Do I understand this right?

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murphyslaw

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I'm trying out my first AG this weekend. I've read everything I can find, twice. But if someone could just skim this and give me a nod, i'd feel much more comfortable. I'm going to be making Edwort's Bee Cave Hefe, 5.5 gallons.


1. Prepare 9 gallons of water (I'll have to split this between two pots)
2. Preheat Mash Tun w/warm water, put back into pots.
3. Put grains in Mash Tun
4. Add about 3.5 gallons of water at 175 degrees.
5. Stabilize Mash Temp around 158 for 90 minutes, adding warm water if necessary to raise temp, stirring occasionally.
6. start draining, recirculating the wort until its coming out clean.
7. drain wort into brew kettle.
8. Add another 1.5 gallons (168 degrees) to Mash Tun, drain to kettle (immediately?)
9. Add another 3.5 gallons of water, drain to kettle.

And just like extract brewing from there.


Thanks in advance!
 
4. Add about 3.5 gallons of water at 175 degrees.

On my system this would get a grain bed temp of around 162 which is too high. I'm not sure you need water that hot. But worst case scenario you can just stir vigorously with the lid off and the temp will drop, or add a little water same as you would if you were low.

8. Add another 1.5 gallons (168 degrees) to Mash Tun, drain to kettle (immediately?)
9. Add another 3.5 gallons of water, drain to kettle.


This is where you'll get a lot of opinions. I batch sparge. Following this method - dennybrew I only add water once.

Instead of step 8 I add boiling water in an attempt to get the grain bed temp to 168F. I do this before draining the first runnings.

I would read the Denny article, as it looks like your trying to batch sparge. Otherwise, you've got it down pretty well - though you'll hear a lot of differing thoughts about how you could do it.
 
Don't get too caught up in trying to prepare the entire 9 gallons of water. Just start with the volume needed for the mash. You then have 90 minutes to prepare the sparge water.

Not a real expert but this threw me off when I read my first AG instructions and it had me preparing more water than my boil kettle could hold. AG is easy, read the sticky and watch the video.
 
Also, someone correct me if I'm wrong here, but the generally accepted way to mash in is to add grains to water, not the other way around the way you listed. Put your strike water into your MLT, then add the grains. You prevent doughballs by adding a little grain at a time and stirring it in before you add more grain. Hope this helps.
 
Also, someone correct me if I'm wrong here, but the generally accepted way to mash in is to add grains to water, not the other way around the way you listed. Put your strike water into your MLT, then add the grains. You prevent doughballs by adding a little grain at a time and stirring it in before you add more grain. Hope this helps.

I think you're right. From Palmer:

"3. Pour in about 1 gallon of your strike water into the Mash Tun and stir in the crushed grain. "
 
Thanks noeldundas, I was planning on doing a batch sparge, those instructions were straight from beertools, which I really am just figuring out how to use. I'll check out that article.
 
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