first complete AG, Kolsch, beersmith, advice ?

Hello. Well, with years of partial mashes, which were slowly growing larger and larger, I just finally said ENOUGH! and set up a cooler. I've also downloaded beersmith to try. Would you be so kind as to review and see if it looks right?
The water additions add up to far more than the boil volume to me (comes out to 8.06 gallons). I assume that this is for the dead space in the tun that BeerSmith asked for, as well as the fluid that the grain will not release in lautering.

This is to do two batch sparges.

The only trouble I can see is that I will be either using a turkey frier or a stovetop to try and manage the heating of water to add (probably inside on the cooktop so I can have pots at different temperatures). That might be tricky, but until I can build or buy a sculpture later this year, it'll just have to be tricky. Any hints are welcome.

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beersmith output
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Type: All Grain
Date: 5/30/2008
Batch Size: 5.50 gal
Boil Size: 6.72 gal
Boil Time: 60 min
Equipment: Brew Pot (7.5 gal) and Cooler (48 qt)
(igloo ice cube marine, copper slotted pipe manifold)
Brewhouse Efficiency: 70.00 (estimated for first run)

Ingredients

Amount Item Type % or IBU
8.00 lb Pilsner (2 Row) Ger (2.0 SRM) Grain 86.49 %
1.00 lb White Wheat Malt (2.4 SRM) Grain 10.81 %
0.25 lb Honey Malt (25.0 SRM) Grain 2.70 %
1.00 oz Spalter [4.50 %] (60 min) Hops 15.7 IBU
0.50 oz Saaz [4.00 %] (45 min) Hops 6.4 IBU
0.25 oz Saaz [4.00 %] (30 min) Hops 2.7 IBU
0.25 oz Saaz [4.00 %] (15 min) Hops 1.7 IBU
0.28 tsp Irish Moss (Boil 10.0 min) Misc
1 Pkgs Kolsch Yeast (Wyeast Labs #2565)
[Starter 1000 ml - stepped 1pt, 1qt, chilled, in 12hr increments]


Beer Profile

Est Original Gravity: 1.044 SG
Measured Original Gravity: 1.010 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.011 SG
Measured Final Gravity: 1.005 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 4.36 %
Actual Alcohol by Vol: 0.65 %
Bitterness: 26.6 IBU
Calories: 43 cal/pint
Est Color: 4.2 SRM


Mash Profile

Mash Name: first kolsch step Mash
Total Grain Weight: 9.25 lb
Sparge Water: 4.61 gal
Grain Temperature: 72.0 F
Sparge Temperature: 168.0 F
TunTemperature: 120.0 F
Adjust Temp for Equipment: TRUE
Mash PH: 5.4 PH

first kolsch step Mash Step Time Name Description Step Temp
10 min Step Add 3.00 qt of water at 150.1 F 122.0 F
15 min Step Add 3.00 qt of water at 153.5 F 134.0 F
60 min Step Add 3.00 qt of water at 199.9 F 152.0 F
20 min Step Add 4.88 qt of water at 204.6 F 168.0 F



Mash Notes:
Carbonation and Storage

Carbonation Type: Kegged (Forced CO2)
Volumes of CO2: 2.4
Pressure/Weight: 8.7 PSI
Carbonation Used: -
Keg/Bottling Temperature: 34.0 F
Age for: 28.0 days
Storage Temperature: 34.0 F

It looks alright. For your first all grain on the new setup you might want to consider a single infusion mash at 152F instead of a step mash until you get the bugs worked out of the new equipment.

what that doesn't include on it is the fermentation in the dual stage controlled freezer at 62F for 14 days, then rack to keg, drop to 34 and store for four weeks, then pressurize to 8.7/9 psi for a few days, then drink.

Do you think there will be many bugs with a cooler and adding hot water? I've dumped in hot water and the cooler seems to hold it well. The spout can be set to release it slowly, tubing fits, so I can sort of vorlauf it (if that really applies to batch sparging in a cooler).

I've done a ton of pot-in-a-warm-oven partial mashes at about a 3rd of this size, with poor temperature control from the oven cycling.

The only part I haven't really tried yet is getting pots of water to various temperatures at the right times. The temps do seem to be steadily increasing for the water, though, so I think I can crank the stovetop then when I come close, turn it to low and keep monitoring it. I might do a separate pot for the sparge water.


What effect might a single infusion at 152 have on this beer?

I agree on the infusion vs. step mash advice. Also, I'd advise you to set 'Adjust Temp for Equipment' to FALSE.

Unless you've taken the time to actually determine what values for tun weight and specific heat to use, you'll probably get better results by filling the mash tun with water that's 5-10 degrees above your strike temperature, and letting the temperature drop until you hit your strike temp.

Note that this technique does not work for step mashing. You really do need to know how much extra heat you'll need to heat up the mash tun at each step. For this to work exactly right, you need to know your tun mass and specific heat.

If you have one propane burner and one boil kettle, you can heat your mash water fast enough that way for each step if you insist on doing steps. You can heat 3 quarts in almost no time at all.

