First All Grain Brew

And by first AG brew, I mean my first brew day period! I skipped extract, BIAB, partial mash, bottling, etc. Built a GE 7.0 three tap keezer with 525ss Perlicks, SS shanks & nipple, 10# aluminum CO2 tank, 4-way manifold, etc controlled by a digital A149. Also built a Fermentation chamber using a GE 5.0 and STC-1000 dual stage (cooling only hooked plugged in for summer).

Equipment - two 15gal Spike Brewing SS kettles with 3-piece SS ball valves and sight glass for HLT and BK. 10gal Industrial Igloo cooler with False bottom for Mash tun. Wooden Kero mash paddle, all silicon hosing, Blichmann burner, Ale Pails, etc etc.

Anyways, for my very first brew ever I did a Stone IPA clone 5.5 gallon (EdWort's). I entered 5.5 gal in BeerSmith vs 5.0gal to account for hop gunk and trub and hit all my volumes.

10.5# 2-row
1# Munich
1# Crystal 40 (they didn't have 20L)
1oz Warrior hops @ 60min
1oz Centennial hops @ 15min (1tsp Irish Moss as well)
1oz Centinnial hops @ 5min
Dry hopping in Keg with 1oz Centennial in a SS herb ball

I used a Cereal Killer Grain Mill and crushed everything myself with a power drill at low speed. I hit my mash temp very close, possibly a bit high, 153-154 several areas I checked (TW8060). Did a 60min mash and only lost about 0.5 degrees. Single batch sparge with 175* water, stirred for a few min, let settle for 10min, and then drained. Boil went smooth, threw in the Immersion Chiller in @ 20 min. Flame out and hit the garden hose realizing I had a bit of a leak that was splashing a bit of water into the Kettle :smack: Ran inside and grabbed some tools and fixed it and cooled the wort down to about 75* in about 15 min. I then grabbed an ale pail that I had soaked in PBW, rinsed, and then filled with StarSan, dumped it into another clean pail and used it for the fermenter along with a sanitized 3 piece air lock. I wanted to try out my stir plate but did not have enough time to do one and chill/decant in time so I aerated the wort and sprinkled an 11.5g packet of dry US-05 yeast.

OG was a bit low, 1.054. I'm thinking because my mash temp was slightly higher than anticipated I forgot to check my SG after the mash so I don't know my effeciency It tasted a bit sweeter than expected with very forward hop notes.

Right now it is sitting in the fermentation chamber at ~63* and I have yet to hear any bubbling out the air lock. It's been about 20 hours since I pitched. Trying to hold off peeking inside the bucket or getting too worried! If I haven't seen any activity by 3 full days I was thinking of pitching another packet of US-05 (Mr. Malty said 1.2 packets) and re-aerating.

I cleaned everything pre-boil with PBW and rinsed hot, and additionally used StarSan for anything post-boil. I also used a MoreBeer water filtration system for all the water.

Any tips/hints/comments for my first beer ever??? I'm thinking of building some sort of pickup tube for the BK as there was some wort that I missed out on due to the height of the ball valve. I did sort of whirlpool with the IC and then drained. I've learned a lot reading on here for the past few months and obviously went way overboard with my equipment from the get-go! Had a blast and next on-deck I'm planning is a Founder's Breakfast Stout Clone! :rockin:

Now I'll just have to make sure everything goes right with kegging....

Way to jump into it! I did the same thing. I did one extract brew and then went straight to all grain. I make terrific beer IMHO. Enjoy.

Well, to add to my newbness. I totally forgot to fill the 3piece air lock up with water/starsan :smack:

Just went back and re-sanitized the air lock and filled it to the line with starsan and then put it back together.

I'm just glad I read this post for the Stone IPA clone recipe. Let us know how it turns out as I love Stone and can't get it in Wisconsin.

cuda6pak said:

Any tips/hints/comments for my first beer ever???

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Wait 72 hours before considering pitching more yeast. Also, airlock activity isn't always a reliable indicator. Any little leak at the top of the fermenter will let CO2 escape (= no bubbles), but fermentation is still happening.

One of the hardest things when you just start is to leave the beer alone to do its thing in the fermenter, but that's what you should do, leave it alone.

Next time:

1) chill your wort down to about 62-65*F before pitching ale yeast.

