Last check before my first AG.

Alright.. my first AG is scheduled for tomorrow and I'd love for you all to put your eyes on it before I go through with things. I wanted to fly sparge but read that it's not a great idea with a stainless braid in a rectangular MLT... so batch sparging for me.

The starter has been made (although there has never been a Krausen which has me worried.)

Here is a copy/pasted document I made for myself so I have some reminders on Brew Day... This is a faithful recreation of BM's Newcastle Clone, btw. Let me know if you see any major issues... Thanks!


Aberdeen Brown Ale All grain 5.5 gallon batch brew plan… (Batch Sparge)

9.55# grain bill
Ingredients:
------------
Amount Item
6.25 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM)
1.00 lb Corn, Flaked (1.3 SRM)
.50 lb Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM)
.50 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 20L (20.0 SRM)
.50 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM)
.50 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 80L (80.0 SRM)
0.25 lb Chocolate Malt (350.0 SRM)
0.05 lb Roasted Barley (300.0 SRM)

.50 oz Fuggles [11.00%] (60 min)
0.25 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00%] (15 min)

Whitbread Ale (Wyeast Labs #1099) with starter.

7.5 pre-boil volume… OG: 1.038 FG:1.007
(The following steps will all take place will enjoying a homebrew.. :-D.. )
1. Start to heat strike water in Keggle.
2. Re-check grain measurements.
3. Make sure Mash Tun is clean and all hoses are ready… preheat MLT.
4. When strike water is at 167 put 3.1 gallons in MLT. (1.33 qt/lb)
5. Stir in grains very well avoiding dough balls… check temp (154 goal)
6. Let mash sit for an hour, stirring occasionally.
7. Heat sparge water to 180.
8. After 60 minute mash, stir one last time, then vorlauf.
9. Drain wort into Ale Pale and measure first runnings.
10. Calculate sparge amount and cut amount in half for two batch sparges.
11. Pour in first batch of sparge water and stir…
12. Let first sparge sit for 10 minutes then vorlauf and drain into Ale pale. Repeat
13. Take a sample… cool to room temp and take hydro reading.
14. Pour into keggle and bring to a boil.
15. First hop addition… 60 min… 2nd addition… 15 min.
16. Cool to 70 (or lower)… drain to sanitized fermenter… pitch yeast.

Good Luck. I just did my second all grain. It's much easier the second time. Are you using Irish moss?

If you're using a toilet braid make sure it's securely clamped to the outlet hose.My first batch I stirred it off the end and ended up digging thru 150F grain to re-attach it.After the first running it saves time to go ahead and start heating it.By the time you get thru the last running you've almost got a boil going.I mash in the house so I just throw it up on the stovetop.It's also a good idea to have some boiling water ready at dough in just in case you need to up your target temp.Otherwise looks good.Prepare for a long day.Happy brewing!

I'll make sure the hose is clamped well.. Thanks for the caution!
I took an extra piece of 3/8 copper too and put it in the stainless braid (with a lot of holes in it) to keep the braid straight and to keep it from getting flattened out.

burton178 said:

The starter has been made (although there has never been a Krausen which has me worried.)

Click to expand...

Don't Worry about it, my first (and only) starter never had any Krausen either, but I could see CO2 bubbles rising from it and it worked fine.

E

yeah... I'm not seeing much of anything from the starter... But I figure I'll pitch it and if nothing is happening in a decent amount of time, I'll see what midwest hb might do for me.

Let your temps in the mash stabilize after you dough in before you think youre too low and start dumping more hot water in.

I almost did this today but i let it sit longer and the temps reached what i wanted.

I would recommend overheating your strike water by 10*, put it in the cooler, and wait for it to come down to the mix temp.

I had that problem on a 10gal gott. Once I got the temp in though, everything else is fine.

lrr81765 said:

I would recommend overheating your strike water by 10*, put it in the cooler, and wait for it to come down to the mix temp.

I had that problem on a 10gal gott. Once I got the temp in though, everything else is fine.

Click to expand...

Yeah... I think that sounds like a great way to "pre-heat" with maybe a little more assurance of reaching my mash temp.

looks like you're well prepared.

+1 on making sure your braid stays attached - my first AG, the brass plug popped off the end and the other end fell off the nipple. Luckily it happened before I doughed.

You'll do fine with your plan and you'll have fun! Post back and let us know how it goes!

Thanks again for the help... Those of you who were watching to see how things went.. I would say... GREAT! It pretty much ate up the day, but it went very well.

If my calculations are correct, my efficiency was about 65%... Not bad for my first AG!

I'm SO excited about getting this thing in the bottle a couple of weeks from now.
Thanks again for all of the help... I'll try to post pics if i get some time later.

Actually it turns out I didn't select "American" for the chocolate and the roasted barley in the tastybrew efficiency calculator.
My efficiency was actually about 70%... I was worried that this would be a horrible experience that I'd never want to try again.. now I can't wait!

Mr. Burton:

Congratulations on your first baby. Will you rack to a secondary after a week or let it sit in primary until you bottle?

Congrats, glad to hear it was a success.Your next one will be sooo much easier and you will find that you will brew more since it's not so costly to do all-grain.

Ok.. you are creeping me out.. My wife and I just had aour first baby... so I hope you are referring to my newly born beer??

With extracts I've usually skipped the secondary, and I think I'll continue that here.

I plan on this being one of my consistent "house" beers, so I plan to experiment and refine the recipe/process to my taste.

Congrats ! I did my second today - BM's Black Pearl Porter. This was a hefty 13# mash with steam to do a stepped mash.

My pre-boil was high, and was within 4 points of the estimated OG. Unfortunately, I can't tell what my OG was because of a broken hydrometer

I have a sample (yummmmmmmmm) and will check it tomorrow. Also racked off my first one and prepped a 10gal cooler for electric HLT !

mmmmmm... sounds like a nice brew. Hey, if you got a higher OG then expected, maybe you'll just feel a little more woozy when you drink it!

a broken hydrometer? That NEVER happens... LOL