first AG batch tomorrow checklist inside advice appreciated

Ok so i am doing my first all grain batch tomorrow. i decided to make check list so i dont forget anything. anyways i'm posting it up here and maybe you guys can point out something i might have missed or give me advice on improving one step or another.

my equipment consists of 8 gallon kettle, 40qt cooler/MLT, plastic 6.5g primary and 5 gallon glass primary.

so tonight i will make some ice for ice bath to cool down the wort. also will activate my wyest activator pack and leave it out till pitching. (any pointers about Wyeast activator pack thing?? never dont that before as i only used dry yeast till this point) one question i have is it good idea to add yeast nutrition to the wort? do you guys do it or is it unnecessary.

ok now for the brew day.

clean all the equipment, soak fermenter and all post boil stuff in starsan.

one question my water contains chloramine so i bought some Campden tablets to get rid of it. when should i add it in? before mashing or into the boil?

heat up 16.25 quarts of strike water add ph5.2 to the strike water. check grain temperature and calculate strike temp. heat up extra hot water for adjustment. heat up 17 quarts of sparge water to 170.
put it in a mash tun leave for 5 min to heat it up check temperature, add grain.
stir grain thoroughly check that desired temp. is reached (adjust with hot or cold water if necessary). let it rest for 60 minutes.

after mashing is done, recycle wort (use tin foil so recycling does not disturb the grain bed - or any other ideas?) after wort cleared up
collect first runnings. add sparge water, mix grain let it rest for 10 min or so, recycle then collect 2nd runnings.

boil for 60 minutes, add hops where necessary. i saw some people skimming the wort is it recommended? at 15 minutes put in immersion chiller to sanitize it.

after boil is done put it in the ice bath and start immersion chiller. cool it down to 75 or so. put into fermenter pitch yeast.

done.

if anyone is curious i will be making belgian strong pale ale (kwakish)

recipe is as follows:

11 lbs german pilsner 2-row (1.6srm)
1.5 lbs munich malt 10L (10srm)
0.5 lbs special B (180srm)
1.5 lbs dextrose (0srm)
0.75 oz challenger @ 60 min
1 oz styrian goldings @ 15 min
0.25 oz challenger @ 3 min
0.25 oz saaz @ 3 min
and Wyeast abbey II (1762)

anyways pointer would be great i think i got it down but trying not to forget anyhthing.

edit: it is done updated info page 2

what will you be collecting 1st runnings into? Your boil kettle will have the sparge water in it no? I guess you could collect into the bucket.


170 is probably too hot for dough in. i use a 40qt cooler for mash and it drops 10-11 degrees for an average 5 gallon batch. are you using an orange gatorade style drink cooler?

If you're brewing tomorrow, the chloramine goes in the 10 gallons of water NOW! It takes at least overnight for the reactions to occur.

Your technique looks pretty good, but I'm wondering. You said you're doing an ice batch, but also using an immersion chiller? I guess it depends on your tap water temperature, but you probably don't need an ice batch for the wort, or at least you won't need it until the wort is at or below tap water temperature to finish it off. If you add the brewpot to the icebath, you're just wasting time/ice while the immersion chiller runs.


I don't mean to sound like I'm picking on you so please don't take it that way! But if you only have ONE yeast package, and you didn't do a yeast starter, that's a concern. For an OG higher than 1.060, even Wyeast tells you to do a yeast starter. I think you should do one with an OG of greater than 1.040ish, but that's neither here nor there. I hope you have at least two yeast packages (probably four would be better) for a wort of 1.075-1.080.

thanks for quick replies!!

k47k said:

what will you be collecting 1st runnings into? Your boil kettle will have the sparge water in it no? I guess you could collect into the bucket.
170 is probably too hot for dough in. i use a 40qt cooler for mash and it drops 10-11 degrees for an average 5 gallon batch. are you using an orange gatorade style drink cooler?

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well i have another pot i can do sparge water in, so i will be collecting into the kettle. the temperature i will adjust when i measure grain temp. and i can always stir it up a bit to bring it down before dough in. thanks for advice!

