TOTALLY excited over here. I've brewed Partial Grain batches with buddies, but, today I went All Grain AND went independent!
I did have a question for the much, much smarter people here than me, though.
I went with Northern Brewer's 90 Shilling Ale recipe:
MASH INGREDIENTS
- 12.5 lbs. Maris Otter
- 0.25 lbs English Extra Dark Crystal
- 0.25 lbs Fawcett Pale Chocolate
- 0.125 lbs Belgian Biscuit malt
BOIL ADDITIONS & TIMES
- 1.75 oz UK Kent Goldings (90 min)
- 0.25 oz UK Kent Goldings (15 min)
YEAST
WYEAST #1728 SCOTTISH ALE YEAST.
Everything I used, though, was from the LHBS - I also used my self-built cooler-converted mash tun, and employed batch sparging.
I mashed with 5 gallons of water (nailing my desired temp at 152* after mixing) followed by two 2.5 gallon batch sparging additions (starting temp 185*).
In total, after getting advice from a more experienced homebrewing friend, I collected 7.5 gallons of wort (due to the 90 minute boil).
I did a pre-boil gravity reading, and it was 1.032 - from the "freebie" software I was using online (Brewers Friend), the target should have been 1.050, which was showing a low efficiency of 48% - so, unless I somehow miscalculated something online, or, just read the hydrometer incorrectly, I was kind of depressed at this point.
Regardless, I went through with my boil and chill down, and came out with just under 5 gallons of wort as planned, did another gravity reading before pitching the yeast, and it was 1.064 - the target OG from Northern Brewer is 1.066 - so, nearly right on target!
SO, how did I have such a deviation from the pre-boil OG reading and the pre-pitching OG reading?
Thanks for all the help - especially in planning this brew day on the site - this site and it's members are top notch, truly!!! (and sorry if this is too long!)
CHEERS!
Brett
