First AG Brew - Smithwicks Ale

Hey everyone --

I have been lurking on here a lot, but have not posted much, seeing that I am a newbie and don't have that much to say. BUT THANKS TO ALL OF YOU FOR ALL THE GREAT INFO!!!! Without it I would be totally lost. I now have brewed 7 batches, including an EdWort's Apfelwein. Everything so far was either extract or partial mash.
Well, no more! Today was the big day for my first AG brew. (Kinda out of necessity - during my last brew, a Newcastle Brown Ale, I noticed that one of my buckets of LME had gone bad due to the darn humidity here in TX. So instead of buying more of it, I went out and got me more grain. Thanks to FlyGuy, btw for the superb MLT build...

Anyway, I was on call today for work, but the powers to be decided not to use me. So I called a buddy over who wanted to look over my shoulder anyway and we got going.
All in all it went really well. I am very proud of myself (tap on back...) Of course as I do this more often the procedure will get more streamlined. Like the whole timing thing to heat the sparge water, etc.
My Smithwicks Clone had 9.25 lbs of grain, and I used 1.3 qts/lb initially. No problems there, the MLT worked like a charm - I was a bit worried about a stuck sparge, but Flyguy knows what he is doing! I lost 1 degree over the first hour!!!
The first glitch I ran into was the second sparge. It called for 2qts/lb and that just did not fit into my 5 gallon Igloo. Well, who cares, so I just did it a second time until I got my 7.5 gallons of wort. My pre-boil gravity read 1.043. Not bad, but because I only have the mini mash instrucyions and not the AG, I am not sure where I should have been at. Brew Pal on my iPhone said it should have been 1.049. Again, who cares. Relax have a Home Brew, right? WRONG - remember I was on call? Brewing without the necessary internal brew quota sucks. But because I was wearing my camo pants and had my earring in, I felt like a rebel and added a bit shy of a pound of DME just for fun. Seeing that I was off, I might as well get creative.
From here on everything went fine, got it chilled fairly fast, bubbled some air through it while taking a pizza break (homemade by the wife...) and pitched the yeast. In the meantime I also racked the Newcastle to a glass secondary, as I needed the fermenter...
So now I have two happily bubbling away!

Next step kegging for sure!!!!!

If anyone would like to help, a bit of guidance on the following would be appreciated:



- do I upgrade to a 10 gallon Igloo or can I cut down on the quarts per pound for the sparge, so I can fit everything in the 5 Gallon cooler? (I am sure Lowes won't mind me returning a cooler that smells like beer....)

- Besides timing the heating process, does anyone have a good time line as far as heating the water goes? I was not off by much, but had to add a bit of cold water at one point and heat a bit more at another

- while waiting for the boil to finish, I was paging through Palmers AG recipes. A lot of them call for raising the mash temp after a certain time. How can this be done in a Cooler MLT? Is there a different process or a way to make the recipe work with my MLT?

Again, thanks for all the help and advice. Reading all this info made my step into AG quite simple and a lot less threatening.

Now for the worst part: waiting for weeks for the first sample.

Oh, and if the guy that gave me crap about my screen name is reading this - well, here ya go. Only 7 brews to get true to my name! But you have to start somewhere, right?

- do I upgrade to a 10 gallon Igloo or can I cut down on the quarts per pound for the sparge, so I can fit everything in the 5 Gallon cooler? (I am sure Lowes won't mind me returning a cooler that smells like beer....)

The standard is 1.25qt/lb for most styles, some bigger beers you want a little higher so that you dont have a thick mash. You'll be glad you went bigger if you can do it, I have a 70qt coleman extreme from wal-mart and I havent had a beer come close to filling it. If I lose 1° im suprised, even with a small grain bill, its an awesome cooler.

- Besides timing the heating process, does anyone have a good time line as far as heating the water goes? I was not off by much, but had to add a bit of cold water at one point and heat a bit more at another
I usually heat my water up to the temp I need it and then shut the burner off (or turn it way down). Its a lot easier to heat it up a few degrees right when your ready rather then realize you still have 10-20 mins before your water is ready.

- while waiting for the boil to finish, I was paging through Palmers AG recipes. A lot of them call for raising the mash temp after a certain time. How can this be done in a Cooler MLT? Is there a different process or a way to make the recipe work with my MLT?
I'm not an expert on this one but thats called step mashing. I have never done it. Other then raising the temp of the grain bed for my sparge, I mash in and let it sit for an hour, then sparge.
Again, thanks for all the help and advice. Reading all this info made my step into AG quite simple and a lot less threatening.

Now for the worst part: waiting for weeks for the first sample.
21 days is my limit before I even open my primary

Oh, and if the guy that gave me crap about my screen name is reading this - well, here ya go. Only 7 brews to get true to my name! But you have to start somewhere, right?[/QUOTE]
congrats!

Thanks Spork - I will go the 10 G route. Take the tap apart, return the beer smelling cooler to Lowes, and rebuild. No big deal. I already look forward to the faces at the return desk....

Oh, just to clarify:

I did 1.3/lb for the mash, 60 minutes at 154.
Then it called for 2.0/lb at 178 for 20 minutes.

Could I cut down on the 2..0??

Reinheitsgebot said:

Oh, just to clarify:

I did 1.3/lb for the mash, 60 minutes at 154.
Then it called for 2.0/lb at 178 for 20 minutes.

Could I cut down on the 2..0??

Click to expand...

i've never heard of a grain/water ratio with sparging. You sparge to stop the grain from converting and to rinse the sugars out. Whatever volume of water you need preboil that you didnt already get from the mash is how much you should use.

So if I got 4g from my mash, and needed a 6.5g preboil, i'd sparge with 2.5g at around 185ish <--- use a brewing software to figure that

well, that makes sense. I got the 2.0 from a post on here a few days ago, trying to convert this mini mash recipe to AG.
But I am learning, so I will try your way the next time. It would save me another 30 minutes or so.

Congrats on your all-grain batch!

I'd also recommend a larger tun (at least 10 gallons) if you are brewing 5 gallon batches, and want to try some medium to large grain bills.

I don't know if you can really do a step mash with a cooler MLT ... not easily at least. The single infusion mash that Spork describes has worked great for me and my cooler. With the well modified grains we use nowadays, I've read the extra steps are not usually neccessary.

Tip: Heat your mash water a few degrees higher (5-6-F) than the software says, and pour into your empty MLT first. Measure the temp. Wait a few minutes and measure the tempature again. Then when you add your grains, you should be at a nice stable tempature. The MLT is already heated up. If you were too hot, stir the mash a bit until it reaches your step temp. (It is easier to cool it down stirring, then to heat it up by adding more hot water)

Then you have some figures to fine tune for next time. Within a few batches, you should be doughing-in to your exact step temp.

And with batch sparging, I've read that you are most efficient when the runoffs volumes are the same. Because of grain absorption, and tun dead space, it can be tough to calculate. Most brewing software will do this for you. (e.g. on my last brew, an IPA, I mashed 4.5 gallons, and sparged with 3.75 gallons, for a total collected boil volume of 6.25 gallons)

Have fun and enjoy your homebrew!
--LexusChris

Thanks Lexus, more good advice! I had the MLT preheated with about a gallon of boiling water for maybe 15 minutes or so. I then poured that out, added the mash water and slowly stirred in the grain in smallish batches to prevent clumping.
The initial temp of the mash water was 168, and then with the grain balanced perfectly at 154, just as I wanted it to. Over the 60 minute mash, the tamp dropped exactly 0.9 degrees. (not that I am very particular or anything...)
All in all I am very happy on how it went - I am VERY sure my Bavarian heritage had a lot to do with it