafood strainer. It actually worked very well. I could even remove the handle on the strainer, line it with my bag and put the handle back on. That held the bag in place on 2 sides without needing clips.

Below was my process.

Grain Bill
8 lbs. 2-Row Pale Malt
2 lbs. Vienna Malt
0.5 lb. Crystal 10L Malt

I am using a 7.5 gallon turkey fryer.

1. I measured 5 gallons of water into the pot and brought it up to around 160 with my paint strainer lined seafood strainer in it.

2. I then slowly stirred in my grain with the flame on low. The temp dropped to right around 150F

3. I ran the gas flame on low for about 5 minutes until it hit 152F, then turned it off and covered the pot for an hour.

4. I stirred the grain 3 times and had to run the flame for a couple of minutes about halfway through. It only had a 2-3 degree swing the entire mash period. With the strainer basket in I only had about 1.5 inches from the top. With that much volume covered it held temp very well

5. I then lifted the strainer basket out and let it drain into the boil kettle for about 5 minutes propped up on the lip of the pot. I also pushed down on the bag with my spoon a couple of times

6. I pre heated 1.5 gallons of water on my stove in a canning pot my wife had to 180F during the Mash and sat the grain bag in that for 10 minutes while I heated the wort to 170F.

7. I then poured the smaller kettle into my big one. That gave me about 6.5 gallons for my boil.

8. When the temp of the wort hit 170 I tea bagged the grain bag out of the strainer a few times, twisted it a few times, let it drain and started the boil. I sat the bag in my other pot and poured any liquid that collected into the pot

9. I took a gravity reading before the boil and it was dead on 1.050 at 80F after cooling off a little

10. I cooled the wort by placing my covered brew pot in a square igloo cooler with the garden hose stuck in the cooler turned on so it overflows onto my deck. It cooled my wort down to 65 in about 45 minutes. I dumped it into my bucket, stirred it with a star saned slotted spoon hard enough to raise up a bunch of bubbles and pitched dry Safale O4

The boil went very well. My Hop pellets were a little stronger than Ed Worts but I still kept the same schedule anyway.

My last batch was the extract version of this with leaf hops. This hydro sample tasted a bit more bitter than the other one but still very good.

I was surprised my gravity was so high.

Questions

Next time should go with a smaller grain bill or add some water to the finished Wort and have more beer?

I am also using Safale 04 because the LHBS didn't have Nottingham or 05.

I am about a week away from getting the extract batch bottle carbed up.

Other than a wort chiller anyone see any improvements I can make in my process?

I am really not worried about contamination in 45 minutes. I don't even have to take the lid off my pot to stir. It sort of floats and I can stir it by shaking the handles back and forth.

What will the higher OG do to the taste of my finished beer?

Thanks for the forum. I never could have done this without spending hours learning how on these forums.

what was your target og? bjcp states american pale ale should be 1.056 – 1.075 so you're actually a little low by their standards. i like your mash method, though, i don't see any problems with it, (though i'm a nube to all-grain, too).

BJCP is 1.045 – 1.060 for pale ale and 1.056 – 1.075 for an IPA.

I do BIAB. I batch sparge as you have. However, I've now gotten to the point where I do not need to heat the pot during either the mash or sparge. I hit my target mash and sparge temps using the equivalent of the Greenbay rackers site (you can google it. you can also google info to calculate them yourself). I use a stainless steel pot with a glass lid and I don't lose much temp during the mash, covering it and stirring maybe 4 times for a 60 minute mash.

As far as taste for the higher gravity beer... it will taste different but not necessarily bad. The proportions of your grain bill are still the same. May have a stronger flavor and will definitely have higher alcohol content.

As far as why your volume was low... what was your final volume? Just looking at your technique, did you take into account that the average loss of mash water to the grains is 0.2 quarts/pound of grain. This may account for your higher than expected OG. I have done different measurements and for my set-up it is definitely about 0.2.

Also, I do not force any water out of the bag. I drip by hand back into the pot only. And believe me, I can't keep it there for all that long.

I wouldn't worry too much about changing your grain bills yet. Get a consistent efficiency average before you go changing too many things. A little extra alcohol is not going to impact the overall drinkability or profile of the beer. Looks to me like you did a great job. This seems very simple I may have to look into a BIAB system as maybe then I could be more flexible in some things. Although maybe I ought to go buy a bigger cooler. Eventually I am going to go broke because of this hobby.

