Trying to wrap my head around the basic all grain process

So, I'm looking into AG for the obvious reasons. In my research I've found some good guides. So I'd like to review the basic process and have people throw in advice.
So, Ill need a second pot(6+ gal) and a mash-tun of some form(probably gonna build one from this cooler I have)
1. Heat up water(uh, what is this called, strike/sparge/im probably way off) to like 168ish, 1.25qts for each pound of grain.
2. add grain and water to mashtun and let it sit for whatever time (40-90min)
3. drain off this wort, put it back in the mashtun for 10 more minutes, drain this off and add to brewpot
4. make up for the difference in absorbed wort by heating more water to run through the grains.
5. run difference in water through grain(letting sit for 10 minutes)
6. add this wort to kettle
7. brew like an extract batch
that sound about right?

http://www.rackers.org/calcs.shtml

You should at least figure out a proper strike temperature for your mash: 168 might be too high depending on your mash tun and grain temp. The main thing is you should aim for a mash temp of 153 (with grains in) at 60 minutes. 168 is the temp to shoot for with a mash out. The 153 rule is the best mash to aim for with a generic recipe: ideally you would aim for temps and times depending on your recipe.

You've pretty much nailed the process but may have a few terms mixed up (there are tons of brewing terms easy to do).

1st water addition is "strike water" sometimes called "mashing in" when you add it.
After you let the mash sit for an hour you allow it to run off and usually pour the first few pints back in, this allows a clearer wort to pour off, this is called "vorlauf", you don't need to let this sit 10 minutes just pour the first 2-3 pints back in the top and then drain the tun until empty.
Finally the 170F water additions are "sparge" water, these help to rinse the grains of excess sugars.

Other than that the process you've described in right on.

1 piece of advice: consider pre-heating your mash tun by adding water that is extra hot (in the 175F range) and letting it sit. This will allow your tun to absorb all the energy it can before you mash-in and minimize the temperature losses you experience during your mash.

Course my temps are off I just kinda generalized, and yea the assumption was before the addition of grain.
Good point on the preheat.

Also would this be considered fly or batch sparging?

Thundercougarfalconbird said:

Also would this be considered fly or batch sparging?

Click to expand...

batch sparging is where you add your hot water, stir everything, wait 10-15 minutes then drain off all the water, this can be done 1 or 2 times.
fly sparging is where you are constantly adding water to the top of the tun at the same rate it is draining out the bottom of the tun.

I'd encourage batch sparging the first few times as its the easier of the two.

gotcha, yea, I dont have the gear to fly sparge.

It's really simple

Grains + strike water = mash (60ish minutes)
drain wort (first runnings) from mash, rinse with more water = batch sparge
combine all water from first runnings/sparges into brew kettle and boil

The rest is just playing with numbers

and if you want to keep things clean Thundercougarfalconbird, try mashing in a bag (fine mesh).

I made this post for a non brewing forum so its pretty basic but its a good start.

Some people mentioned they'd like to see the brewing process. Well, here it is. My setup is intended to be used for 10 gallon All Grain Batches. Most people will start out doing Malt Extract batches so if that's you, I will point out where you'd start. Doing all grain and mashing yourself gives you greater control over ingredients used. You can make great beer with extract and doing all grain, but if you jump into all grain with bad brewing practices you will make bad beer. So if your getting into the hobby start with extract.
This is an app on my phone that I use for various things including recipe making. Today I am making 5 gallons of a stout that will be introduced to Bacteria to sour it. This is also my first attempt at a sour beer. The initial stages are the same for any beer.



The equipment: Here is my 15 gallon brew pot heating up the Mash water.

Here is my trusty Budweiser "mash tun". It works very well to maintain the heat over the 60 minute mash. Only drops a degree or 2. You can see that its nothing fancy as it doesn't really need to be. It has a transfer valve and a braided stainless line inside to filter the grain.





A successful mash is very dependent on your temperature and mash thickness. This is a program I use that tells you how much water depending on your mash thickness, (mine was thin at 1.75qts/Lb of grain)and preference of mashing temp. Low 150's leaches the sugars out that are highly fermentable.
If you go into the upper 150's or even 160;'s (where Lagunitas mashes everything) you will pull out additional sugars or dextrins that are not fermentable by yeast. That results in a maltier/sweeter beer that will also have more body/mouthfeel.



