First All-Grain... A learning experience I hope

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Finally did my first all-grain tonight, EdWort's Haus Pale Ale.
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=31793
Batch sparging, most everything went well. Mashed a little too hot (163), stirred around till it cooled down to 154, closed the lid and came back after an hour. Recirculated a couple of quarts, then collected the first runnings. Got about 2.3 gallons of first wort @ 1.060. Oops, forgot to add water to make up for grain absorption.

To sparge I used 4.5 gallons instead of the 3.5 to try to make up for 5 qts I failed to add to the first runnings. This is about when I realize my thermometer was not working. Don't know if grain bed really was @ 154 the whole first mash. Swapped to my glass therm.

Added the 4.5 gallons @ 165, stirred in, went to 154 (for sure this time) and left it for 10 minutes. Ran off. Didn't measure that volume, I assume it had to be 4.5 gal since grain had already absorbed. Came out to 1.020.

Did the boil and everything normal from there, came out with exactly 5 gallons in the fermenter, but it is at 1.040. Oh well. I don't know if I missed my first grain temp due to the thermometer, or it was my failure to add in the 5 qts at end of 1st mash. I have another batch of ingredients for the same recipe, then 2 batches of Edwort's Bavarian hefe. Hopefully it wont take me 4 batches to figure out this terrible efficiency.
 
Congrats on your first AG batch. I've recently joined the AG club as well, only I picked Biermuncher's Centennial Blonde.

I felt pretty disappointed after my brew day also, as I screwed up some very basic steps and ended up with poor efficiency. The good news though, is that I have a much better idea on what to do for my next batch.
Also, after trying a few hydrometer samples since brew day, I have high hopes for my finished product. I have never had better tasting hydrometer samples, and this gives me great hope because my previous batches ended up being quite good. I just hope the beer carbonates well and balances out.

I would have killed for 1.040, since this is what my recipe called for at 70% efficiency. I ended up with less than this. Your beer will be pretty light, so just make sure to drink more! It will still be beer, it will just be a lighter beer. Who knows, maybe you'll prefer it that way and it'll turn out to be the next great recipe here. At worst, it'll be a decent, but not outstanding beer.

You don't have to hope that today was a learning experience... it was. You learned a ton about the process and the next time you try it, it will be much easier for you. You'll be a lot more confident in your ability to do all grain and your beer will benefit from it.

I look forward to hearing about how it turns out.
 
Yeah, you really need to chalk up your first few batches as a learning experience. I'm sure the brew will still turn out great - don't worry. Hopefully you'll be able to get things dialed in quickly where it all goes much easier.

Oh, and welcome to the dark side.
 
Thanks for the encouragement, guys. I think the big problem was probably not ggetting enough 1st wort since I didn't add water to account for grain absorbtion before my first runnings. After pouring in the sparge water (with 4 qts extra), I stirred it for a few minutes, then closed up the tun and waited another 10 minutes before collecting the second runnings. I hope the too thick first runnings coupled with the too thin second mash were my culprit, and not AHS crush or my MLT.
 
I just did my first AG too and it just blew the top on my carboy and had a massive head of foam. I sadly am at work and get a call from my lady friend, who of course isn't the happiest. Any ideas on why there was so much foam? It just got racked from primary...maybe wait a little longer next time.
 
I just did my first AG too and it just blew the top on my carboy and had a massive head of foam. I sadly am at work and get a call from my lady friend, who of course isn't the happiest. Any ideas on why there was so much foam? It just got racked from primary...maybe wait a little longer next time.

I just had the same thing happen. Did you use a yeast starter? I never had a problem with high krausen until I started making yeast starters. You probably want to start using a blowoff tube instead of an airlock.
 
According to beersmith- 53% Blech. I will try round 2 tomorrow night. I have 4 fermenters to fill up, and 20 points to find.
I have read peak efficiency with batch sparging is gained through having your first and second runnings equal, and mine definitely were not.
 
If you have the capacity, try going with a bigger boil. I usually start with 7.5 - 8 galllons and boil it down, I also usually go with a 90 minute boil to make sure there is no DMS (Jamil says to do it... so I listen). When I went to the larger longer boils, I got a huge increase in my efficiency, more sugars coming out.
 
I just did my first AG too and it just blew the top on my carboy and had a massive head of foam. I sadly am at work and get a call from my lady friend, who of course isn't the happiest. Any ideas on why there was so much foam? It just got racked from primary...maybe wait a little longer next time.

Whoa whoa whoa! How long did you let that thing sit in primary?

If you get that much fermentation after racking to secondary, you're either not waiting anywhere near long enough or you had a stuck fermentation and racking woke the yeast up. Next time, use your hydrometer and don't even think about racking until the hydrometer is sitting at the exact same reading, close to your expected FG for at least three days.
 
also, to the OP, how hot did you sparge? I didn't get good efficiency till I went up to 180 - 185
 
also, to the OP, how hot did you sparge? I didn't get good efficiency till I went up to 180 - 185

The general rule is that you don't want to have your mash temp when sparging above 170F. Going above 170F and you risk extracting tannens and bad flavors from the husks fo the grain.