I wouldn't worry about adding water to your beer. Do you really want to water down your beer? This can cause the mouth feel to be way off. Rarely do I add water to a beer once it has been boiled. The only times I do this is if I end up with less than 5 gallons in my primary fermenter. I just don't like the thought of an entire all grain brew day giving me less than 5 gallons. Just my own obsessive problems though not necessarily something all brewers should live by.

Looking more at your numbers...

You were at 1.050 with your wort after sparging and mixing with the mash wort. Is that right?

If your goal was 1.050 you should be less than 1.050 when you start your boil because you will lose plenty of water from your boil and end up with higher gravity based on the evaporation. The amount depends entirely on your system. So, again, maybe the volume loss to grains could account for the OG. I don't have my calculator here but you would have lost up to 2 gallons (i think it's 0.2 gallons, not quarts, but again, I don't have my calculator with me) of water to the grains. But that still does not explain how you ended up with 5.5 gallons. Was the goal 5.5???

ayoungrad said:

Looking more at your numbers...

You were at 1.050 with your wort after sparging and mixing with the mash wort. Is that right?

If your goal was 1.050 you should be less than 1.050 when you start your boil because you will lose plenty of water from your boil and end up with higher gravity based on the evaporation. The amount depends entirely on your system. So, again, maybe the volume loss to grains could account for the OG. I don't have my calculator here but you would have lost up to 2 gallons (i think it's 0.2 gallons, not quarts, but again, I don't have my calculator with me) of water to the grains. But that still does not explain how you ended up with 5.5 gallons. Was the goal 5.5???

Click to expand...

I was at 1.050 right before I started the boil. I only used 6.5 gallons in my entire process. I ended up with at least 5 gallons of wort into the fermenter after the boil, probably closer to 5.5. My kettle is only marked up to 4 gallons so I am relying on an eyeball estimate that isn't precise.(just below the B in Bayou is 5 gallons etc) I did measure the start volume so I know its pretty accurate.

It was an EdWort' Hause Pale Ale

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f66/bee-cave-brewery-haus-pale-ale-31793/

Original Gravity: 1.051
Final Gravity: 1.011

This was my 3rd brew and my second one was the extract version of the same beer. I hit the gravity dead on for it though I mistakenly doubled the Crystal 10. Should be an interesting comparison. That beer will be 3 wk bottle conditioned March 4.

bryanjints said:

I wouldn't worry too much about changing your grain bills yet. Get a consistent efficiency average before you go changing too many things. A little extra alcohol is not going to impact the overall drinkability or profile of the beer. Looks to me like you did a great job. This seems very simple I may have to look into a BIAB system as maybe then I could be more flexible in some things. Although maybe I ought to go buy a bigger cooler. Eventually I am going to go broke because of this hobby.

I wouldn't worry about adding water to your beer. Do you really want to water down your beer? This can cause the mouth feel to be way off. Rarely do I add water to a beer once it has been boiled. The only times I do this is if I end up with less than 5 gallons in my primary fermenter. I just don't like the thought of an entire all grain brew day giving me less than 5 gallons. Just my own obsessive problems though not necessarily something all brewers should live by.

Click to expand...

Thanks.

Starting with 6.5 gallons worked well the way I did it. I wouldn't water down the beer ever. If I keep getting these numbers I might use a smaller grain bill.

I have had the turkey fryer with all the pots for years. They were a Christmas present 10 years ago and were still in the box. I never used it to fry a turkey. Best part is it doesn't have the safety cut off switch.

jerichobill said:

what was your target og? bjcp states american pale ale should be 1.056 – 1.075 so you're actually a little low by their standards. i like your mash method, though, i don't see any problems with it, (though i'm a nube to all-grain, too).

Click to expand...

Thanks. I believe it will be tasty beer.

Well I bottled this on 3/5. I used regular cane sugar. After reading on the forum I measured about 2/3 of a cup, boiled it up and added it to my bottling bucket. I know it is early but i cracked open the first one last night. I chilled it for about an hour and a half. It seemed over carbed. It didn't gush out of the bottle but I had a lot of head on the pour. 2/3 of the glass initially. The beer is still very cloudy. Very little yeast has dropped to the bottom.

It also tasted sweeter than the extract version I did before this one and a lot hoppier. I think the sweetness is the bottling sugar. The hoppiness is probably due to a larger boil volume.

My initial thought is to give it a couple more weeks at 70 degrees then fridge it. I could move some to the fridge now. It has more than enough carbonation but I don't care for the sweetness. Guess will just go get a home brew.