First Batch All Grain/First Batch Ever

So I finally decided to take the plunge into brewing and I chose AG for the method. I have purchased and/or built all the equipment I think I should need to get started. I also came up with a recipe for my first batch.

Equipment:
10 Gallon Cylinder Cooler Mash Tun Conversion
30Qt SS Turkey Fryer (wish I had gotten bigger)
6.5 & 5 Gal. Glass Carboys
2L Flask w/ Stirplate
Mini Fridge w/ Temp Controller
Misc. Other Gadgets and Doodads

Recipe: Citrus Forward IIPA
5.5 Gal/Batch Sparge
10 Days Primary
10 Days Secondary
Last Week Dry Hop
Keg Condition 1 week
Force Carb. and enjoy
79.4 IBU's
9.1 ABV assuming 75% Efficiency
(Still learning BeerSmith)

Grains:
2 row pale - 15#
Carapils - 1.5#
Crystal40 - 1.5#

Boil Schedule:
60 Min
Chinook .75 oz.
Citra .75 oz.
Fermcap to compensate for small Pot

30 Min
Chinook .5 oz.
Citra .5 oz
Amarillo .5 oz

15 Min
Amarillo .5 oz.
Citra .5 oz
1 Tsp Irish Moss

Yeast:
Wyeast 1056 w/ 2 L Starter on Stirplate

Dryhop
Amarillo 1 oz.
Citra 1 oz

So now here's my quetions:
1. I want to Brew on Monday, if I make a starter w/ stirplate and some yeast nutrient early Sunday afternoon will it be ready for brewday the next afternoon?

2. Please Critique my recipe. Does this look like the hoppy citrus forward IIPA I am hoping for?

3. Last is water PH. This is the last frontier I am trying to grasp. Any suggestions on my water would be great. I called the water company and this is what info they gave me:
calcium 6.27
magnesium 5.96
sulfate 1.64
sodium 14.5
chlorine 2.2
hardness 47.2
alkalinity 59.6
ph 7.86

Thanks, sorry for the long post. Super excited and trying to get everything right.:rockin:

pretty ambitious for a first batch.

I think the recipe looks good.

I usually do my starters either 24 hours before using them and pitch the whole thing or start it a week ahead of time, let it go for a a few days then chill for a day or two before brew night so I can decant before pitching. Personally I prefer the 24 hours before method and pitch the whole thing.

I am not a water expert but I am always concerned about chlorine. Not sure if 2.2 is high or not. I usually use some campden in my water (1 pill per 20G) to negate the chlorine. you could also boil before using or run through a filter. The campden route works ok but does add some additional sulfates. I plan to get a filter at some point.

It sounds like you have prepared well and done your homework so I suspect things will work out fine. Don't be disappointed if something is a bit off or you run into some issues. Most mistakes still result in beer.

One thought... what are you doing about controlling the fermentation temperature. A beer that high in gravity will tend to create a good bit of heat during fermentation and wind up a bit boozy tasting if the temp is not fairly well controlled.

I have a fridge with a temp controller. Using a fermometer to hopefully monitor and adjust my temps as needed

Hey man,
Congrats on the new system, and chutspah to start w/all grain right outta the gate. After brewing for ~3 years, I recently completed my 25-gal all electric system, and loving it.
Recipe looks good for what you're going for to me.
One suggestion is on your "10 days primary/10 days secondary" thing. This is a "safe" method, and will work fine. But if you don't mind taking a few SG readings, you can likely drop your fermentation times down, especially with an IPA.
After around 5-6 days in primary, take a gravity reading each day. If it doesn't change for 2-3 days (or if you're close to target FG) you can:

1. transfer to secondary. I noted many advanced brewers don't bother racking to secondary unless they're adding adjuncts, or doing a long-term lager. I adopted their attitude a couple years ago...beer still good.
2. leave in same vessel and cold crash it to help clarify for around 3-5 days at ~36-38F
3. keg it, force-carbonate it, drink it! (though better after 3-5 days in keg)
4. bottle it, if you're not into kegging yet.
IPA's seem to be very forgiving. I've made an IPA and fermented for 6 days, kegged it, drank it 3 days later, and it was damn good.

If you are using a WyYeast Smakpak, 18 hours on the stirplate should be fine.
If you're using dry yeast, don't do a starter - just hydrate and dump it in when the wort temp is around 68-70. (or just dump it in, let it sit on top for 15-20 minutes, then shake and aerate.
For grins, try a cheap packet of S-05 dry yeast, for IPA's I couldn't tell the difference in flavor between it and the Wyeast. We make 14-18 gallon batches now, and split batches into separate carboys and use different yeast. We couldn't tell the difference between Wyeast and S-05. I've come to like that yeast for IPA's and other ales where the primary flavor is from hops, and/or strong malts. Its cheap, easy, gives consistent results.