While your mash water is heating up use that time to weigh out your hops just so your prepared come boil time.



Water is to temp, time to mash in.





Mix the water and the grains well, you don't want any dry clumps as you won't get the sugar from them. You can get an idea of what your finished beer and head will look like by the mash. Once its all mixed together close it up and let it sit for 60 minutes, that is plenty of time for the enzymatic conversion of starches to sugar.



In the meantime, get another pot measured out with your Sparge water. Use you brewing software to determine the sparge water temp. This will be used after the initial water is drained from the mash tun.

Here we are 60 minutes later. Time to drain the wort from the mash tun back to the kettle. Always run into a glass a couple times to get the grain bed set. Once its set, you won't get any unwanted grain into your kettle. Just pour the glass back in the top of the tun.





This is what your grain bed will look like after your first runnings. Once all the initial water is drained, close your valve and dump in your sparge water.



Once your water is all in, stir it up to help loosen the remaining sugars (sparge water is hotter to help make them easier to extract).



Repeat the same process to get the grain bed set. After that, all your wort is into your kettle. Now I take it outside for the boil (I mash outside in the summer too)



Once your wort comes to a boil (around 210F) you will get some "hot break" which looks like head on a beer. I use a metal strainer to scoop off some of it. Its not desirable in your fermentation but its not a big deal if its in there. Some people skim it and some don't. I think it helps reduce waste in the end product.



After the hot break dies down its time to add your bittering hops and start your boil timer of 60 minutes. Since this is a stout I will only be doing 2 additions of hops. The earlier the hops are add the more bittering they offer. Hops around between 10 and 30 minutes offer flavor and hops between 0 and 10 minutes add aroma. You will also use dry hopping for IPA's and any beer you want to smell hoppy. Dry hopping is throwing hops in during the later stages of fermentation before bottling/kegging.



I personally use a hop bag because it just makes for an easier clean up and cleaner transfer to the fermenter.



I did another addition of hops at 20 minutes. Once the boil was over I threw the pot in the snow bank and put the wort chiller in. The faster you get it down to yeast pitching temps the better. I use a 15 ft copper immersion chiller attached to a cold plate (aluminum block) and it works awesome. In the summer time the cold plate gets put into a bucket filled with ice water. You want your Wort around 65-70 degrees for pitch depending on your specific yeast.

Once its down to temp its time to put it in a fermenter and add your yeast. On this occasion I am adding it to a fermenter that has a nice big colony of yeast left over from a cherry wheat that I just kegged this morning. Yeast multiply throughout the process of fermentation and it is very important to start with enough yeast. The high the gravity (alcohol) the more yeast you need to start with. My app will tell you the proper amount to pitch depending on your using dry or liquid.



You may have noticed in stores or online that liquid yeast is $6-$7 a vial and pictured above it is saying that I would need 3 vials to pitch the appropriate amount. This is why I reuse yeast cakes from other batches and I also harvest yeast like pictured below.



You always have to drink good beer while brewing too.... This is a bottle that I got from a buddy who's wife runs this brewpub in Colorado Springs. Its also the beer that I pitched they yeast/bacteria dregs from the bottom of the bottle. If all goes as planned, I will have a sour stout in 6-10 months. If this were a normal beer, I'd leave it in the fermenter for 2-3weeks and then bottle or keg it, then leave it for another month before sampling. Darker beers need more time to smooth out but IPA's and wheat beers are to be drank young so a month would be plenty of time.



Also drank one of these guys from Russian River.



Here is the fermenter all buttoned up with an airlock that lets co2 out but no oxygen in. Its filled with a sanitizer solution that won't contaminate the beer or change its flavor in any way if it gets in.



Hopefully this has raised interest in homebrewing. It really isn't all that complicated and its far cheaper than buying craft beers in the store. You can get 2 cases (5 gallons) of a 7% beer for roughly $35-$40. Something like bell's two hearted is $40 per case so your looking at half price and good better. I've honestly had people tell me that in a side by side comparison that my Fat Tire clone is far better than Fat Tire itself and I agree.

Some great info here. I am going to get more batches under my belt befor going in to AG but I do want to do it.

Roger

Yea, Im waiting on my third extract batch to finish. I just want a more involved process thats more time consuming and complex =P extract is just so easy