YooperBrew said:

If you're brewing tomorrow, the chloramine goes in the 10 gallons of water NOW! It takes at least overnight for the reactions to occur.

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so should i pour 10 gallons tonight and add the campden tablets? because chloramine cant airate out.

YooperBrew said:

Your technique looks pretty good, but I'm wondering. You said you're doing an ice batch, but also using an immersion chiller? I guess it depends on your tap water temperature, but you probably don't need an ice batch for the wort, or at least you won't need it until the wort is at or below tap water temperature to finish it off. If you add the brewpot to the icebath, you're just wasting time/ice while the immersion chiller runs.

I don't mean to sound like I'm picking on you so please don't take it that way! But if you only have ONE yeast package, and you didn't do a yeast starter, that's a concern. For an OG higher than 1.060, even Wyeast tells you to do a yeast starter. I think you should do one with an OG of greater than 1.040ish, but that's neither here nor there. I hope you have at least two yeast packages (probably four would be better) for a wort of 1.075-1.080.

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well reason i was thinking ice bath as well , is because my chiller is only 25ft coil. hm i only have one yeast pack. can i make started today or should i buy more? i cant get this one in my LHBS but i guess i could do 2 liquid white labs abbey IV (540) instead. what do you think?

Dziuggy said:

thanks for quick replies!!

so should i pour 10 gallons tonight and add the campden tablets? because chloramine cant airate out.



well reason i was thinking ice bath as well , is because my chiller is only 25ft coil. hm i only have one yeast pack. can i make started today or should i buy more? i cant get this one in my LHBS but i guess i could do 2 liquid white labs abbey IV (540) instead. what do you think?

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Yes, put the campden tablet in the water tonight!

I'm no expert on Belgian yeast strains, but you definitely don't have enough yeast with the one smackpack. I guess I'd read up on the website (both White Labs and Wyeast have one) and pick the best strain for the beer.

Then, I'd go to mrmalty.com and click on the "yeast pitching calculator" to get an idea of the proper amount of yeast you'd need for this beer. I'm guessing four vials, but that's just a guess. You may be able to get by with less.

YooperBrew said:

If you're brewing tomorrow, the chloramine goes in the 10 gallons of water NOW! It takes at least overnight for the reactions to occur.

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Yooper, is there any way you can confirm this? I have researched quite extensively and have some good info from many sources that concludes the opposite.

I follow all of your advice on the board, so I'm sure you'll prove me to be wrong in fairly short order.

dale1038 said:

Yooper, is there any way you can confirm this? I have researched quite extensively and have some good info from many sources that concludes the opposite.

I follow all of your advice on the board, so I'm sure you'll prove me to be wrong in fairly short order.

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we'll i have been reading up quite a bit. it seems that campden reacion is almost instant, but it makes some sulfur. sulfur can kill the yeast. now concentration is small, but then i dont have a lot of yeast so might treat water today just to be sure. looks like i need more yeast though. it sucks since my LHBS does not sell wyest, i can buy white labs to replace it. i just used pitching calculator and i says i need a least 3 packets without a starter. grrrr

i could make a starter but i dont have any DME or anythhing. so i am stuck. will have to buy wl abbey 4 tommorow

dale1038 said:

Yooper, is there any way you can confirm this? I have researched quite extensively and have some good info from many sources that concludes the opposite.

I follow all of your advice on the board, so I'm sure you'll prove me to be wrong in fairly short order.

Click to expand...

Exactly what dziuggy said- it is pretty quick, but I'd like to let it sit for a bit to get rid of the residual stuff as well, like sulfur dioxide. You can probably use the water right away, but if you do it the night before, the water is certainly ready the next morning. When I add campden, I can still smell the sulfur for several hours and I would rather wait until there is no odor. Will it hurt the beer? I don't know (doubt it) but the smell bothers me.

That makes sense. I think I will do some testing for myself and see what I come up with. Thanks!

First of all, this software does just about everything. It doesn't have a yeast calculator, but you can find those in other places.
Once you have added your ingredients and equipment, you can print out a list of your steps and check them off as you go.
I also print the date so I can keep track of my batches.
If you don't have this software yet, search the forum, download and run it. It is great s/w.

