First All Grain Brew

After a few extract based brews, I decided to step up to All Grain. My wife got me all the goodies for Christmas.

So today I set about doing an all grain English Pale Ale:

10lb Maris Otter Pale Malt
1/2 lb Crystal 60 Malt
1/2 lb Carapils Malt

3 Oz Kent Goldings Hops

Wyeast 1335 British Ale II

I used around 6 gallons of water in the mash, and maybe another 1.5 to sparge.

I was actually afraid I was going to end up with too much wort, so I left the last half gallon of sparge runnings in the mash tun and discarded it. Wouldn't you know, after the boil and filling the carboy, I ended up with about 4.5-4.75 gallons of wort. Doh! Next time I'll follow the same recipe but will not waste the last half gallon of runnings.

Anyway, strike water was a hair over 160, initial mash temp was around 156, which held for the full hour only dropping 2-3 degrees.

SG was 1.057.

It's a beautiful copper color.

I can't wait for this one to finish.

Nice. Let us know the result. Cheers!

Good job, man. Getting to know the final boil volume will take a little time. You need to get to know your system. Sounds like you'll have a great beer on your hands in a few weeks.

wow, thats an awfully thin mash if you were planning to sparge. usually its 1.25-1.5 qt/lb grain for a normal mash.

also, you may want to test the accuracy of your thermometer. If you mashed in around 160F, then your initial temp should be around 150F not 156F.

welcome to the wonderful world of AG!

dcp27 said:

wow, thats an awfully thin mash if you were planning to sparge. usually its 1.25-1.5 qt/lb grain for a normal mash.

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Yeah, I was reading Palmer's How To Brew as I was doing it. He says 2 qt/lb, but to boil more water than you need just in case. Which I did, then I forgot that there was more than I needed in the kettle and didn't remember until I had just dumped it all in. Doh. Will definitely be using less water next time.

also, you may want to test the accuracy of your thermometer. If you mashed in around 160F, then your initial temp should be around 150F not 156F.

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Probably because I poured 6 gallons in. I also preheated the tun with boiling water.

welcome to the wonderful world of AG!

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Thanks. I'll figure it out eventually.

What is the recommended water/grain ratio? I see now that Palmer says 2:1, Papazian says 1:1, most on here say 1.25:1 or 1.5:1. What is the result of the different ratios beyond a thin or thick mash?