2nd AG brew - Guiness Clone - Seeking critique of methods

Below I have copied the recipe and my working notes from BeerSmith. All look good to me, but I'm green to AG. If you guys wouldn't mind taking a look at it and tell me if it looks pretty normal for time, temperatures, etc.

Also, During the process it seemed like I was needing two boil pots and ended up juggling liquids a lot. For example, when I was draining the MLT, the pot was boiling water for the sparge. So I drained into a cooler. When I was sparging, the cooler filled up and I had boiling water in the pot to top up the boil with. So I poured the boiling water into another cooler, the 1st runnings (cooler 1) into the pot, and sparged into the cooler again. Finally, I poured the sparge water (cooler 1) into the pot and topped up with hot water from cooler 2. WHAT A PITA. Any insight into the best way to handle this? Do I need a HLT big enough for my boil volume (6g)? Do you boil/heat your kettle top off water? If so, what do you do with the hot water when you are putting the hot liquor into the kettle?

Thanks in advance.


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Guinness Clone, Adapted from Clone Brews.
Dry Stout - 13A
Type: All Grain Date: 7/12/2008
Batch Size: 5.00 gal
Boil Size: 6.00 ga
Boil Time: 60 min
Equipment: Brew Pot (6+gal) and Igloo/Gott Cooler (5 Gal)
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.00

Ingredients
Amount Item Type % or IBU
7 lbs Pilsner (2 Row) UK (1.0 SRM) Grain 82.96 %
12.0 oz Roasted Barley (300.0 SRM) Grain 8.89 %
4.0 oz Barley, Flaked (1.7 SRM) Grain 2.96 %
4.0 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM) Grain 2.96 %
3.0 oz Acid Malt (3.0 SRM) Grain 2.22 %
0.50 oz Goldings, East Kent [3.00 %] (60 min) Hops 5.7 IBU
1.00 oz Phoenix [10.00 %] (60 min) Hops 38.2 IBU
0.25 tsp Irish Moss (Boil 15.0 min) Misc
1 Pkgs Irish Ale (Wyeast Labs #1084) Yeast-Ale

Beer Profile
Est Original Gravity: 1.044 SG Measured Original Gravity: 1.044 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.011 SG Measured Final Gravity: 1.010 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 4.21%
Actual Alcohol by Vol: 4.30 %
Bitterness: 43.9 IBU Calories: 194 cal/pint
Est Color: 21.7 SRM

Mash Name: Single Infusion,Full Body
Total Grain Weight: 8.44 lb
Sparge Water: 3.84 gal
Grain Temperature: 50.0 F
Sparge Temperature: 168.0 F
Tun Temperature: 87.0 F

Step Time Name Description Step Temp
45 min Mash In Add 10.54 qt of water at 176.9 F 158.0 F
10 min Mash Out Add 4.22 qt of water at 198.0 F 168.0 F

Brew Notes
07/12/2008
3:30p Start heating water (6 gal)
3:35p water at 160F
3:45p Mash in (goal 45min @ 155) added ~ 10.5qts @ 175F
160F step temp. 155F after adding 1pt at 87F
4:15p mash at ~152F
4:30p Mash out. start temp 154. Added 4.5qts @ 198. Temp to low. Added
4.75 pts @ 198. (ttl 6.875qts) Rest temp 167F Hold for 10 minutes
4:40p Begin drain down.
5:00p flow at a trickle. 2.7gal or grainbed and liquor remain (2" liquor above
grain bed)
5:15p 1.25" liquor above grain bed.1.040 @ 142F (1.053adj)
5:25p Flow almost stoppped w/ 1" liquor above bed. took flat spatula and cut
3 straight slices 1/2" deep into grain bed. Flow resumed.
5:30p Runout completed. 3.5gal liquor (from 4.34gal = 0.84gal loss)
Gravity = 1.018 @ 140F (1.021adj)
5:30p Sparge with 4 gal water @ 168F
5:38p Gravity at 1.000 (1.013adj) Stopped sparge. Final volume 5.5 gallons
Approx 3 gals of h20 and grain remains in mash tun.
Add 0.5 gal water to make 6 gal. Pre boil gravity 1.030 (1.043 adj)
6:00p Rolling boil (over)
6:55p Added 1/2 1tsp Irish moss
7:05p Flame out.
7:30p Wort = 4.5gal in carbuoy @ 87F +0.50gal water to make 5 gal.
SG = 1.040 (1.044 adj)
Put carbuoy in deep freeze to finish cooling.
9:58p Pitch 1 activator pack of wyeast 1084 (no starter) and shook carbuoy
for 30 sec to aerate/mix.

07/13/2008
10:44a Temp = 68F Mild foam. No real krausen. Sediment ~ 1"
Swirled/agitated to rouse.
Forgot to fill airlock. Filled with StarSan.

When I bought my 10 gallon stainless pot, I converted my old aluminum turkey fryer into a HLT, with a spigot, thermometer and sightglass. Best thing I ever did, it makes mashing and sparging a breeze. In particular, using the sightglass to measure is really convenient. The 7.5 gallon pot doesn't quite hold enough water, but I just top it off and reheat to sparge temps while mashing.

No pot/liquid juggling necessary.

Sounds to me like you need an Ale Pale to collect the sparge. This would free up your kettle for heating sparge water etc. until you start the boil. I sparge directly into the kettle, but find I need another 4g pot to heat up the remains of the sparge water after starting the sparge. An extra pot is probably a bit easier, but the Ale Pale is much cheaper.

-a.

ajf said:

Sounds to me like you need an Ale Pale to collect the sparge. This would free up your kettle for heating sparge water etc. until you start the boil. I sparge directly into the kettle, but find I need another 4g pot to heat up the remains of the sparge water after starting the sparge. An extra pot is probably a bit easier, but the Ale Pale is much cheaper.

Click to expand...

Man I feel dumb. I've got TWO 7gal ale pails sitting in the back of my brew closet that I haven't used since I went to carbuoys. All they need is a little soap and water.

I still need two metal pots though. I like to keep my top off water hot so the boil gets going faster.

Do most people sparge into a boil pot and heat water in another pot?

pldoolittle said:

Do most people sparge into a boil pot and heat water in another pot?

Click to expand...

I would assume so. I light the fire under the first runnings while I'm still sparging, to get the boil going ASAP.

iv'e got my first brewpot(5g enamel) that i use for heating strike and sparge water. if the sparge is too big for the 5g i have a 3g also that i use for boiling up starters that gets used.

BlindLemonLars said:

I would assume so. I light the fire under the first runnings while I'm still sparging, to get the boil going ASAP.

Click to expand...

I thought about that, but was I didn't because I was concerned about overcooking and/or scorching.

Just curious how this brew came out...

I use my brew pot to heat up the strike water, then during the mash I heat sparge water and put it into a 10 gal. igloo beverage container. (on sale at Home Depot)
First runnings then go into the brewpot. (which you can start heating during the sparge) Sparge water is taken from the 10 gal Igloo. I usually do 2 sparges. Seems to work pretty well and saves a bit of time.

xalu said:

Just curious how this brew came out...

Click to expand...

Wonderful. Shortest lived keg ever.