That water is fine for an IPA, just draw your total water needed the night before and let it sit for a few hours so the chlorine evaporates. I have well water so don't know if their claim of "chlorine" could mean it is actually "chloramine"? Maybe someone else knows. Chloramine won't evaporate. you need to draw the water the night before, add a campden tablet to ensure that converts to chlorine and evaporates.

Hope this helps.
Cheers

Interesting thoughts on the yeast for sure.

As far as the secondary, I was mainly doing this for the dry hop portion and for clarity. Also debating adding a small amount of oak chips. I suppose I could do all of this as well in the primary. Do you think the irish moss will be enough for clarity or should I add some finings at some point?

And since I don't know if the water has chlorine or chloramine, should I just do the Campden Tablet to be safe?

ahh, didn't catch that on the secondary...yea cool. Oak chips are easy to overdo, so go easy. maybe add just a few chips. I use irish moss, never finings, and get clear beer...unless I screw something else up.
Campden tabs safe, aye.

sounds like it will be a fantastic first beer.. let us know how it turns out

Thanks for the input. I will definitely let you guys know how it goes throughout the brew process, as well as the final results.

Super excited, just got back from brewfest at the rogue brewery in newport and looking froward to doing my own beer at home when I get back.

Thanks for the help and would love to hear any last minute feedback before I get back.

i think you should do some more late hop additions between 5 mins and flame out.

looks good though! you must have been lurking this site for a while to be so knowledgable prior to doing your first batch. i wish you the best of luck.

I was also considering the same. We'll see how my how my hop selection is at the local HBS is.

The guy at the LHBS said the water would be fine if I just let it set out overnight. No need for Campden tablets. He said I may want to add some Gypsum though. What do you guys think? I have 12 Gallons out now, figue 1 - 2 tsp if any?

Also decided to go with the dry yeast. I have 2 11.5 g packs. With the 07/24/11 production date MrMalty says to use both. Sounds good?

Thanks again for all the input!

In your equipment list you didn't mention a chiller of any kind? Did you just leave it out or are you using the submersion method? If not that would be the next thing to get. Good luck!

+1 on the chiller. The less expensive immersion chillers work OK...but once you can afford a Counter-Flow chiller, you'll be amazed at how much faster they cool.
I'm in Florida, so running my 75F tap water gets me from 212 to ~95 fairly quickly. Then I use a cheap pump to pump ice water through it to get from there down to pitching temp. I finally have two march pumps and a counter-flow chiller now, and the temperature plummets far quicker with that baby, especially for 13-18 gal batches.

On the Gypsum, sounds like reasonable advice, just don't over-do it. Check this link:
http://www.howtobrew.com/section3/chapter15-4.html

It's a great overview of water profiles, and will tell you how much to add.

Yeah I have an immersion chiller as well as an ice bath planned for now. Counterflow down the line maybe.

About 30 mins into the boil now amd my preboil gravity only showed 1.05. Isnt this rather low? I am thinking I got a rather lousy efficiency for some reason. Any suggestions?

Finished My batch up with a OG of 1.68. According to BeerSmith calculations this was only 55% Efficiency (is this correct). Fail. I am thinking this was possibly partially due to a bad grind at the LHBS. Not fine enough? I thought it might have been kinda course after I ground it and failed to ask for advice...

Also, it seemed that there may have been too much water in the mash? I was able to drain almost 4 gallons off of the 18 lbs of grain when I started with (I thought) 5.5 Gallons. I did add a quart or two to bring my Mash temp down a bit.

Mashed for 1 hour at 153. Drained fast (25 mins) Sparged at 168 and let sit for 15 mins and drained again.

Its in the ferm fridge now and I'm sure it will still be a good first beer. Just hoping for some inspiration and tips.

Thanks again.

Save your money and use Safale US-05 yeast. It's the same strain as WY1056 or WL001, "chico" strain. Plus you wont need to make a starter, although you still can. Just hydrate it in warm water 15 minutes before pitching or so.

I harvest my chico yeasts since they're so versatile for APA's, IPA's, etc. You can get clean or estery flavors depending on how low or high you ferment.

Actually I did end up using the Safale 05. Thanks for the suggestion though. Also decided to add .5 oz Citra at 0 mins.

Anyone have any ideas about my efficiency?

