My first all grain - Game Plan

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aeonderdonk

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Location
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I am going to be doing my first AG batch next weekend and have been reading a lot about the process to make sure I don't screw something up so here is my game plan. Please feel free to point out any areas for improvement or big NO-NOs.

Thanks!

:ban:

Equipment:
Turkey Fryer Propane Burner
30 Quart Pot (from turkey fryer)
Polder Digital Thermometer with dual probes and count down timers
54 Quart home built MLT
50' Copper Immersion chiller (garden hose input, 6 ft plastic tube output)
Big Wooden Spoon
15 Quart Pot (been using for partial boil extract batches)
Racking Cane and Siphon Hose
Carboy
Airlock w/ stopper
5 Gallon Bucket w/ Lid
StarSan
64 oz pitcher
Garden Hose as water source

Ingredients (for Bell's Two Hearted Clone):
10 lbs Pale Malt-2 Row (Pre-milled from LHBS until I get my grinder set up)
2 lbs Vienna Malt (Pre-milled from LHBS until I get my grinder set up)
8.0 oz Cara-Pils (Pre-milled from LHBS until I get my grinder set up)
8.0 oz Caramel - 20L ((Pre-milled from LHBS until I get my grinder set up)
1.00 oz Centennial (60 min)
1.00 oz Centennial (15 min)
1.00 oz Centennial (5 min)
1.00 oz Centennial (1 min)
0.50 oz Centennial (Dry Hop in secondary 5 days)
Starter from Cultured Bell's House Strain Yeast

Steps:
1) Wash and Sanitize everything in bucket using StarSan
2) Add 16.25 Quarts water to larger brew pot (1.25Q/lb * 13lb) and heat to 170*F
3) Add water to MLT, let cool to 165*F
4) Dough-in grains, stirring continuously
5) Put thermometer probe into mash and close lid
6) After 40 minutes begin heating 4 Gallons of water to 180*F for sparge in larger brew pot
7) After 60 minutes vorlauf 2 pitchers and drain runnings into smaller brewpot (anticipating 2-2.5 gallons)
8) Put smaller brewpot onto burner and begin to heat
9) Sparge 2 Gallons of water at 180*F onto grain bed (dispersing flow by pouring onto bucket lid held by brave friend - or taped to MLT)
10) Vorlauf 2 pitchets and collect runnings into large brewpot
11) Repeat 9 and 10
12) Combine Mash runnings and Sparge runnings (Hopefully about 6.5 Gallons) in large brewpot and place on burner
13) Boil for 60 minutes (following hop schedule and putting immersion chiller in with 15 minutes remaining to sterilize)
14) Begin immersion chilling at flamout
15) Rack to carboy
16) Add yeast starter at pitching temp (target ~72 degrees)
17) Clean up
 
I don't see where you drink. No drinking while brewing is just going to anger the beer gods.

Other than that it looks good. Have fun.
 
the thirty quart pot is cutting it a bit close, might have a boilover so be careful.

Everything else looks pretty good.
 
Drink is an implied portion of each step, actually each step is structured more like this:

1)
a) drink
b) do step
c) curse for slightly screwing something up
d) drink


I am also a bit concerned about 30Q but it's all i've got for now. I plan to watch it like a hawk.
 
Being about 2-3 weeks away from my first AG batch, it's great to see a post like this. Best of luck with your session. I'm sure you'll end up with beer at the end. I'm also sure you'll have some empties at the end of it too!
 
looks good. I don't use a a bucket lid to poor back into the mlt i just carefully put it back into the cooler. also make sure your Thermometer is calibrated.

also to note it really helps to preheat your mlt and don't forget to make notes i record every temp and time. have fun
 
looks good. I don't use a a bucket lid to poor back into the mlt i just carefully put it back into the cooler. also make sure your Thermometer is calibrated.

also to note it really helps to preheat your mlt and don't forget to make notes i record every temp and time. have fun

I'm not sure if I can calibrate the thermometer but I can compare with a few others I have and adjust as necessary.

I am a little paranoid about disturbing the grain bed and figured it would be a good way to disperse water.

Also, I'm adding the water to the MLT at 170* and letting it cool to 165* to warm the tun before I dough in, do you think I should go for 175* to help preheat better?
 
