1st All Grain

I am attempting my first all grain this weekend and want to verify my numbers and make sure that I have my calculations right. I have a 10 gallon cooler with false bottom and 15 gallon brewpot. I am using iBrewmaster to help with sparge calculations.

Do these numbers make sense:

5.25 gallon batch
9lb grain bill
65 degree grain temp

4 qts/hour boil off
.13 qt/lb absorption
.5 gallon mash tun loss
75% efficiency (estimated)

60 min @ 152 mash (13.5 qt @ 168 degrees)
Single batch sparge (22.10 qt @ 170)
90 min boil
7.23 Boil size

If I am missing something please let me know!

Thanks

first one's a learning batch. You'll see what happens and you'll be ready on the second. Nothing's difficult. Just make that barley tea... Then boil it, cool it, and ferment it. And of course drink it later.

Looks good, but it probably won't end up like that if it's your first AG haha! Don't freak if you don't nail your numbers. Have a good friggin time. You're going to love it.

Duplicate post sorry

Again sorry

Last duplicate

I'm sure it won't end up as planned as Murphy always finds me. I just wanted to make sure the mash and sparge numbers were calculated right. In the end I will have beer, and it with some luck it will be good beer! On second thought it will be good beer because I made it!

I think I have the process down, but I keep doubting my numbers'

Brew_Meister said:

.13 qt/lb absorption

Click to expand...

This seems low.

Agreed, I typically get around 0.5qt/lb absorption. Not a big change to your plan, just be ready with a little more sparge water. You will be able to tell exactly how much you need if you calculate how much you got out with your first runnings.

just have fun with it,,, dont worry to much, you will in the end have beer. just make sure you have enough water on hand.

Oops that should be .13gal/lb which would be closer to what you suggest .5qts/lb.

Thanks for the help. I will be attempting this on Sunday wish me luck!

Any last minute strategies or suggestions before I get this going tomorrow morning? I am a bit nervous and exited at the same time. Like a kid on Christmas eve!

Cheers

Brew_Meister said:

I am attempting my first all grain this weekend and want to verify my numbers and make sure that I have my calculations right. I have a 10 gallon cooler with false bottom and 15 gallon brewpot. I am using iBrewmaster to help with sparge calculations.

Do these numbers make sense:

5.25 gallon batch
9lb grain bill
65 degree grain temp

4 qts/hour boil off
.13 qt/lb absorption
.5 gallon mash tun loss
75% efficiency (estimated)

60 min @ 152 mash (13.5 qt @ 168 degrees)
Single batch sparge (22.10 qt @ 170)
90 min boil
7.23 Boil size

If I am missing something please let me know!

Thanks

Click to expand...

5.25 gallon batch - good
9lb grain bill - good
65 degree grain temp good

4 qts/hour boil off good
.13 qt/lb absorption - .13g/lb but you already know that
.5 gallon mash tun loss - good
75% efficiency (estimated) - good

60 min @ 152 mash (13.5 qt @ 168 degrees) - I calculate the strike water temperature required as 163 degrees, but I pre-heat the mash tun. If you don't pre-heat, then 168 degrees could be OK
Single batch sparge (22.10 qt @ 170) - You want the grain bed temperature during the sparge to be about 170 degrees. You will need to heat your sparge water up to 185 - 190 degrees to achieve this
90 min boil - good
7.23 Boil size - good

Good luck. You seem to have done your research pretty well.
You may want to measure how much wort you have collected from your first runnings to see how much sparge water you really need, and you may want to prepare a bit more sparge water than you think you will need, just in case the estimates are a bit off.

-a.

Second the strike water note, but kind of opposite. It can be painful trying to hit a mash temp in new equipment, and I've always found it easier to quickly bring the temp down than try to raise it. I add 174F water to a prewarmed tun, which puts it right around 158, and I'll bring it down with cool water to the target. Just thought I'd throw it out there.

