First AG.. fubar maybe and a question

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lager-tija

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did my first all grain last week using this recipe:

a simple Pale Ale always works.


8.75 lbs 2-Row Pale Malt
0.5 lbs Crystal 40L
0.25 lbs Carapils

Mash in 1.25 qt/lb (11.88 ~=~ 12 qts) at 150*F for 60 min

60 Minute boil:
1 oz Cascade @ 60 min
1 oz Cascade @ 20 min
1 oz Cascade @ 0 min
Optional:
1 oz Cascade @ secondary for 10-14 days

WLP001 California Ale yeast

Everything went good.. up to my sparge and thats where I think I just didnt do it right. I used (or tried to use) a method where you try and ladle the sparge water over the top of the grain bed, trying to keep same pace as the ouotflow. Looked easy on youtube. lol.

Any rate, when I had my 6.5 gallons of wort, the OG read only 1.012. The guy where I get my beer supplies had me grab 3 lbs of pale malt DME just in case and he had some calculation for how much I needed to add, which was 1 3/4 lb, and that brought me up to a reading of 1.047 after the boil. Im not sure its going to be what the recipe should but im hoping at least it will end up as beer.

My question is, I have just a bit over 5 gals in the primary and after siphoning to secondary, if im a big sort should I still be topping it off? (boiling and cooling first of course).

Thanks for any help or feedback on my first ag try.. Im going to be racking to secondary tomorrow.
 
No, there wouldn't be any need to top off in secondary. You'd only be watering down your beer to get more volume, and I'd rather have 45 bottles of good beer than worrying about getting 53 botles of watered down beer.

Try batch sparging for your next AG- I think that may work better for you than the ladling approach. I've been batch sparging since I started, but keep saying I'm going to try continuous sparging one of these days.
 
I agree w/ Yooperbrew....batch sparging is the way to go. No sense doing something the hard way when there is an easy way. If after a few batches under your belt you want to play with fly-sparging...then by a means knock yourself out.

Another Q: your run-off gravity of 1.012....you corrected for temperature, right?
 
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