2) rehydrate your dry yeast before pitching. Sprinkling dry into wort kills as much as 1/2 the cells in the packet. Basic steps are at - http://www.danstaryeast.com/library/rehydration-and-usage-tips-ale-yeast

3) Since you can control your ferment temps (Good for you. It's one of the most important keys to good brew), start the ferment at the low end of the optimal range for the yeast you are using and hold it there for the first week. After that, slowly step it up to the middle of the optimal range for that yeast until it's finished. You'll get a nicer, cleaner flavor.

Wow, you jumped into the deep end of the brewing pool. Congrats! You have done your homework, and will make great beer.

Stone is pretty awesome stuff, let us know how it turns out!

Let us know how it turns out! I also jumped straight in to all grain brewing, no extract, partial mash or BIAB. My first batch turned out "OK", it was very drinkable but had some flaws. The good thing is that I knew my sanitation standards were good and I learned a lot. My second batch turned out absolutely world-class IMO after putting what I learned into practice and I've been taking it from there!

Your process sounds good, keep it up!

BigFloyd said:

Wait 72 hours before considering pitching more yeast. Also, airlock activity isn't always a reliable indicator. Any little leak at the top of the fermenter will let CO2 escape (= no bubbles), but fermentation is still happening.

One of the hardest things when you just start is to leave the beer alone to do its thing in the fermenter, but that's what you should do, leave it alone.

Next time:

1) chill your wort down to about 62-65*F before pitching ale yeast.

2) rehydrate your dry yeast before pitching. Sprinkling dry into wort kills as much as 1/2 the cells in the packet. Basic steps are at - http://www.danstaryeast.com/library/rehydration-and-usage-tips-ale-yeast

3) Since you can control your ferment temps (Good for you. It's one of the most important keys to good brew), start the ferment at the low end of the optimal range for the yeast you are using and hold it there for the first week. After that, slowly step it up to the middle of the optimal range for that yeast until it's finished. You'll get a nicer, cleaner flavor.

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Thanks for the feedback. I planned on rehydrating the yeast but was unsure of the sanitization standard when doing it. Say if I was going to do it in an Erlenmeyer flask. Would I need to sanitize the entire flask before pouring water in? Do I then need to boil the water and bring it down to temp before hydrating?



UPDATE: Fermentation has kicked off! Sometime between 36-46 hours after pitching. I'm now getting healthy bubbling every 3-5 seconds. Now I'm worried I might blow the lid off! I think I'll let this one slide and then plan on blow off tube for my next beers when I hydrate the US-05 or make a starter off something else.

You've got the right idea. I use a Pyrex glass measuring cup as you want to sprinkle the yeast over the whole surface area of the water. I keep a bucket of Starsan on hand so I just drop my measuring cup and thermometer in there while I boil water for a few minutes. Empty out the starsan, pour water into the measuring cup and cool to the correct temperature (usually somewhere between 85-105*F depending on manufacturer). I put my sanitized thermometer in the water to keep an eye on the temp. It can actually take quite a while to cool off, so I usually put some cold water in a bowl and put the cup in there to chill it until it's at at the temp I want. Sprinkle the yeast over the surface of the boiled, cooled water and don't touch it until at least 15 minutes has elapsed (or 30 depending on the manufacturer's advice). Then stir, wait a few more minutes, and pitch into your wort.

What happens (anyone please feel free to chime in and correct me if I'm wrong) is that the water rushes through the cell walls of the dehydrated yeast instantly on contact, and there is an ideal temperature that this happens while keeping the cells viable (too hot or too cold and it can kill them). You don't want to wait too long after rehydrating to pitch because the yeast cells have been cultured in a way that they are ready to eat and if you leave them too long they will start to die.

Many folks just sprinkle directly on the wort as you did, and some manufacturers say that's a totally viable option. I've been hydrating.

Congrats on the fermentation, it's exciting (I have a batch that I've been peeking in on every few hours just because I love watching the bubbling). After a few batches you won't be as worried about the fermentation starting and you will be able to relax and just let it do its thing.

Update: Fermentation kicked off in a hurry that night and by the time I went to sleep I had 3-4 bubbles per second. I was afraid of blowing the lid off but luckily it did not happen. Next time I will start with a blow off tube and move to an airlock after vigorous fermentation is done.

