Thank You EdWort

I brewed my first AG today and it was EdWorts Haus Ale
This is awesome doing an AG brew, glad I took the plunge
now the hard part of waiting and I need to figure my efficiency


Strike water temp 178F Grain temp 70F Cooler temp 68F
mash temp after dough in 156.5F temp after 30 min 155.5F
gravity pre boil 1.044
gravity post boil 1.055
started boil with about 6.75 gal, boiled down and put 5.5 gal into primary

Thanks for an easy to brew first AG
one minor change to yours was I had 1/2# of 30/40L leftover from an earlier brew session and used it instead of the 10L. This should be slightly darker and a little more carmal flavor I hope.

Awesome! I think I'm gonna use this recipe my next brew day for my first AG. (Been doing "mostly" mashes up until now. Gonna add some Simcoes, though...sorry, Ed!

Ed's recipe (slightly modified) is in my primary right now, too.

I'll be interesting to see how it turns out.

I have some of this going right now, too. It [thread=39613]didn't attenuate[/thread] as much as I'd like, but I still think its going to turn out great. I definately will do it again soon.

Thanks EdWort!

Hey, I did my first AG yeterday, and did the haus pale ale.

My strike water was 168
grain was 75
I pre-heater mash-tun with 140 water
mash temp at start 153
mash temp after 30 min 146

used the batch sparge method. I am not sure I waited long enough on second time, used 3.25 gal of 170 water and sparged off to my kettle after 10 min.

per boil gravity 1.035
post boil gravity 1.041

fermenting 6 gal nicely after 10 hours.

everything went well, I just don't know why my gravities are low.
The grain was crushed at the Woodland Hills CA Homebrew shop.
Any thoughts?

Ya'll are very welcome! I hope you enjoy it!

I have 5 in primary and 5 in secondary ... based on the comments on HBT.Com, I just went ahead and did 2 5 gallon batches... going to bottle in a few days, so, of course, there will be obvious need to harvest a sample or 2 (smile)

I wish the Columbus day holiday came 3 weeks from now .. guess I will just need to declare my own Haus Holiday !

I have almost killed my keg of haus pale ale. Cool thing is Ive got five gallons in bottles waiting to be drank

It is very hard to be accurate with hitting mash OG when your measurements are based on what you believe is accurate and in fact is wrong due to inaccurate volumes. I see so many brewers state that they have not hit their intended OG and the reason why was that they had not measured the volumes correctly in the first place. One can not assume anything. All volumes must be measured with accurate devices. What I mean by this is that you must calibrate everything that is used to determine volumes with known accurate devices. Take a good accurate measuring cup and fill a container that will hold a full gallon and mark this container. Then fill your boil vessel with a gallon and mark on the inside with a marker that will not be erased easily. Then fill with the next gallon and mark. Do this again until you get to the top of the vessel. Everything must be level for the markings to be accurate. Finish by stamping (with a metal stamp and back up anvil) the vessel at each point you have marked. Do this as accurately as possible! Now when you take a reading with your Brix meter or gravity gauge you will know that it is based on a known accurate volume of wort.

Measuring grain:
Grain has to be measured just as accurately as the water volume and so you must use a scale with known accuracy (Do not depend on the local brewers supply for accuracy). There are standard weight sets certified accurate by (The beaurough of American standard weights and measures) which when placed on a scale will insure that the scale is accurate. This is done at several points on the scale to insure it is accurate at all points within its operating range. Digital scales are usually quite accurate as they must measure "grains" which is much smaller than ounces or pounds. However, do check the digital scale for accuracy anyway with known weights if you have access to calibration weights. Now when you measure, you can be confident that you will be using good known volumes and weights. Doing nothing to insure accuracy is a crapshoot! There....... I've said it.......... Now go do it.
:rockin:

You can do it. I hit my target O.G. every time now on my basic recipes. I measure my own grain through, down to a tenth of an ounce. I also use the attached Excel spread sheet to calculate mash & sparge water for batch sparging.

View attachment BatchSparge.zip

EdWort said:

You can do it. I hit my target O.G. every time now on my basic recipes. I measure my own grain through, down to a tenth of an ounce. I also use the attached Excel spread sheet to calculate mash & sparge water for batch sparging.

Click to expand...

Right on Ed, don't assume anything! Otherwise it is just an excercise in going through the motions and the result is just inaccurate. That is why you can repeat your recipes and get known results.

Yea, that's a good beer. I have it on tap now...except I did a PM, and use some Amarillo.

gonzo brewer said:

everything went well, I just don't know why my gravities are low.
The grain was crushed at the Woodland Hills CA Homebrew shop.
Any thoughts?

Click to expand...

Sometimes the crush can be not so great. Also on a batch sparge, don't forget to stir the hell out of it before you collect your wort. Not sure if you did this or not from your previous post.

Congrats on your first AG batch!

I'd also like to pay my respects to Edwort. I have used your haus ale recipe as a base for my own house ale recipe. Also, I have made your apfelwein with great success. Thank You!