One suggestion might be to consider having all your equipment and indgredients laid out before you start....

such as weighing out your hops
having a thermometer, hydrometer, and sample tube at the ready
a pyrex cup for taking samples for readings of pre boil gravity and OG
Keep your notes handy regarding your hop schedule
maybe have a kitchen timer to time those hop additions
if planning an iodine test, have a white plate and some iodine ready
if you use Irish moss or other adjuncts, have them ready
an extra hand towel or two may also come in handy

you'll get to know alll of the things you'll be needing as you continue brewing

just enjoy the experience

Awesome, ajf, poppin, and kbb thanks for the ideas and suggestions.

ajf: I didnt plan on preheating the mash tun this time around. I figured it was one less thing to worry about.

I'm excited to break in my new equipment! And thanks to the others too!

Cheers

Just mashed in! I hit my 152 real close by slowly adding hot water until I got to desired temp. Ended up using 12.5 quarts at 170 degrees I get it to 152.

What surprised me was the thickness of the mash. I thought it would be a bit more runny. Mine looks like slightly watery oatmeal, is this about right?

Cheers

A better way to hit your mash temperature is to use a brewing calculator program. Input your desired temperature, the amount of grains and their temperature and the ratio of grain to water. It will calculate the temperature to heat the water to and you just dump it all in and stir well.

All done, wort is in the fermenter and the yeast are doing their job!

Thanks for everyone who replied to this thread and helped me out. I think met my numbers pretty close. The only issue I had was that my boil off rate was much higher than predicted. I ended up with 4 gallons of wort, which I topped off with one gallon boiled and cooled water. My final OG reading was 1.49 and recipe said 1.46.

I have the following numbers, can someone help me calculate my efficiency:

preboil volume: 7.03
preboil gravity: 1.032

postboil volume(after topoff): 5 gallons
postboil gravity(after topoff): 1.049

recipe (cream of three crops):

6 lbs pale malt
2 lbs flaked corn
1 lb minute rice


All in all everything went pretty smooth. Lots of planning and research on HBT helped out tremendously!

Congratulations.
Looks like about 73% efficiency
(5 * 49) / ((6 * 36) + (2 * 40) + (1 * 40))
where 5 is your batch size in gallons, 49 is your OG in points, 36 is the extract potential (ppg) for pale malt, and 40 is the ppg for maize and rice.

I start with a pre-boil volume of 7 gallons to get 5 gallons in the fermenter, but I use whole hops and a CFC both of which trap quite a bit of wort. I usually end up with between 5 and 5.25 gallons. Sounds like you had a very vigorous boil.

-a.

ajf, thanks for the efficiency calculation! Not bad for my first go around huh?

My boil was not overly vigorous, but it was a 90 minute boil. I predicted 1 gallon/hour but with 3 gallons boiling off in 90 minutes, it should be more like 2 gallons/hour. It was in the 80s today and pretty dry so I guess the high boil off rate makes sense. I will adjust my water levels next time to account for the higher boil off rate.

Cheers

Yup, 73% is great for a first attempt. It would be even better if you get similar efficiency on subsequent brews.
I usually boil for 75 minutes, but I only have a 10g kettle. You will probably have a higher boil off rate than I do as you have a 15g kettle.
Looks like you are on the right track.
Keep up the good work. :rockin:

-a.

Reporting back on 2nd all grain efficiency.

Grain bill:
5 lbs pale malt (36ppg)
2 lbs flaked barley (32ppg)
1 lb roasted barley (25ppg)

7.9 gallons pre-boil @ 1.028

So my efficiency calculations go like this correct:
7.9*28 / (5*36)+(2*32)+(1*25)
221.2/269 = 82.2% efficiency

If this is the case, first one is 73% and this is 82% should I be looking at something to get them consistent or will this work itself out as I get more AG brews under my belt?

Cheers

If you are like I was, my efficiency increased with each brew for the first few brews, and then leveled off when I got familiar with what I was doing. It took about 6 - 8 brews to get consistent efficiency, but I started at < 70%, and by the time it stabilized it was still only 75%where is stayed constant for several years. Then I tried a mash out (with a fly sparge) and it increased to 85% consistently. (I got a few brews > 85% by oversparging, and taught myself to not oversparge). Then I upgraded my MLT from 5g to 10g, and started using a CFC. My efficiency dropped to 75% but slowly increased up to 80% as I got used to the new equipment. It's stayed there ever since.

Good job. :rockin:

-a.