Dziuggy said:

....heat up extra hot water for adjustment. heat up 17 quarts of sparge water to 170.
put it in a mash tun leave for 5 min to heat it up check temperature....,

.

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I would shoot for 180 degrees, you will lose more heat on the transfer and preheating the cooler...much much easier to temper down the temperature w/ a little cool water then raise it. Also, save your ice bath for the very end after the IC. The ice will disappear if used w/ a boiling hot kettle and be of little value...the benefit of ice is to achieve the last 10 - 20 degrees of cooling, unless of course you have 50 - 100 pounds.

ok guys brew is done! went ok..

did 4 gallons of strike water @ 168 added ph5.2 ,dough in. sparge @ 180. there was my first surprise. og was supposed to be 1065 (before 1.5lbs dextrose went into the boil) mine was 1.075 so it looks like my $10 mash tun gave me 88% efficiency. oh well.

later everything was ok untill i forgot to put my chiller in to sanitize, so ended up doing 67 min boil instead of 60. that will change hopiness a bit. i also used half of whirlfloc 5min and some yeast nutrition into fermenter

after that cooled the wort to ~80 put into fermenter and pitched 2 jars of white labs 540 (abbey IV), forgot to take gravity reading at the end of the boil and sample from fermenter had lot of hops and other stuff, and was reading 1.075 (probably wrong as it was at the same reading pre-boil,pre 1.5lbs dextrose)

thats the story so far now im sitting stresing out that i should make blowoff tube, and wondering wth will come out of this.

if OG post boil was 1.088 (beersmith figure given pre-boil gravity of 1.075 imight be hitting close to 10%abv instead of 8% that was planed

so that is it. a bit pissed at myself for mistakes, but i guess that goes away with more practice. wish me luck.

There are a lot of steps, and missing the OG reading is one of them that happens to me a lot. I get all in a hurry once the wort is cooled. This is where the RDWHAHB mantra comes in.
You might want to get a blowoff tube ready, just to have it. It never helps to have to do it in a hurry, although it should take about two minutes. It is just a tube from the fermenter into a jar of water.

yes, i actually did it. just took my 3 piece airlock and put the hose on it, ran it into pitcher with starsan solution. hoping for the best

I use a blow off every time for the first week or so. It never hurts to be prepared just in case. As for your "mistakes", soon you'll be brewing without even thinking of these things. You will just do them because you know the routine.

TheMan said:

I use a blow off every time for the first week or so. It never hurts to be prepared just in case. As for your "mistakes", soon you'll be brewing without even thinking of these things. You will just do them because you know the routine.

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thats the idea! one thing though, how do you guys strain of the pellet hops.my primary has a lot of that stuff.

yest is starting to work bubling up a bit now. so i should have something of a beer her in a month or so.

cheers

so i am very glad,,i did the blowoff tube. i wouldn't done it if i haven't read that belgian yeast + big beer = boom krausen is coming out a lot. we have one of stupid heat waves in SF so temperature went up to 79-80 inside fermenter even it is in the basement.

anyways i made biger blowoff tube and put fermenter into my kettle with some cold water. WLP540 is going like crazy at that rate it will be done fermenting in couple hours, lol

the last thing that i need to decide is how long i want to do primary/seconadary and bottle. primary is 6.5g plastic pail,so im thinking give it 3 weeks or so and the rack to glass carboy for more. anyways its belgian strongpale ale what do you think?

thanks for all awesome info!

cheers Dziugas

now i

Starderup said:

There are a lot of steps, and missing the OG reading is one of them that happens to me a lot. I get all in a hurry once the wort is cooled. This is where the RDWHAHB mantra comes in.

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Amen to that. Many times I have sat down with a friend over one of my home brews. We'll open the first one and he'll ask me "How strong is this?"

My reply is usually something along the lines of, "I'll fire up my laptop in a minute and should be able to tell you, assuming I remembered to take an OG reading."

By the third one, I usually can't find my laptop and he's stopped asking.

So RDWHAHB.