I find it easier to adjust the amount of water in beersmith so I always have to add 210 degree water for every step. Then all you need is a pot of boiling water near by, draw off the amount you need and add to mash. I have a spigot on my boil kettle and I just drain off the amount needed and hit my temps right on every time I do an infusion.

Linc

that's a good idea on the boiling water additions. After the last step I could probably let it cool for 20 minutes and adjust to get it to the 168 sparge temp.

I'll mull over doing a single infusion versus step.

Beersmith lists 13.88 qt of 163F water for a 152F 60 Min mash.

Wiggling it to use boiling water after first infusion I keep ending up with really dry mashes. What's the dryest you would run the first step at so you didn't end up too wet by the end?

would the single infusion go for the same length (about 2 hours) or just be done for 60, then sparged?

60 is plenty at 152F.

Maybe I will do the single infusion and take it easy. I can always heat water along side and track it for the whole time to be sure I'd have the right amounts ready if I do a step infusion next time.

I just realized I have 450 hours of paid leave at work, so I'm going to be taking off the rest of the week. Maybe I'll order ingredients to make another batch!

Thanks for the advice. I did the single infusion and warmed the cooler first, and it was a flawless temperature achievement. My only issue was that I sparged more than I thought (I followed the beersmith, but got .7 extra gallons of wort somehow, maybe I miscounted my pitchers of sparge water).

so with 7.4 gallons of wort, I got a gravity ready of 1.036 at 77F. I cannot find my chart for the adjustment for temp, but I believe it was +.0022 at this temp, which would put me at 1.0382

Can someone tell me what efficiency that is with this recipe?

The color is very very pale at the 7.4 gallon sample, but I fear it must darken while I sloooooowly and as gently as possible boil it down to my necessary starting boil volume so I can start the timer and hops additions for the 60 minute boil.

I ended high with 1.048, which is actually okay. The color is just a TAD off from perfect, so I am very happy. There is a metric assload of solids that did not whirlpool out, but are settling in the fermenter-freezer. This is the lightest color I've ever gotten into a fermenter. A good day!

If I can figure out how I ended up with too much fluid, I'll be able to dial it in. Well that and if I can figure out how to calculate efficiency. I think when I don't have a buzz I can whip out a book and find it, though.

I just did my third AG..and it was also a Kolsch. I noticed that the wort was a lot darker than I though it would be for my grain bill, and that had me worried a bit. However, after a few days in the fermenter it is now a much lighter color.

I chilled my sample to 60 to take a reading and I was shocked how much solids dropped out of it and how yellow it was in the hydrometer tube, so I think we saw the same thing. In the 7 gallon carboy it still looks dark, but it's lightening a bit, and there's at least 1.5 inches of crap at the bottom.

Anyway, I had two commercial kolsch's (well, one real kolsch, one locally brewed "kolsch style" what with the rules and all) and mine is only the barest hint of a shade darker. I can only imagine if I had hit the volume better and had half the boil time I would have gotten the color dead on.

SO stoked. It's like brewing for the first time again.

I'm planning a 14 day primary (unless I bottom out before then) and 4 weeks at 34 in a keg (no gas added) before I force-carb and drink. How about you? Maybe we can have a simultaneous kolsch tapping!

Yeah, I'm planning on 14 days @ 60F...just brewed this last Saturday so that leaves me another 1 1/2 weeks. Then I'm going to transfer to secondary...drop it down to 55F for another 2 weeks, then bottle.

I'd love to drop the temp lower, but I need to have some yeast still active for carbonation in the bottle. Not sure if 55F is too low, but I'm going to give it a try...and might even put in some nottingham in the bottling bucket. Wish I could keg, but I'm still waiting on my stimulus check .

if you have fridge space for it, a keg can be as simple as buying:

1 cornelius keg
1 CO2 bottle with regulator
1 gas line with connector for cornie
1 beer line with picnic tap on the end (cobra style)

Then you hook it all up and cram it in the fridge and open the door, take the picnic tap (hanging sassily from another shelf) and pour a beer.

I did that a long while.

Since you are bottling, though, your conditioning period will take you up to the 4 weeks I am doing, so we may have a cheers at the same time!

I'm in my garage now and I can hear my kolsch thwumping its co2 through its blowoff tube in the big jug of water. It's also really seeming to swirl around alot. Not a lot of krausen but tons of activity.

Nathan, just wanted to drop a line and see how your Kolsch is doing. I just transferred mine to secondary...with a final gravity of 1.010. I know you were planning on kegging yours, but are you going to secondary this one?

I put mine to secondary on Saturday at 1.011. I let it climb up to 67 for about 24 hours and have been bringing it down. I'll drop it into the thirties and keg it this weekend then let it sit in the keg in the new freezer being delivered saturday. I understand about 4 weeks is good there?

We both got decent gravities so far! I hope the spike in temps helped mine, but I won't test it until I'm transfering to keg.

I wish it would be done faster! I guess if I keep doing one a month or every 6 weeks eventually I'll have a keg of it regularly coming due for drinking.