So my brewday has begun...

Well if any of you know, I have been having a lot of difficulty nailing my AG regime and getting consistent results. Some of this definitely my screwups and other variables are out of my hands. Either way, I decided to try once more. So here is the recipe based on Edworts Haus APA.
9.5 lbs 2 row
2 lbs Vienna
.5 lbs crystal 10
1.5 oz cascade (Bittering)
1 oz Amarillo (Aroma, flavor)

so I wanted this to be a very aromatic beer but no overly bitter so Ed's recipe was perfect because it was also a simple and straightforward brew day.
I don't anticipate any issues on this one, I feel I've prepared more than my other brews. I've located the taste issues with my beers and identified where I went wrong to get those off flavors. I've also measured my kettle and 1 gal increments so I know where my volume is. I also plan on taking first running gravity points as well as pre boil. Another change is Instead of continuing to sparge until I have my volume I will just top up. I think this is where I got my grainy and husky off flavors from on my last beers. I will also make sure and do a conversion test as an added measure.

Thus far I have doughed in and hit my mash temp of 152 perfectly, which is a first for me. The 10 gal cooler is so much bigger and better. It's nice not having to worry about mash volumes. I will keep this updated as the brewday progresses.

So that's it, thanks to the board for changing my mind..hopefully it goes well.


Dan

Brew on brother! Best of luck!

OK so based on my initial and pre boil runnings I estimate I will have about a 71% efficiency. Which is good, but means the beer is going to be a lot higher ABV than I thought. everything is going really smooth. I collected what I shot for 6.5 gal as well.

I did my own variation on the Haus Ale and it smells great. Just Cascade though. I'd love to try Amarillo hops. Sounds like you're on your way to a good boil. You may not be drinking right now because you're focused....but do you mind if I pull a pint? :cross:

Boil on, little grasshopper. You haven't failed until you quit. I think you need to mail out samples so we can all see how well you did. Barring that, maybe some pics?

OK so I'm all cleaned up and it's in the fermenter in just under 6 hours. The boil went great, I collected a bit over 6.5 gallons. At the end of the boil, I cooled and transferred into the fermenter and found that the hopstopper leaves approximately a 3/4 gallon in the pot with the hops sucking up about another .25 gallon which left me with about 4 gallons in the fermenter. So I quickly sanitized a strainer and bucket and strained into the bucket and collected another 3/4 of a gallon or so. So I didn't hit my target volume but I've made adjustments in brewsmith to account for that. I should be able to dial everything in on my next brew. So here are the numbers
Initial runnings: 1.071
Second runnings: 1.028
Pre boil: 1.049
OG: 1.058

So if Brewsmith is correct it has me at about 65% efficiency if I'm reading it right. It has me at 76% efficiency into the boiler but at 65% based on volume and OG. Not sure which one to take as my efficiency?


I took some pictures, I'll see about adding them to the gallery later on.


Dan

Glad to see you hung in there. Your misgivings after 3 "less than great" batches had me wondering if I will ever make the leap to AG. For now I'm keeping the faith. Hope it comes out great!

LouT said:

Glad to see you hung in there. Your misgivings after 3 "less than great" batches had me wondering if I will ever make the leap to AG. For now I'm keeping the faith. Hope it comes out great!

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Well after going through my systems and practices I discovered a lot of problems with my routine. Pretty much the only thing that was not my fault was a bad crush on a couple batches. Eveything else was me. This last brewday went great and I took excellent notes.



Dan

Willsellout said:

Pretty much the only thing that was not my fault was a bad crush on a couple batches.



Dan

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You can fix that, too. Buy a grain mill, like a Barley Crusher or Crankandstien(that's the one I have).

Yay! More toys!!! :rockin:

Glad to hear it went better and you're figuring things out! Now go have a homebrew!