Sigh...another first AG brew sob story

Short Version: Today I set out to brew my first AG batch of beer...and I did just that. I successfully mashed milled grain into sweet wort, and I successfully sparged said mash into more sweet wort. I collected all of this wort and managed to boil it with plenty of wonderfully smelling hops. The wort has made it into my carboy and is waiting for a pitch of healthy WLP001 from the starter I made two nights ago.

Whole Story: Today I set out to brew my frist AG batch of beer...and I barely did just that. I preheated my mash cooler with a kettle of hot water, but I still wound up 4 degrees short on my target mash temp (target=154, measured=150). I attempted to bring up the temperature with couple of kettles of hot water, but only managed another degree. I decided that there wasn't anything else to attempt right then, and that since I was still within conversion temp that I would just deal with it. After 45mins I added some 180 degree water to bring my temps up to mash out temperature of 165, and missed it by about 5 degrees. I vorlaufed and wound up with some nice clear wort, and started collecting it in my keggle. I wasn't keeping track of time during run off, but I know I didn't run off slow enough (having no frame of reference for how long it would take to run off). I then added my 175 degree sparge water in an attempt to do my final rest at 165, and again missed that. After my 15min rest, I vorlaufed and ran off (again, probably too fast but slower than before). I was aiming for 7.5 gallons of 1.050 wort, and some how ended up with 8.5 gallons of 1.043 wort. Needless to say I was very bummed.

Bummed, but not out, I decided to check with beersmith and saw that if I just boiled longer I could achieve my desired wort level and even get sort of close to my gravity. I decide to extend my boil out to 80mins. The boil went really well, nailed all of my hop additions (i had to find something positive to pat myself on the back for), threw my new IC into the kettle, and even allowed for a 10min 'whirlpool.' Now, my previous test boil on my new keggle showed me a 23% boil off rate. I decided that I could slow down the boil a little bit and account for a slower boil off rate, and I ended up with a 10% rate today...my boil yielded me 7.5(ish) gallons of 1.052 wort! FML! I was chilling the wort as I realized all of this, and I hastily tossed in a couple pounds of LDME in an attempt to bring up my gravity. I was able to get a 1.063 out of an expected 1.073. I was so relieved that I might have saved this brew, I started racking into my carboy...before I had let the trub settle. Now my carboy is filled with a ton of trub and some wort.

Not only did I get terrible efficiency, but I ran off too fast, horribly missed my numbers, didn't boil hard enough (at least to achieve my desired results, i had a good rolling boil going the whole time), probably oxidized my hot wort by stirring in DME, and then filled the carboy with trub.

To everyone who read through this, thank you...please leave some comments and advise below. To Mr. Tasty McDole, I'm so sorry I screwed up your wonderful Janet's Brown. I brewed this beer as an extract exactly one year ago (my second batch ever) and it blew up all over the ceiling during the first night of fermentation. The one thing I have going for me is the fact that I think I know where I went wrong with each step, so theoretically I should end up with a better experience next time. Live and learn.

Prost, to eventually becoming a great home brewer.

JER

Great job and congrats.

Trub is good, and probably makes your final beer better (but messier). I'd prefer to get less in my carboy too, though.

Don't worry about oxidizing your wort. Worry about this after fermentation, not before.

Boil-off is not a percentage. This is a common error in almost all brewing software (finally fixed in Beersmith I think). Boil-off is an amount, per hour. Size of batch is (mostly) irrelevant.

Cheers!

True about the boil off, I was using the tool built into beersmith and took the percentage from there. In my test boils I had 2gallon/hr boil off. I didn't think the boil was all too extreme, but with my tuned down boil today I managed to lose 1gallon over 80mins. Oye!

Thanks for the nice words. I hope my next batch goes more to plan...and I'm really hoping that this batch tastes something like Janet's Brown!

JER

JMan551 said:

........To Mr. Tasty McDole, I'm so sorry I screwed up your wonderful Janet's Brown............

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You are forgiven.

Tasty

My first AG was two months ago, I have four under my belt.

Each time I have screwed something up. Forgotten a measurement, missed OG, pitched yeast hot, made a giant F*@^!$% mess. But I've learned a trick or gotten more comfortable with a certain step each time. The beers have all turned out pretty well too. So I feel your pain.

