Process for 1st All Grain! Fly Sparge.

This is my plan for brewday. I plan on making EdWort's Haus Pale Ale AG via Fly Sparge.

Please let me know if you think I am flawed anywhere in my game plan.
(I did exclude the obvious things like sanitation)

Thanks for the help. I am looking to finally get my first successfull brew started.



* Preheat mash tun with 3.5 gallsons of water according to Promash calculator.(slightly overshoot temp)
* When temp is at 152, add grains and stir to remove any dough balls.
* Mash for 60 minutes while maintaining temperature.

* Vorlauf until runnings are clear

* Sparge with approximately 3.25 gallons of water at 175 degrees.
* Stop when boil amount is reached. Approximately 6.5 gallons.

* Start boil. Start timer when rolling boil starts.
* Add hop additions.

* Rapidly chill wort.
* Add to fermenter when cooled.
* Draw sample of wort for hydrometer testing.
* Pitch yeast at 70ish temp.
* Maintain ferm. temps.


Relax and wait to have a homebrew!

Looks good. Only two additions I would make:

1. Make more sparge water up that you think you need. At least a gallon extra, it is way better to have too much that waste a bunch of time heating up the extra half gallon you ended up needing.

2. Start your boil timer when the hot break appears. This is a gunky coagulated protein mass that will appear in the wort (floaties like little cheese curds) between 5-15 minutes into the boil. You will get better hop usage and some other things by waiting for the break then making your additions. Plus an extra 15 minutes will not be bad for your wort.

Cheers, have fun, and relax!

Justin

Thanks buddy! This helps me out a lot.

1. When you add the grains to the water, don't wait until the water is down to 152- make sure you use dough in when the water is approximately 11-13 degrees warmer than your strike temperature. So, you could wait until the water gets to 165, for 153, for example. That's just a guestimate. In my system, with a preheated cooler, I use water that is 166 for my 153 mash temperature, if I'm using 10 pounds of grain. Each system will vary slightly, and the temperature of the grains is important, too. If you have some brewing software, it's helpful for determining strike temperatures.

2. Adding the hops after the hot break is good practice. Keep in mind that right before the hot break, you'll get a huge head of foam that will probably boil over if you aren't right then attending it! After the hot break, there is very little risk of a boil over but keep an eye on it during the hops additions!