Sooo...what'd I make?

Heyyyyyy. A couple weeks ago, I was at the liquor store/LHBS for the hell of it to see if anything struck me. Well it did: I decided to just buy some grains/hops/yeast and go for it. I have a food bucket MLT and just wanted to get the process under my belt, not really caring about the outcome. I don't know how to go about figuring my target gravity or even what style I am brewing. I just wanted to do it and make corrections from there. So here's the dilly:

5lb Pale 2 row
5lb German Munich
[EDIT: 1 lb Crystal 20L]
1 oz Vanguard 8.5AA% (60) <---I think
1 oz Amarillo 4.5 AA% (40)
.5 oz Amarillo 4.5 AA% (10)

Split the batch and made half with S-05 and the other half Nottingham.


Soo what'd I make? I just bottled it yesterday and it's a nice amber color. The S-05 definitely has a cleaner taste than the notty. The notty batch seemed to have a bit more of a bite. I attempted to mash at 156 but lost A LOT of heat when I added the grain to 165 water (even if I would have had the water at like 170, I lost about 20 degrees...weird?). Maybe I didn't get an accurate temp reading because I have a little instant read food thermometer that is only about 6 inches long. but i digress...

Anywho, the reality of the situation is I mashed at 150 with 13.75 quarts, but wanted it higher, so I boiled more water and brought temp up to about 156 about 20 mins into mash. Mashed for a total of 60 mins and got to full conversion.

Sparged with about 4 gallons of water (my mash and sparge volumes were recommended by Yooper). In the end, I got an OG of 1.034 (adjusted for temp). I know it's a bit low. FG was 1.006. (at 70 degrees). So it'll have about 3.5% alcohol.

What'd I make?

bigmanbt said:

What'd I make?

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Beer.

Looks kind of like an American Pale/Amber Ale, but without quite enough of an OG. Probably would have been a perfect match if you'd gotten another 10-15 points.

Definitely beer, though

yeah I was going to just do 5 gal, but yooper said 6.75 (for better conversion?) I figured 11 lbs of grain was a good 5 gal batch...so not sure why i was told otherwise. I'll go with my gut next time...AG nerves haha. If it's good, I'll turn it into a 5 gal and adjust body.

She may have been referring to pre-boil volume.

yeah, that is true...and that is what I did. I really don't know what I yielded after the 60 minute boil. I used 2 different sized pots and the 2 fermenters I have were not marked. I probably ended up with around 5.5 gallons. I filled 48 bottles and 3 bombers + a bit of waste in bottom of primary and bottling bucket.

How DO i figure out my target OG? Does it require me to learn beersmith? I downloaded it and was a bit overwhelmed. And while we're at it, how do I determine my brewhouse efficiency?

bigmanbt said:

How DO i figure out my target OG? Does it require me to learn beersmith? I downloaded it and was a bit overwhelmed. And while we're at it, how do I determine my brewhouse efficiency?

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TastyBrew.com | Recipe Calculation


very easy to use. give it a few minutes and you can figure it out. also has an efficiency calc