Remember, RDWHAHB

I preheat my MLT with 185* strike-water or so. I cover and get my crushed grains ready, blanket for insulation, etc. I then stir down to just above prescribed strike temps and then dough-in. I know I'll be a little high so I stir-down. Don't worry, you can't instantly denature the enzymes with 160* temp. Once I'm at mash temp, cover, throw blanket over it, grab some food, play with kids, etc.

Don't worry about the rate at which you drain the MLT. As long as your vorlaufed sufficiently and it's running clear it's fine. In fact, some would say to get the wort into the kettle ASAP to start boil and end conversion (esp. since you missed your mashout).

Check your crush, stir the mash well before covering and during sparge additions. What efficiency did you use for your recipe? I'd recommend starting around 65% for the first few brews. Easier to add distilled water than to add extract, IMO.

I just started AG too. The other day I brewed and did not reach the OG that I had wanted. It was supposed to be 1.072 but ended up being 1.061. The final gravity was supposed to be 1.017. It's been a little over a week and my yeast is still working it seems. I measured the almost FG last night and I was at 1.009. Which is almost getting me to my desired ABV. It will all work out. Be patient.

I bet it will taste good! The more un-repeatable the process, the better the beer turns out, it's a rule.

great brew story. sounds like a walk on the beach compared to my first solo all grain brew. and my beers turned out friggn wonderful.

dbrewski said:

I bet it will taste good! The more un-repeatable the process, the better the beer turns out, it's a rule.

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This is true. And I don't keep detailed notes...so I'm the guy who's forever chasing that "perfect" batch that happened by mistake.

Ye

Thanks all! I was telling a coworker about my brew, and the more I thought about it the more I thought that there is no reason why this beer shouldn't be drinkable. The fermentation has been crazy! If I didn't have a blow off tube on it, I'd have a repeat of last year (beer all over the guest room, pissed off girlfriend, almost evicted from my own house!)! As much as I want to become a master of repeat-ability, it seems as though the one off impossible to repeat beers seem to turn into some of the best!

Tasty, thanks for letting me off the hook. My first extract attempt turned out well enough, I hope this one does the same. Due to all of the issues I seem to have with this beer, it has become a personal goal of mine to nail this recipe! I promise I will do it justice at some point. I heard you may have some at NHC, I really really want to get a sample of the real deal so I know what to shoot for.

Upward and onward. My next attempt will be another Brewing Network recipe, Nathan Smith's Dankness IPA. I'm hoping to try and knock this one out Memorial day.

Cheers!
JER

hapoens to the best if us on occassion.

I moved my brewery to another location and heat shielding somehow bent wrong resulting in a 4 foot flame shooting out of the hlt burner house just as i cracked the hlt valve for a fly sparge.

Dealt with that but by the time I realized the hlt valve was still open ny mt was close to overflowing. so I had to do a batch sparge instead with no pre-drain if the mt.

Ended up with way to much boiked wirt, even after a 90 min boil. ended up with about 45l of 1.040 instead of 40l of 1.054.

Finished beer ended up @ 4% abv.

oh well.. its beer. had to drnk about 5 pints of uncarbed beer as I could not fit it all into 2 kegs on filter day. haha

typed this on a smart phone so please bear with my spelling....

I did my first AG yesterday (Red Ale) and had a slightly similar experience. Strike water was around 150 by the time it settled in the MLT. I tried to bring it up with hot water to no avail, but I think my conversion was fine to be honest. Stayed at temp for the entire hour though which was awesome and I got zero leaks (by fair my biggest accomplishment - thanks teflon tape!).

Doing a steam beer this Saturday if time allows.

I made Yooper's Anchor Steam clone and it was touted by some as my best beer yet. Primaried-only at about 55* in a cool part of basement for 3 weeks, cold crashed for 48 hours (could have been longer), then kegged.

Make sure to save your yeast. Any "specialty" yeast like that I always save.

tre9er said:

I made Yooper's Anchor Steam clone and it was touted by some as my best beer yet. Primaried-only at about 55* in a cool part of basement for 3 weeks, cold crashed for 48 hours (could have been longer), then kegged.

Make sure to save your yeast. Any "specialty" yeast like that I always save.