For those of you that have frequently used US-05, should I ramp up my temperature towards the end of primary? I was planning on kegging two weeks after primary (after a few FG checks show good) but didn't know if it would benefit me to ramp up primary to 65-67 for the last few days to try and grab a few more points. Or should I leave it at 63 and keg right after that. Thoughts?

Congrats on your plunge into homebrewing... who says you have learn to walk before you can run? Anyway - I don't use US-05 often, but I do use WL001 (same strain). I always ramp up the temperatures (3-5 degrees) after high krausen. I've had more consistent attenuation following this schedule.

cuda6pak said:

Any tips/hints/comments for my first beer ever???

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Congrats, welcome to the addiction! Please keep us posted with how everything goes, right up to your first tasting.

As others have already noted, you should rehydrate your dry yeast in a measuring cup, rather than just sprinkling it on top of your wort.

Also, you don't need to aerate the wort when pitching dry yeast. It's only necessary when using liquid yeast.

Watch those temperatures, can't wait to hear how it turns out!

Good on ya, mate.

I've been lurking the various brewing forums for a couple months now... researching, planning, etc. Hoping to finish up my equipment selection in the near future and finally pull the trigger.

I'll be taking a similar approach (minus the kegging) on my first shot. It's inspiring to see people approach the hobby with such fervor.

Update:

Finally got around to my first ever racking/kegging tonight. I ended up fermenting in primary for 5 days at 63* and then bumped it up to 66* for 3 more days. Then I cold crashed at 35* for 36 hours. The beer was clear as could be. Kegging took a bit longer than expected due to an initial dirty keg. After lots of oxiclean, scrubbing, and sanitizer I put it all back together and racked it to the keg. Put 2psi to the keg and burped it several times, then turned up the regulator to 12psi. My plan is to let it sit two weeks and carb up, which by that time I will have brewed my second beer (Red Rye IPA) and will force carb that and end up with two beers on tap from the get go!

FG ended up being 1.008. The US-05 definitely did their work and I think the fermentation chamber definitely helped. The sample tasted good, but had a bit of an aftertaste I'm not sure I can place. I am still very new so I will see how it tastes after carbing up. I may not yet have the palate for uncarbed beer taste. One thing to note is the hoppy aroma I had post-boil was not evident at all. I racked on top of 1oz Centennial in a sanitized muslin bag so we will see if that brings it out.

One thing I did forget was to tilt the fermentor when racking. I lost about a pint due to that inexeperience. It start sucking air and I got paranoid about oxygenation so I just pulled the cane out without thinking. .Oh well, still excited about my first brew! RRyePA is scheduled for this Saturday!

edit: Now that I think about it I forgot to purge the keg with c02 before I racked it after sanitization. Ech, well hopefully I didn't splash too much on the initial fill...

Update:

After 9 days on the gas at 12psi, I had to take a taste. Poured extremely smooth, my system must be balanced perfectly because I couldn't get foam even if I wanted to. Still VERY undercarbed. Upfront taste and smell was pretty good, but there was this aftertaste that lingered on the tongue. I am trying to figure out if it's cardboardish or bandaidish but I don't think my palate has developed enough to know. I don't know if "green" beers have some sort of slight lingering taste? If not I suspect either oxidation or chloramine...

Tonight (day 10) I tried another pull. Seemed slightly more carbed, but still zero head or foam. Taste seemed improved, but still the aftertaste on the back of the tongue. Out of frustration I bumped the psi to 20 and will leave it there for 12 hours and then bring it back down to 12 and burp the keg a few times.

The two possibilities on my mind are my kegging incident from the above post, and chloramine from my water. Looking back I made a few mistakes. In the interest of saving time I ran hot water through the MoreBeer water filter rather than cold, and at full pressure. I also didn't even soak the vinyl lines or filter system in pbw and rinse. So I'm thinking that may be the case and I have oxidation on my hands. Oh well, once it's carbd up that just means I have to drink it quicker

I fixed the above mistake on my second brew, by cleaning and rinsing my water filter system, and running cold water through the filter very slow while filling my BK. I will see how that one tastes at kegging later this week. I am also planning on buying campden tablets to throw in with my water just to be sure, since they are cheap insurance.

Even after hitting FG, a lot is still happening in there from weeks 2-4.