My best advise to all the new all grain brewers (and all brewers for that matter) is to take good notes and to have your plan for your brew day written down that you can check off as you go. You'll have it right in front of you how much water and at what temp you should be putting into your mash tun and for sparging with. With good notes you'll have an idea of how you'll need to tweek your process for the next time.
 
Did the boil and everything normal from there, came out with exactly 5 gallons in the fermenter, but it is at 1.040.

Welcome to All grain, I did exactly the same around 2 weeks ago and also had issues with volumes and mash temps. Last week I did the same except I switched to 40 crystal and just a few ounces of roasted barley to hopefully have a little house red. Things went a little smoother but still needs fine tuning. Right now I'm working on my third, Eds Hefeweizen, but I'm pretty sure the wheat is American and hoping things start to fit together.
Best of luck on your next batch.
 
fishops said:
also, to the OP, how hot did you sparge? I didn't get good efficiency till I went up to 180 - 185
The general rule is that you don't want to have your mash temp when sparging above 170F. Going above 170F and you risk extracting tannens and bad flavors from the husks fo the grain.

I could be wrong, but my guess is fishops was talking about using 180-185º sparge water. If the mash is at 155 or so when you start to sparge, 180º sparge water won't get the mash hot enough to extract tannens - especially if you're batch sparging. If your mash isn't hot enough when you sparge, your efficiency will suffer for sure.

If you're batch sparging, I would suggest hotter sparge water, too. Just make sure the mash temps aren't too high like mykayel warns.
 
I mash in at 1.2 quarts per pound, and use this calculator to figure out my sparges:

http://www.brew365.com/mash_sparge_water_calculator.php

Mashing in on the stiff side gives you more sparge volume and better efficiency for batch spargers. Fly spargers can get away with more mashin volume but my equipment isn't setup for fly sparge. I lose too much heat in my sparge water since I don't have a hot liquor tun.

I do a 5 quart mashout with boiling water to bring the grainbed up to 165 or so, and generally I will collect 2-2.5 gallons of first runnings. Then I'll split the remaining volume I need to collect into two sparges of equal volume (waiting 10 minutes between each sparge and vorlaufing before each runoff). These are usually in the ballpark of what the calc gives me. I always use 180 sparge water, the grainbed stays around 170 that way in my cooler throughout. With this system I get 82% efficiency every time.

Grain crush and sparge temperature are big factors to look at if you have poor efficiency. A lot of LHBS don't do a good crush. A good crush will show evenly cracked grains with some flour and no uncracked grains. It sounds like you may have sparged way too cool. Also you could try double batch sparging. 1.020 for your second runnings means you are leaving a lot behind. My second sparge / third runnings are usually 1.010-1.012.

Cheers. :mug:
- Eric
 
If you have the capacity, try going with a bigger boil. I usually start with 7.5 - 8 galllons and boil it down, I also usually go with a 90 minute boil to make sure there is no DMS (Jamil says to do it... so I listen). When I went to the larger longer boils, I got a huge increase in my efficiency, more sugars coming out.

I have a 40 qt pot. I followed ed's recipe that suggested 3.5 gal, then +5 qts, then 3.5 qts again, but I forgot the 5 quarts and sparged with 4.5 instead. I think that is where most of my problem was. Also, I had a thermometer crap out on me during sparge, and only got the grain bed to 155 instead of just shy of 170!
 
it actually took me 3 batches to get a drinkable AG beer, i think i was trying to accomplish too much for my first 2 tries, on the 3rd, i wasnt worried about efficientcy, and it worked out pretty good. i just took alot of notes, and made sure my watr volumes, and temps were good, and everything came together......the notes were the big help.
 
I have to say that this being my first AG I followed the recipe I was given almost to a tee. I think that I will start using a tube and bucket ferment lock method instead of the little guy here. As for my fermenter, I just think it wasn't large enough (5gal) and I filled it a little high. I knew there would be foam, I just didn't think there would be quite this amount! Time to get a couple more things for the garage brewery...
 
I am looking at going AG soon and am wondering something. When everyone talks about taking gravity readings between sparges, how exactly do you get the wort down to the right temp in order to take a correct reading. I imagine the hydrometer won't read correctly at anything over 100, or am i missing something?
 
For the wort sampling I just put it in water to cool it down to around 100, then I just adjust for the temp.
 
I am looking at going AG soon and am wondering something. When everyone talks about taking gravity readings between sparges, how exactly do you get the wort down to the right temp in order to take a correct reading. I imagine the hydrometer won't read correctly at anything over 100, or am i missing something?

I draw off a sample and drop it in the freezer. After 10 minutes I take the temp, measure the gravity, and adjust for the temp. It's usually pretty cool by then.

- Eric
 
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