I'm pretty new at all grain brewing (two batches so far), so take my advice with a grain a salt. Two-hearted is 7% ABV. I just had one tonight (nice choice!). My calculations suggest that you need to hit and efficiency of 73% with the amount of grains your using. I think that may be hard to reach using 2 gal. of sparge water for 13 lbs of grain. On my last batch I used 11 lbs of grain and only got 70%. (3 gals of mash water and 6 gallons of sparge water. I'm not saying you can't do better, however, you may want to adjust your recipe for a lower efficiency, just in case.
 
I'm not sure if I can calibrate the thermometer but I can compare with a few others I have and adjust as necessary.

I am a little paranoid about disturbing the grain bed and figured it would be a good way to disperse water.

Also, I'm adding the water to the MLT at 170* and letting it cool to 165* to warm the tun before I dough in, do you think I should go for 175* to help preheat better?

Use this:
Green Bay Rackers--Mash Calculators

It will tell you the temperature you need to have your water, in order to reach your desired mash temp.

Also I'd warm up the MLT with hotter water. 185F. You can cool it down to your desired strike temp pretty quickly, by stirring with the lid off.
 
Use this:
Green Bay Rackers--Mash Calculators

It will tell you the temperature you need to have your water, in order to reach your desired mash temp.

Also I'd warm up the MLT with hotter water. 185F. You can cool it down to your desired strike temp pretty quickly, by stirring with the lid off.


I agree, heat it up at least 10F over and let it warm up the MLT and wait for it to cool down. It's a PITA to try to add more hotter water if you're too low.

During the mash, don't wait 40 min to get the sparge water heated unless you know it will only take 20 minutes to heat it up. I start mine early and try to get the temps close and heat up near the end to get the right temp.

I was wondering about:
9) Sparge 2 Gallons of water at 180*F onto grain bed (dispersing flow by pouring onto bucket lid held by brave friend - or taped to MLT)
I believe at this step you're going to mix it all up anyway, who not disturb the grain bed at this time?

Vorlaufing onto a piece of sanitized piece of aluminum foil is what I've been doing to prevent disturbing the grain bed during this part.


Good luck today, wish I was brewing! :mug:
 
Good Luck!...and I think you'll find it a little bit easier since you put your process into words. Helps tremendously when beginning:) Cheers:mug:
 
I am also a bit concerned about 30Q but it's all i've got for now. I plan to watch it like a hawk.

I've been doing 5 gallon boils in a 30Q pot. It's doable but you do have to watch it like a hawk in the beginning and dial down the flame when you get close to boiling.

One thing I will be changing in my process on the next batch is collecting a little under 6 gallons rather than the full 6.5. It's hard to get a super vigorous boil in a 30Q kettle and I've only been losing 1/2 gallon to evaporation. I think starting with 6 will give just a little more room for a harder boil and get me closer to 5.

In the end, it's easier to top off with a little extra water than it is to take water out after the boil is done. ;)
 
I'm pretty new at all grain brewing (two batches so far), so take my advice with a grain a salt. Two-hearted is 7% ABV. I just had one tonight (nice choice!). My calculations suggest that you need to hit and efficiency of 73% with the amount of grains your using. I think that may be hard to reach using 2 gal. of sparge water for 13 lbs of grain. On my last batch I used 11 lbs of grain and only got 70%. (3 gals of mash water and 6 gallons of sparge water. I'm not saying you can't do better, however, you may want to adjust your recipe for a lower efficiency, just in case.

I am going to be doing two sparges of two gallons each (4 gallons total) I will likely adjust based on how much I get from the Mash runnings using:

Final Volume of 6.5G - Mash Runnings = Sparge Volume
 
i second hitting higher temp and letting it come down. and yes even if you can't calibrate you will still wanna know how close it is.
 
the thirty quart pot is cutting it a bit close, might have a boilover so be careful.

Everything else looks pretty good.

You also might have a boilover in a 50-quart pot. Read a thread to that effect yesterday. I did my first 3 AG brews in a 30 qt. SS pot, 6.5 gal boils, and it didn't even think about foaming. One word (OK, maybe it's two words): Fermcap-S. It works. Believe it.
 
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