1st All Grain session- IkePA

Warning! Long winded first post coming! If you want Cliffs notes, my first AG session was kick ass and I can't wait to get after it again.

First off, as a frequent lurker here I have to give a big thank you for all of the great information this forum provides. Reading up on potential pitfalls and problems made my first AG batch go smoother than it should have (but sadly it still wasn't without issue).

Anyhow, I was planning on brewing today long before Ike started heading our way, and my brother and I weren't going to be dissuaded by a little wind and rain. As it turns out, we got very little of either and had a pleasant day of it.

I didn't quite hit my predicted gravity, but at 1.074 it was close enough for me to be happy about how it turned out.
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BeerSmith Recipe Printout

Recipe: IkePA
Brewer:
Asst Brewer:
Style: American IPA
TYPE: All Grain
Taste: (35.0)

Recipe Specifications
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Batch Size: 5.50 gal
Boil Size: 8.0 gal
Estimated OG: 1.079 SG
Estimated Color: 13.6 SRM
Estimated IBU: 84.7 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.00 %
Boil Time: 90 Minutes

Ingredients:
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Amount Item Type % or IBU
8.00 oz Rice Hulls (0.0 SRM) Adjunct 3.03 %
184.00 oz Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 69.70 %
48.00 oz Munich Malt (9.0 SRM) Grain 18.18 %
16.00 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM) Grain 6.06 %
8.00 oz Caramunich Malt (56.0 SRM) Grain 3.03 %
0.50 oz Warrior [15.00 %] (90 min) Hops 22.1 IBU
0.50 oz Cascade [5.50 %] (Dry Hop 14 days) Hops -
0.50 oz Warrior [15.00 %] (60 min) Hops 20.7 IBU
0.50 oz Centennial [10.00 %] (45 min) Hops 12.7 IBU
0.50 oz Centennial [10.00 %] (30 min) Hops 10.6 IBU
0.50 oz Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] (30 min) Hops 9.0 IBU
0.50 oz Cascade [5.50 %] (15 min) Hops 3.8 IBU
0.50 oz Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] (15 min) Hops 5.8 IBU
1.00 tsp Irish Moss (Boil 15.0 min) Misc
1 Pkgs American Ale (Wyeast Labs #1056) [1000ml Starter]


Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Full Body
Total Grain Weight: 264.00 oz
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Single Infusion, Full Body
Step Time Name Description Step Temp
60 min Mash In Add 22.00 qt of water at 165.2 F 154.0 F
10 min Mash Out Add 12.00 qt of water at 203.3 F 170.0 F
10 min Rinse Add 6.00 qt of water at 170.0 F 170.0 F

Notes:
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This was my first stab at brewing in almost 10 years, so it was a pretty exciting day. I got started around 9:00AM with 12 gallons of DI water and 2 gallons of Austin's finest tap water heating in my keggle. I added 18g of gypsum to that for some calcium and to drop the pH a bit.



While that came up to temp I got busy with my new Monster Mill and put a hurting on a 5 gallon bucketful of barley. It was so beautiful that my 2 year old felt like she had to run her hands through it.



I got the water up to temp (I thought) and made my first mistake of the day. I hit the temp I was looking for, it just wasn’t quite high enough to account for losses from the pump, tun, and grain. Live and learn.

So I went ahead and used the march pump to move the water over to the tun



which worked great, but like I said, it wasn’t hot enough to account for all of the losses. So my temp was a little lower than I wanted it after I doughed in (~150ºF instead of the 154º I was shooting for).



I resisted the urge to panic and just let it ride. RDWHAHB would have been the preferred course of action, but since this is batch #1…

Anyhow, after an hour I started the vorlauf.



Everything was looking great, so I went ahead and collected the first running. Almost 4.5 gallons at 1.068 so my panic quieted a bit

The sparge went without issue, and I collected a little over 8 gallons that read 1.054 on the hydrometer.



I figured I’d boil off at least 2 gallons, and that I’d lose a little in my CFC/post chiller so away we went.

The boil went without issue and I followed all of my hop additions to the letter so I was feeling pretty good. I cycled the wort through the CFC until it hit 100º and the dunked my post chiller into a 5 gallon bucket filled with ice water, which quickly dropped the temp of the exiting wort below 70º at which point I shook the hell out of it for a few minutes to try to aerate a bit. I think an aquarium stone or an oxygenation setup would be a good investment for future use.


