First AG Brew this Sat. Wish me luck!!

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Good luck and I'm sure all will go well. Don't fret too much about not nailing everything exactly, those things will come naturally on future brews.
 
I'd suggest you get EVERYTHING prepped & labeled ahead of time so you can focus on the new process. Made my switch much less stressful!
 
I'd suggest you get EVERYTHING prepped & labeled ahead of time so you can focus on the new process. Made my switch much less stressful!

Good Call.

And at the end of the day remember, your making beer. More than likely, no matter if you screw something or not, you'll still end up with beer.
 
Rye is usually one of the more difficult grains to use for AG as it has no hull to help form a filter bed in the mash tun. Adding rice hulls (cheap, impart no flavor, just replaces the missing hulls from the barley) will help. If you are planning on BIAB mashing, you can ignore the rice hulls because the nylon mesh becomes the filter.
 
Good luck and have fun. Keep a pot of boiling water on the stove in case you come up low on temp. Or use cold water if too high.
 
So, if my calculations are correct my efficiency was only about 58%

https://cdn.homebrewtalk.com/images/smilies/confused.gif


Mash temp was about 150F, about -2 what my target was but beersmith said 148F so I just went with it. I was cold out so my MT may have dropped temp over the hour.

Also, should I stir when doing a batch sparge? I didn't. Sparge temp was on point right at 168F.
 
Yes and it's always improving. My line is that this batch (whatever it is) is gonna be my best yet. Cheers and have a great holiday.
 
Sounds to me like you did it near perfect for your first AG batch - couldn't ask for much better. There are a lot worse things that can happen than a little inefficiency. Good job!

I batch sparge and I do stir, a lot. At the end of my mash, I stir it all up before ever draining. Then I add my first batch of sparge water and stir it up for a few minutes, let settle, drain. Then I repeat the process for my second batch sparge. That's how I do it anyway.
 
What percentage of your fermentables was the rye malt?

Don't be too discouraged with low efficiency, especially with your first all grain and doubly so for a rye malt. Rye kernels are smaller than barley and are harder to get a good crush on. A poor crush usually leads to poor extraction of sugars which is where your efficiency suffers. A really great crush with rye malt usually would make a sticky mess that would clog up and make it tough to get the wort out of the mash tun.
 
So, if my calculations are correct my efficiency was only about 58%

I did an Imperial Rye PA a few weeks ago and had almost the exact same results (I'm also very new to AG). I bought some equipment to fly sparge a couple nights ago then did a very similar recipe last night (tweaked my original for taste) and ended up with a brewhouse efficiency of around 75%.

I also crushed my rye twice based on a recommendation. It made up about 25% of my grain bill, so I was a little concerned about getting a stuck sparge, but the rice hulls did their job nicely.
 
I did an Imperial Rye PA a few weeks ago and had almost the exact same results (I'm also very new to AG). I bought some equipment to fly sparge a couple nights ago then did a very similar recipe last night (tweaked my original for taste) and ended up with a brewhouse efficiency of around 75%.

I also crushed my rye twice based on a recommendation. It made up about 25% of my grain bill, so I was a little concerned about getting a stuck sparge, but the rice hulls did their job nicely.

Thanks for the tip!!! I really think not stirring my batch sparge was to blame. How did the beer turn out? Did you try it yet?
 
Thanks for the tip!!! I really think not stirring my batch sparge was to blame. How did the beer turn out? Did you try it yet?

It wasn't too bad, but I had a little too much Crystal 60 and it ended up a little sweeter on the back end than I had aimed for. I also changed the hop character a bit (went from Willamette to Centennial hoping to give slightly less aroma, but hopefully a little more bitterness).

I word for the wise; take everything I say with a grain of salt because I'm still learning, but if you're interested, here is the updated recipe: http://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/view/25796/rye-imperial-ipa
 
Update - Fermentation went well.

Just transferred to secondary and took a gravity reading.

OG - 1.054
Reading after primary - 1.004
 
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