Was your total volume of beer more than it was supposed to be or right on? Crush is a huge factor, but if you diluted and also didn't absorb or boil-off as much liquid, you ended up with a thinner beer that way...could be a combination of both, though. More details on water volumes throughout the process would help.

My Volume turned out to be 6.25 preboil and I boiled for 60 mins. I didnt check Post boil volume but assume about 1 Gallon would evaporate in that time frame.

As I posted earlier The Preboil Volume was only 1.05. This alone seemed rather low to me so I can only assume it was something to do with my mash process. I think I will try a finer grind next time and maybe a 75 min mash and see how that turns out.

I also did not do a mash out, just drained the 153 wort. Would a mash out to bring the temp up for the last 15 mins really make that huge a diff?

so you batch sparged? I find that when I batch sparge I get low effeciency if I don't stir for a few minutes after adding batch water.

ardyexfor said:

I also did not do a mash out, just drained the 153 wort. Would a mash out to bring the temp up for the last 15 mins really make that huge a diff?

Click to expand...

I don't think so. Mashout is not a huge deal for barge-sparge method. You said you sparged at 168 which should've gotten you some decent gravity points.

So my guess is the low efficiency is due to either the crush or possibly other issues such as your MLT design, or lack of stirring enough, or who knows. A lot of people say the crush is important and I definitely agree with them, but there are definitely other factors at play when it comes to efficiency.

But then again I'm fairly new at this as well. I have about 15 AG batches under my belt and my eff has always been right at about 70-75% and I'm satisfied with that.

My MLT is an igloo cooler design w/ ball lock. I have a few ideas to improve things for next round.

Again this was my first beer ever. It will still be a fairly big beer 7-8%. I think it will probably turn out awesome and the next time I brew it probably even better. Im excited to tweak things and start a new batch soon!

We did extract, then partial grain, then one of my brew buddies bought an "Irish Oatmeal Ale" (Yaeh I said Ale), All Grain. That was 3 years ago. We never went back. It was fairly easy and I think all grain has a nice "grainyness" to it. Everything looks good. Just hit your planned OG regardless of volume. And Sanitize!Sanitize!Sanitize!

Also we never bottled and kegged from the start

So it's been a week and 2 days. Active signs of fermentation were done at about 6 days. I had a healthy looking fermentation with krausen 4 - 5" thick and yeasties running rampant.

The beer is still cloudy in appearance. Should I start taking hydro samples now to make sure fermentation is done and transfer to secondary? Or, give it another week (14 total days) to clear up in primary first?

Also would a cold crash be good before transfering to primary AND before kegging? Or just once before kegging?

sounds like a good, typical fermentation. Two methods I've used successfully:
- lazy method. let it sit in primary for 2 weeks, crank it down to ~36F for 1 week, keg it.
- curious method. Take one sample per day. If you get the same reading 3 days in a row, your fermentation on an ale is done. transfer to secondary, then cold crash for 5-7 days.

No need for two cold crashes. Just do the best you can when transferring from primary to secodary. Then cold crash in the secondary. Then keg it ( or bottle if thats what you do).
Cheers

If you want it clear you can rack to secondary now, I'd leave it in there for a week or so, then crash it for 48 hours or longer.

My usual method is 3wks in primary, cold crash as long as I can stand it (24-48 hours) and then keg/bottle. I don't care about clarity much, though. I like drinking my beer!

I think leaving it in the fermentation temp zone for 3 weeks is best though unless it's a wit.

Im mainly going to secondary for dry hop and 2 oz oak cubes for a week. I took a hydro sample that read 1.010 which I was surprised by since I was expecting 1.016 for fg. I decided to callibrate my hydro and it appears to show under by .04.

This brings me to two conclusions: First my OG and thus efficiency was better than I thought. Also my Fg would be ~1.04.

So since I have hit my FG should I go ahead with secondary or go ahead and let it sit in the primary for the originally planned two weeks? Not trying to sound impatient but with IPA's it's better fresher, right?

BTW, I drank the sample and it was delicious even flat and uncarbonated!

Sorry thats ~1.014 for FG.

Also a slight off smell coming from inside the carboy (sulfer, butt and hops) after I took out the blow off tube. It looks well and tastes well though. Anything to be concerned about here?

Ahhh, to reminice on the worries I had on my maiden voyage. This beer was literally one of THE best IPA's I ever had. I have since dialed my system into a consistent 70-75% efficiency and grown acustom to the many different smells of fermentation. I worried and stressed so much about this beer turning out, that's how I knew I was hooked already. RDWHAHB indeed.