First AG brew is mashing!

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treesmcgee

treesmcgee

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First off I'd like to say thanks to all the people who wrote all the information that I used to get this off the ground.

The first AG brew is currently mashing in my mash tun!

More specific information to follow for anyone who's interested.

peace love and brew
tmcg
 
way to go! once your first one is all done, you'll be happy you've done it. but i'm going to go with The Pol on this one, what are you brewing?
 
I'm brewing a simple pale ale recipe I did myself

10 lbs 2-row american pale
2 lbs 20L crystal
4 oz u.s. cascades

mashed at 155 for 1 hr
batch sparged at 178
 
Sweet, so how much wort did you collect? What was the pre-boil sg? Post boil? What was the target? Do you have a fermenting fridge? What yeast are you using? SWEET
 
I can somewhat sense the sarchasm! lol!

Naw but seriously...

I mashed at 1.1 qt/pound
Sparged at 1/4 gallon/pound
to yield a final amount of 7 gallons
which yielded an OG of 1.042~, boiled for 1.5 hours with hop additions at
1 oz at 20 mins, 1 oz at 70 mins, 1/4 oz at 12 minutes till end of boil
estimated/semi-measured OG, post-boil, at 1.065-1.070 when boiled down to 3.5 gallons straight into the fermenter with WL0001 California Ale Yeast (liquid) pitched at 70 degrees fahrenheit
 
You boiled 7 gallons down to 3.5 in 90 minutes? That's quite the boil you had going on there.

1 oz at 20 mins, 1 oz at 70 mins, 1/4 oz at 12 minutes till end of boil
Click to expand...

Also, hop additions are usually measured in minute till the end like you last one there. The 60 minute addition is traditionally the FIRST (bittering) addition made, with an hour to go in the boil.
 
Sweet is the key word here for sure...Good job!

Why only 3.5 gallons though? If you started with 7 and boiled for 60min you'd have about 5 gallons of 1.056.
 
I mistakenly put 7 gallons, it was more like 6.5 or 6 with grain absorbtion. I basically boiled it down to increase the gravity, because we were shootin for a beer about 7%ish abv, my only issue is I didn't have time to make a starter and I didn't aerate so my yeast (I'm assuming atleast) is going to take 24-48 hours to kick in.
 
treesmcgee said:
I mistakenly put 7 gallons, it was more like 6.5 or 6 with grain absorbtion. I basically boiled it down to increase the gravity, because we were shootin for a beer about 7%ish abv, my only issue is I didn't have time to make a starter and I didn't aerate so my yeast (I'm assuming atleast) is going to take 24-48 hours to kick in.
Click to expand...

You should be good to go...Next time just use more base malt to up the og if for no other reason than doing an all grain is a lot of work to yeild only 3.5 gallons. I'd recommend using less crystal too, 2 lbs is a lot! I try to use 1 lbs or less for a 5 gallon batch usually .5lbs-.75lbs +.5 lbs of munich or vienna or carapils is plenty.
 
treesmcgee said:
I mistakenly put 7 gallons, it was more like 6.5 or 6 with grain absorbtion. I basically boiled it down to increase the gravity, because we were shootin for a beer about 7%ish abv, my only issue is I didn't have time to make a starter and I didn't aerate so my yeast (I'm assuming atleast) is going to take 24-48 hours to kick in.
Click to expand...

Well, those are DEFINATELY two things that you should have done, and should do next time. Don't be surprised when you end up with a high FG dur to the high percentage of crystal malt, and the poor yeast conditions.
 
Definitely going to make a starter next time, and I believe that the lack of aeration is the culprit for my previous brews having a higher FG.
 
Question: Is it possible (if indeed the yeast is going to have such a stressful time converting all those sugars) to make a yeast starter now, and even aerate the wort even after I have already pitched a vial of yeast? I wish to fix this problem, however, if it is impossible I'd really like to know.

tmcg
 
treesmcgee said:
Question: Is it possible (if indeed the yeast is going to have such a stressful time converting all those sugars) to make a yeast starter now, and even aerate the wort even after I have already pitched a vial of yeast? I wish to fix this problem, however, if it is impossible I'd really like to know.

tmcg
Click to expand...

No sir, you NEVER want to aerate the wort/beer after fermentation has begun. All you can do now is treat it very nicely, and make sure it is at a STABLE fermentation temp.

You may have some luck letting it warm up a couple degrees during the last stage of fermentation to help the yeast stay awake and finish up the job.
 
Just got home, 30 hrs and no activity, gotta go to work now hopefully later on this evening when I get off of work I'll see some activity. Haven't opened the fermenter to see if theres any small activity but I figured I'd wait.
 
Well! I woke up this morning with the intent to discover if indeed I had any fermentation going on. I opened up the fermenter and took a peek and discovered that indeed there was a nice layer of krausen on the top of the beer, so there is fermentation going on, perhaps not as active as I hoped for due to the poor yeast conditions. My question is, can I scoop out some of the beer to test with my hydrometer because due to the slow fermentation I cant tell from the outside if fermentation has slowed enough to rack it off for bottling.
 
I had one brew take 87 hours to begin to ferment... it turned out great, just freaked me a little.
 
treesmcgee said:
Well! I woke up this morning with the intent to discover if indeed I had any fermentation going on. I opened up the fermenter and took a peek and discovered that indeed there was a nice layer of krausen on the top of the beer, so there is fermentation going on, perhaps not as active as I hoped for due to the poor yeast conditions. My question is, can I scoop out some of the beer to test with my hydrometer because due to the slow fermentation I cant tell from the outside if fermentation has slowed enough to rack it off for bottling.
Click to expand...

dont touch it yet! Every time you open the fermenter its a risk of contamination ...let it sit and when the krauzen receeds then take a hydro reading. Then take one a few days later and if the numbers match then its done. What do you hope to gain by taking one this soon?
 
Oh I'm definitely not going to take a reading now, I meant when I get to the point where I believe there isn't going to be anymore active fermentation, which should be in a few days based on the yeast and the OG. I was just making the statement questioning how most people do their hydro readings, do you drop the hydrometer into the bucket or do you scoop out some of the beer and put it in a graduated cylinder?
 
Scoop it! I usually use a sanitized measuring cup and pour the sample into the hydro flask. Even if the hydrometer is sanitized it'll be hard to actually read what your gravity is if it's just floating in the bucket. And make sure you take enough to taste a sample, and DO NOT put any of your sample back in the bucket!
 
Yeah I figured, on the same logic, that scooping some of the beer into the hydrometer flask would be the best option. I'll be checking it in a couple of days for the end of fermentation, which should be about right, given a lag time in the ferment start of about 24-36 hrs. Boy the excitement is really building!!!!!:mug:
 
I would highly reccomend getting an FV with a tap fitted about 1" or so from the bottom to fill a trial jar and test (and taste) the beer. Far safer than dipping things into the wort. Sure, you may lose 200ml doing this but you get to drink it to test anyway and no need for any sanitization.
 
Yeah I was thinking the same thing, making it easier to rack off for bottling and it also makes it easier, as you said, to sample the beer to control the fermentation process as closely as possible.
 

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