The only thing I didn’t like about this kind of setup was the amount of wort I lost in the rig once the March pump went dry. The next time I either need to plan for those losses, or use an immersion chiller instead. The story ends happy though, by 4:00PM I managed to collect 5.5gallons and pitched my starter without issue. It’s resting comfortably at 65ºF. I hope it tastes as good as it smells.



Again, I can’t thank you all enough for all of your pics and stories of success and failure for all of us to learn by. I can't wait to try again. I really want to get after the handful of mistakes I made and see if I can't get better with each batch.

congrats! nice job. looking forward to my first AG too

One trick I use for pump/CFC volume loss is to keep a gallon of water handy. When your siphon tube in the kettle is just about to start sucking air, pour the gallon of water in and then get ready to shut down the pump. This water will displace the wort in the system. Just make sure you shut it all down before you start diluting your wort. in the fermenter.

Looks like a successful brew day

Bobby_M said:

One trick I use for pump/CFC volume loss is to keep a gallon of water handy. When your siphon tube in the kettle is just about to start sucking air, pour the gallon of water in and then get ready to shut down the pump. This water will displace the wort in the system. Just make sure you shut it all down before you start diluting your wort. in the fermenter.

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Thanks for the tip Bobby. I'll give that a try next time.

hopsalot said:

Looks like a successful brew day

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Yup. It's churning like crazy in the fermenter. I'm optimistic.

Wow, for someone who has not brewed in ten years, and for your first AG you seem to have one heck of an equipment set up, and it looks like it went really smoothly.
Congratulations and man does that look tasty.

Kauai_Kahuna said:

Wow, for someone who has not brewed in ten years, and for your first AG you seem to have one heck of an equipment set up,

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Thanks. It's pretty much all new, or newly purposed. The keg was free and I already had the turkey fryer. Other than that I pieced everything together based on designs I'd seen here. I sold some golf clubs and old car parts that I had lying around to pay for most of it. My wife insists that I'm shuffling obsessions/hobbies.

and it looks like it went really smoothly.

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It did for the most part. I hope the next time goes even smoother.

Congratulations and man does that look tasty.

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Thanks.

I may be a retard but you already have an immersion chiller and it looks like you are just running wort through it???

Do you just put that in ice water and run the wort through it?

Or am I wrong, I run hose water through my 25' chiller that looks just like yours and put the whole thing in my boiling wort 15 minutes before flame out.

chriswilkes33 said:

I may be a retard but you already have an immersion chiller and it looks like you are just running wort through it???

Do you just put that in ice water and run the wort through it?

Or am I wrong, I run hose water through my 25' chiller that looks just like yours and put the whole thing in my boiling wort 15 minutes before flame out.

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Yeah, the second one. I used the was running the wort through it after the CFC (green hose in the first picture) and then dunked it in a bucket of ice water to crash the last couple of degrees once the tap water wasn't lowering the wort anymore. With a 25' CFC and 20' "post chiller" I left quite a bit of wort behind, which wasn't a huge deal since I didn't have room for it in the fermenter anyway.

I try to make sure the volume I brew will fill the fermenter and leave air space. Any extra wort is just throwing money away but I'm sure you know this. You did a first rate job and have the proper equipment as evidenced by your equipment pictures. I hope your pictures will influence other new brewers to get a refrigerator and a controller so they can control the fermentation temperature as you are doing. This is one of the most important things that they can do to brew really clean ales and lagers.

WBC said:

You did a first rate job and have the proper equipment as evidenced by your equipment pictures.

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Thanks. Most everything is from Craigslist or ebay.

I hope your pictures will influence other new brewers to get a refrigerator and a controller so they can control the fermentation temperature as you are doing. This is one of the most important things that they can do to brew really clean ales and lagers.

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I can't think of a better use for a $50 chest freezer and a $30 Ranco controller.

So I managed to get this kegged up and carbonated and pulled the first pint.


It turned out really well. Dumb name, but a good beer. Nice and bitter, could use a little more aroma. It also finished a little lower than anticipated (yay, more booze!) at 1.010 FG.

My only real complaint There's still some chunks of hops floating around from the dry hopping. I put pellets in the secondary and managed to move some through when I racked it to the keg. Hopefully that'll go away after the first couple of pints. No big deal if it doesn't. At almost 8.5% ABV it's a winner.

It looks glorious. Congrats and enjoy. I have an IPA ready to bottle now (its my first AG too) and I think Ill have the same issue with the hops but Im looking forward to it too.

Well the hop particles are noticeably reduced after the first three pints got pulled, so hopefully most of what got racked over will have settled out. They're not a problem other than aesthetics.