Edworts Haus Pale for my first AG batch

So I have done about 7 kits now and I think I may be ready to take the plunge albeit limited into AG brewing. I have already made myself a 5 gallon cooler mash tun with stainless braid. I have read Edworts recipe and it looks like a good cantidate for a first try at AG.

I do have a few questions on the process though. Using my cooler mash tun are these the right steps.

1. Load crushed grain into mash tun
2. Heat 3 gallons strike water to 165 degrees
3. Add water to cooler and let sit for 60 minutes stirring occasionally
3a. Begin heating sparge water to 150 degrees
4. Get a large pitcher and vorhlauf the first few run offs back into the top of the mash tun.
5. Drain the contents of the mash tun into boil kettle (do i start bringing to a boil now?)
6. Add in the remaining 3.5 gallons of sparge water into the tun (do I again vorhlauf the run off a few times?)
7. Drain the contents of the cooler into the boil kettle.

Then from there normal brewing steps. Im pretty sure I have some of this wrong but figure its good to sort this out now before brewing day.

few things different. add the water to the tun before you dough in your grains. this allows the tun temperature to stabilize and it also prevents channels from forming in your grist. only stir the grist when you dough in the grains. DO NOT STIR WHILE RESTING. after your 60 min mash, vorlouf 2 quarts back into the tun. if youre fly sparging, slowly add water to the top of the grist until you have a 2 inch pool of clear hot water on top, do not drain the liquor completely. once your pool is formed, slowly begin to drain the liquor at the same rate you are sparging until your sparge water has run out and your tun is empty. do not stir the grains at all if youre using this method. if youre batch sparging, stir the grist vigorously before adding sparge water, drain the liquor, then add your sparge water and stir vigorously again, then drain. dont forget to vorlouf after you stir before you drain.

Eliminate #1...

#2 - Heat to 175 degrees, then add to EMPTY mash tun. Let it sit for 10 mins to 'pre-heat' the mash tun, then open and stir until you get to your desired strike temp (165 degrees).

#3 - Add grain to cooler in 1/3 increments, stirring well in between each increment. Let sit for 30 mins, stir again quickly.

#3a - Start bringing 3.5 gallons of sparge water up to strike temp

#5 - Start bringing the drained wort to a boil immediately

#6 - Yes, stir the grist after adding the sparge water, vorlauf again.

illin8 said:

#3a - Start bringing 3.5 gallons of sparge water up to strike temp

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How do I know what the strike temp should be?

use a mash temperature calculator, this will allow you to enter your grist weight, tun size, grist temperature, target temperature and so forth. itll then regurgetate a strike temperature. i use brew365 calculator.

Read about N.M.O.D.B.S. - No Mash Out Double Batch Sparge on Bobby_M's website. It's as clear an explanation as I have ever seen. Of course, I am a noob as well and only doing PM's right now.

xxdcmast said:

So I have done about 7 kits now and I think I may be ready to take the plunge albeit limited into AG brewing. I have already made myself a 5 gallon cooler mash tun with stainless braid. I have read Edworts recipe and it looks like a good cantidate for a first try at AG.

I do have a few questions on the process though. Using my cooler mash tun are these the right steps.

1. Load crushed grain into mash tun
2. Heat 3 gallons strike water to 165 degrees
3. Add water to cooler and let sit for 60 minutes stirring occasionally
3a. Begin heating sparge water to 150 degrees
4. Get a large pitcher and vorhlauf the first few run offs back into the top of the mash tun.
5. Drain the contents of the mash tun into boil kettle (do i start bringing to a boil now?)
6. Add in the remaining 3.5 gallons of sparge water into the tun (do I again vorhlauf the run off a few times?)
7. Drain the contents of the cooler into the boil kettle.

Then from there normal brewing steps. Im pretty sure I have some of this wrong but figure its good to sort this out now before brewing day.

Click to expand...

+1 on preheating the mash tun and adding the water before the grain. If you want, you can get a free 30 day trial of the beersmith software to calculate your mash temperatures. Also, I would do a double batch sparge, but probably with 175 degree water instead of 150. Good luck!

+1 on the sparge water at 175. you want to stop the conversion with water above 170. 150 is too low.

Although no one has said this so far, many of us used this as our first All Grain and made many mistakes. Notwithstanding the mistakes, I remember this as one of the best beers I ever made, let alone tasted. Good luck!

brewmasterpodunkarizona said:

+1 on the sparge water at 175. you want to stop the conversion with water above 170. 150 is too low.

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If he is starting the boil immediately after draining, there isn't a need to sparge at 170 really, is there? I'd think that it's only use at that point is to 'loosen' up the grist a bit.

illin8 said:

If he is starting the boil immediately after draining, there isn't a need to sparge at 170 really, is there? I'd think that it's only use at that point is to 'loosen' up the grist a bit.

Click to expand...

Yes, there is a need to sparge at 170, the grain bed needs to be as close to 170 as possible, that will let him extract the maximum amount of sugars from the grainbed, as sugar is much more soluble at the higher temp, he will get a lot better effeciency this way, trust me, I had to learn the hard way

Here are the instructions that we send out with every Bee Cave Brewery Haus Pale Ale Kit that we sell. These are general instructions and can vary based on your brewery, but following them get you beer at the end.

Haus Pale Ale All Grain - Brewing Instructions

1. Collect 3.5 Gallons of water heated to 163 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Add water from step 1 to your mash tun, and then add grains.
3. Temperature should stabilize at 150 – 154 degrees.
4. Allow grains to soak in water (mash) for 60 minutes.
5. During 60 minute mash heat 4.5 gallons of water to 175 degrees Fahrenheit.
6. After 60 minute mash add 5 quarts of 175 degree water to mash tun, and begin to vorlauf (have wort empty into container and pour back into mash tun until runnings are clear of grain debris.)
7. Once mash tun has been emptied of wort pour remaining 3.25 gallons of 175 degree water into the mash tun.
8. Wait 5 minutes and begin to vorlauf, and empty mash tun of wort once runnings are clear of grain debris.
9. You should collect around 6.5 gallons of wort.
10. Bring wort to a boil, and wait for hot break to occur. Hot break happens when the foam from the boil grows very large and then settles down to no foam.
11. After hot break has occurred, add 1 oz of Cascade hops to the boiling wort, and begin timing the boil length.
12. After 30 minutes of boiling add .5 oz of Cascade hops.
13. After 45 minutes of boiling add .25 oz of Cascade hops.
14. After 55 minutes of boiling add .25 oz of Cascade hops.
15. After 60 minutes of boiling turn off heat, and begin to chill the wort.
16. Chill wort to between 70-75 degrees, and then rack to fermenter.
17. Add yeast to wort and ferment for at least 10 days before bottling/kegging beer.

Thats perfect thank you very much

well it depends on the equipment, but i know that the equipment i use takes about 20-30 minutes to achieve boil after draining, and on top of that youre talking about a 30-60 minute sparge time. so technically, you need to sparge at above 170. 90 minutes worth of tannin production, oooooooooof.