In process on my first AG

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Jonnio

Well-Known Member
Joined
Dec 30, 2007
Messages
1,489
Reaction score
10
Well, some of you may have seen my previous threads about brewing a beer for my daughter to be, and I figured there is no better beer to go all out than this, so I did it AG.

I doughed in a while ago and am about to drain my second batch sparge. I will report back with pictures and my efficiency here soon.
 
Well, some of you may have seen my previous threads about brewing a beer for my daughter to be, and I figured there is no better beer to go all out than this, so I did it AG.

I doughed in a while ago and am about to drain my second batch sparge. I will report back with pictures and my efficiency here soon.

Great! Looking forward to it!
 
The Setup
2970723742_fb625665bd_b.jpg



The Grain
2969880499_3f1c20b339_b.jpg



Ready For a Stir
2969880623_30ddff7935_b.jpg


My Mash Temp
2969880695_5f7b4c056b_b.jpg
 
Nice, I'm diggin' the instant read thermometer. I really need to get one of those, I have been through five crap digital thermometers and all of them died. They aren't worth anything! :mad:

Tonight was the maiden voyage and so far I am VERY impressed. They have some on refurb right now (which is why I could swing it). I think it was like $60 shipped. Just call the number on their website and ask about it.
 
Well, its in the fermenter - I am pretty sure there is something wrong, because I am coming out at 1.034 corrected SG, which would put me at 42% efficiency. At least I REALLY hope its not that low, that will totally hose my ABV and bitterness ratio. I shook the heck out of the carboy before taking the reading though :(
 
Looks like its gonna be tasty. Did you drink the starting gravity sample?

Yeah, it tasted pretty good. It was a little bitter and slightly watery though, which kind of further points to a low sg....I think I have decided that I didn't collect enough runnings on the batch sparge. Beersmith calculated 3 gallons of sparge water and I think I should have had at least 1 more gallon on there, probably leading to all of my issues.

I think I am going to boil a lb of DME today and toss it in there to try and balance out the bitterness a little bit.
 
Does anyone else see anything wrong with the cruch?

how so? I was thinking that if I did it soon enough it would be almost like a late extract addition. The hops utilization is the one thing I can't fix, but bringing the SG up should still be doable....at least I thought.
 
I think he meant "crush" and yeah, it looks way too coarse which would explain at least some of your efficiency problems.

that's not good - I have another 45lbs or so of grain that is about the same crush as that bag.

as far as the crutch is that ok?
 
I think I am going to boil a lb of DME today and toss it in there to try and balance out the bitterness a little bit.

Sounds like a plan.

Hard to read but I think the bag says "3# white wheat". Wheat always screws with my efficiency, and raw wheat in particular is really tough to mill. I had Austin Homebrew crush the raw wheat for my Wit and then I milled it again at home, thought my arm was going to fall off :) .. even then, it *still* wasn't fine enough to hit my usual numbers, I ended up at around 72% I think. Next time you may want to try flaked wheat instead. In my case I will adjust by adding more grain next time.

That crush looks really coarse. I'm thinking I wouldn't get over 65% efficiency with that crush. My crush looks like this:

DSC01683.JPG


Hopefully you have a brew buddy or a LHBS where you can re-mill the grains you have left?
 
Sounds like a plan.

Hard to read but I think the bag says "3# white wheat". Wheat always screws with my efficiency, and raw wheat in particular is really tough to mill. I had Austin Homebrew crush the raw wheat for my Wit and then I milled it again at home, thought my arm was going to fall off :) .. even then, it *still* wasn't fine enough to hit my usual numbers, I ended up at around 72% I think. Next time you may want to try flaked wheat instead. In my case I will adjust by adding more grain next time.

That crush looks really coarse. I'm thinking I wouldn't get over 65% efficiency with that crush. My crush looks like this:

Hopefully you have a brew buddy or a LHBS where you can re-mill the grains you have left?

Yeah, there is malted wheat in there, it isn't (at least supposed to be) raw. Its a pretty small percentage of the grain bill, but that might have contributed to the problem...I will do flaked wheat next time instead.

Unfortunately there isn't much for LHBS here, and none of my friends brew, so I am not sure what I am going to do. I may just have to buck up and order a mill of some sort. I am going to send Forrest and E-mail and see if he has any suggestions. I don't really expect him to replace a $150 grain order, but I don't really want to add extract to my next 4 brews to make up for the crush.
 
Yeah, there is malted wheat in there, it isn't (at least supposed to be) raw. Its a pretty small percentage of the grain bill, but that might have contributed to the problem...I will do flaked wheat next time instead.

Oh, wheat MALT.. Wheat malt should be OK. It's raw, unmalted wheat that is the tough one to deal with.

Yeah I don't know why everyone has been having such problems with Austin Homebrew's crush lately. I wonder if there are gnomes running around at night screwing up their mill.
 
Here is a closeup of my 10lbs of Vienna for a SMaSH brew -- just as bad you guys think? EDIT-after comparing side by side to the pic above its obvious :(

IMG_7173.JPG
 
You can always get a Corona (corn) mill. They are relatively cheap, and many people swear they work great if you mill the grain twice. Given your LHBS situation you may save $$ by getting your own mill and buying bulk grains. I have saved a third of the cost of my Barley Crusher already by buying bulk base grain. At this rate it will have paid for itself in under two years. Unless I make more friends so I can brew more.. :D
 
Sorry about my post, I was half awake when I posted about the crush, not CRUTCH...LOL

I TOTALLY neglected to say, way to go on the AG batch, and what a great reason for the beer.

It will still make good beer, and most everyone starts off with a low efficiency, I hit about 40% one day, and my grains were not even crushed. (this was one of my first batches)

With Bobby's help and quite a lot of other helpful members here on the forums, I am now sitting at 80-82%. (thanks again Bobby)

Keep at it, and it will get a lot better.

Cheers
 
Yeah, that cruch is horrible... was that done at your LHBS? Regardless of where, if you have 45# of this stuff hanging around, Id let them know, they will most assuredly do something for you.
 
Well I guess I am on my own getting a mill of some sort. I heard back from AHS today and they think the crush is fine. I am not sure that I want to risk adding 12 dollars worth of extract into another beer though to test their theory.
 
Jonnio - That looks un-milled to me. 1 out 20 looks like it has been crushed via delivery. If it has been crushed, it is the worst I have ever seen. Amazing good EFF for unmilled grains.
 
Well, things are all worked out, so I will be brewing with freshly milled grains when I get some spare time.

Thanks all for the help on this. Hopefully my report on round two will be better.
 
Back
Top