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Thanks for the tip tre9er. As a guy that has never reused yeast is it as simple as saving some trub? How do you reactivate?

Once you rack off the primary (either to secondary, bottling bucket, or keg) take what's left and slosh it around a bit, then gently pour off about a pint or so into a sanitized jar, seal, refrigerate.

If you want to split it into four, add distilled or preboiled/cooled water (a quart or so), slosh around, pour into gallon jug or other container, let sit for 20 minutes, then gently pour the top-most liquid into 4 separate pint jars. You're trying to leave the heavier trub behind.

On next brew day take a jar of your yeast and set it out early in the process so it has time to warm to room/pitching temp. If there is clear-ish liquid in the top you can pour that off before pitching, then shake the jar and pitch as usual.

I did my first AG batch a month ago..and found out the hard way that I didn't sparge with enough water First batch was 3.5% abv lol. 2nd batch I did ended up perfect though! GL on your next batch!

I started a thread on low efficiency. I ES getting discouraged a little. This guy posted done helpful ways to increase your efficiency. I went from 63% to 91% efficiency.

Here's the thread: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f36/efficiency-help-wisdom-words-encouragement-328552/



Here's what the guy said:

"i was in your boat (until just recently) for a while, too. i was getting efficiencies in the 60s and occasionally the low 70s. here are some improvements that i credit my new found efficiency (90% ) to.

1. BierMuncher's Hybrid Sparge technique

-https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f36/hybrid-fly-sparge-technique-75454/
-extremely easy to follow through with and works like a charm. i use a simple sauce pan to dump my sparge water.

2. Stirring

-i recently started stirring my mash a lot more. i'll heat my strike water usually 1-2 degrees hotter than it should be in order that i'll be able to stir for 5 or so minutes without going below my desired mash temperature.
-i'll also stir again 30 minutes into the mash. usually at this point, starch conversion is mostly over, so temperature isn't as important.
-i'll mash out at the end of my 60 minute mash and stir vigorously before sparging.

3. Grain Crushing

-i know there's a lot of opinions on the effects that grain crushing has on efficiency, but i am fully convinced that a finer crush significantly increases one's efficiency. my last batch i tightened my rollers up to achieve a finer crush. this allowed me to get my efficiency at 90%. i'm not sure if you own your own grain mill or not, but if you don't, request that your LHBS crushes your grain finer. this helped me a lot! also, make sure to put some rice hulls (these will add 0 sugars/flavors/aromas) to your mash in order to prevent a stuck sparge.


again, these were the three biggest advances in my mashing/sparging process that raised me up to a 90% efficiency.

good luck "

I tried his technique last night and was able to achieve 91% efficiency and the perfect amount of brew in my carboy.

Sounds like you did pretty well. The first one's always the roughest but it get's easier with a few more batches. Congrats on your first all grain beer.

modern malrs only need about 30min mash time.

I agree on finer crudh. as long as your system can handle the sparge.

if you have your own crusher and it is not adjustable (some aren't) then run your grain through 2 or 3 times.

definitely vorlof with a finer crush. you don't want hucky poeders in your kettle.

try a grain tocwater ratio that is thinner. (more water).

keep in mind that higher mash temps and crystal malts will lead to higher FG's.

tre9er said:

Once you rack off the primary (either to secondary, bottling bucket, or keg) take what's left and slosh it around a bit, then gently pour off about a pint or so into a sanitized jar, seal, refrigerate.

If you want to split it into four, add distilled or preboiled/cooled water (a quart or so), slosh around, pour into gallon jug or other container, let sit for 20 minutes, then gently pour the top-most liquid into 4 separate pint jars. You're trying to leave the heavier trub behind.

On next brew day take a jar of your yeast and set it out early in the process so it has time to warm to room/pitching temp. If there is clear-ish liquid in the top you can pour that off before pitching, then shake the jar and pitch as usual.

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Thanks, gotta give this a try. Absolutely no need to waste money buying new yeast every time.

wgeronimo said:

Thanks, gotta give this a try. Absolutely no need to waste money buying new yeast every time.

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I only buy specialty yeast and that's if I don't have a jar! My Chico's are on generation 4. After that I'll probably buy a new $6 packet. Made me over 10 beers on the last one!