If you let it age a little longer than 2 weeks, the yeast will condition the beer further. You will achieve more clarity and better flavor. Usually if I am not planning on going to secondary, I let it sit at least 3 weeks in primary. Granted I bottle my beer, I don't keg...

With Irish Moss and cold crashing, the beer is very clear. For the bigger brews I plan to make I will do 2+ week in primary before cold crashing. I figure the extended aging in the keg will help as well as I don't plan on emptying these for quite some time.

I am still trying to figure out why the beer is carbonated, but has zero head. I don't think it is the glassware, as they are the same glasses I use for all my other beers, which have great head. Even pouring directly in and not down the side was producing zero foam. Possibly thoughts are the lines aren't completely clean of the PBW. So I will rinse and re-rinse with starsan and see if that helps. I worried so much about foam in the setup of my keezer that now I can't even get it if I try (15' lines, fan, etc)!

I bought a bomber of Stone IPA this past weekend and will do a side by side comparison and post up the pics. Hopefully the extra 4-5 days will help with head retention.

cuda6pak said:

I am still trying to figure out why the beer is carbonated, but has zero head.

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Isn't that usually a product of the recipe? High alcohol content, low hoppiness, and low protein malts generally all contribute to poor head retention. Conversely, a sessionable, super-hoppy IPA with a half-pound of Carafoam should have more head than ... well, I'll let you fill in the blank.

cuda6pak said:

I'm thinking of building some sort of pickup tube for the BK as there was some wort that I missed out on due to the height of the ball valve.

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This is the same issue I'm currently working on. For all my brews so far, I've just drained from the BK directly into my fermenter through the ball valve and barb fitting on my boil kettle. I've been able to tip the kettle a bit to get a little extra wort, but generally once the level drops below the level of the valve outlet, the flow stops and I'm left with 1/2 a gallon or so of wort that just gets dumped on my driveway.

Now that I've switched to a plate chiller and pump, I needed a better way to get that last bit of wort, so I bought a Hop Stopper. Hallelujah! Problem solved, right?

Well, not exactly. The 2 times I've used it so far, I've lost suction on the pickup tube once the wort level has dropped down to the screen. The first time, I was unaware that you're supposed to throttle back the flow to keep the line primed. The second time, I throttled it back to a trickle, but still lost suction with a good gallon or so of wort left in the kettle. Next time, I guess I'll throttle it back even further, but it lost suction even at a trickle, so I'm not sure how much more I can close off the valve without cutting it off completely. Besides, the plate chiller was supposed to make the post-boil steps FASTER. If I'm going to stand there for 20 minutes watching wort dribble into my fermenter, I might as well just go back to my immersion chiller.

I also have foam issues at the start of a keg. Seems to not have any for about 6-10 pints, and then its like the extra head space in the keg helps out, or it just takes a while to become fully carbed. my beer lines are 1/4 id and about 3 feet long.

for those first dozen glasses i just give it an agressive pour and im good to go.

Cuda

That sounds like a nice setup.

I know u r in a hurry with the first batch but 2-3 weeks in primary and 4+ for higher gravity beers will improve the beer. Pick up a copy of palmers how to brew.

Summers beers like wheat and cream ale can go pretty quick from grain to glass.

Also I cold crash in the keg. Takes a week to fully carbonate at which point the kegged beer is crystal clear.

I recently used priming sugar In a keg. Let it sit in the closet for a week and then put it on about 8psi. Well carbed and a nice head. Is there any negatives to doing this in the future

Update:

Well it seems my no foam/head/carb issue has solved itself. An aggressive pour along with some half throttle from the tap and no issue whatsoever. Lacing and head both looked good which was a relief to forget about those issues. The real Stone was definitely a cleaner finish and better beer overall. Mine still has that back of the tongue taste I was talking about, which you seems like I can smell it as well, not really sure what it is, I'd need somebody with a little more experience to let me know. Any other IPA finishes real clean, mine leaves a slight taste on the back of your tongue. I also forgot to mention earlier that I accidentally left the grain mill at 0.050" for this crush so it wasn't the best. I bumped it down to 0.039 for my second brew.

Overall, for my very first brew it's pretty good! Especially when comparing it against one of the best craft breweries in the U.S. I think my RRyePA and future beers will only get better!

(Mine is on the left)