First AG...Ouch

Yesterday I took the plunge and dove in. Made myself a tun and attempted to make a clone of EdWorts' Bee Cave Brewery Haus Pale Ale. I need some critiquing if anyone cares to help. Here is what I did.

1. Preheat tun, dough in at 164, rested around 154-153 for an hour.
2. Vorlauf, problem here, pulled probably 11 or 12 quarts and was still getting lots of flakes and debris. Could my braid be too big? Would too aggressive of a recirculation kick this up too?
3. Drained first runnings. Sparged with 4.5 gallons at 168, mixed well. Recirculated again and still pulled lots of flakes.
4. Drained to first runnings. Collected 6ish gallons. Started boil, boiled over almost instantly. Any tips here besides get a bigger pot?
5. Pre-boil gravity, 1.038...since I'm new I thought this was too low, so I added 1lb of DME.
5. At the end of the boil, cooled to 100, tried to whirlpool, didn't work at all. Lots of floaties. Post boil grav, 1.057, 6 points higher than I intended.
6. Racked to carboy, and collected only a little over 4 gallons...I guess my set up boils off 2 gallons an hour???
7. At this point I had a lot on my mind...so I didn't check the temp, forgot to aerate, and pitched the yeast. Sweet.

Not a banner day in the Dawg's brewery. Any and all criticism and advice is welcomed!

Dawg

At some point you should get clear wort from the mash tun. Your braid might be too big or milled too small.

For boil over, stir with a spoon or spray with water. I have a 10 gallon pot and will need to spray with water to prevent a boil over.

2 gallons and hour seems extremely high. You probably used too much heat

So should I keep recirculating until it clears up?

Stirring didn't help, will try the spray bottle next time. Also less heat.

+1 on the spray, i started using this a few batches ago and finally feel confident i can consistently prevent boilovers without adjusting the heat.

Get some fermcap for the boil over. Gravity was taken with 4 gallons or pre boil? That would account for the difference.

Went round 2 today with your suggestions...went a little better. OG was way way low. Supposed to be 1.053, clocked in at 1.039...I don't think it was a mash problem, my tun didn't drop a degree in the hour it rested. I did however collect about a gallon more than I needed, (didn't boil off as much, turned the heat back. thanks h22lude!). Should I have let this boil off longer?

Also, fermcap worked like a charm. Thanks for all the help!

kegdawg said:

Here is what I did.

1. Preheat tun, dough in at 164, rested around 154-153 for an hour.
2. Vorlauf, problem here, pulled probably 11 or 12 quarts and was still getting lots of flakes and debris. Could my braid be too big? Would too aggressive of a recirculation kick this up too?
3. Drained first runnings. Sparged with 4.5 gallons at 168, mixed well. Recirculated again and still pulled lots of flakes.
4. Drained to first runnings. Collected 6ish gallons. Started boil, boiled over almost instantly. Any tips here besides get a bigger pot?
5. Pre-boil gravity, 1.038...since I'm new I thought this was too low, so I added 1lb of DME.
5. At the end of the boil, cooled to 100, tried to whirlpool, didn't work at all. Lots of floaties. Post boil grav, 1.057, 6 points higher than I intended.
6. Racked to carboy, and collected only a little over 4 gallons...I guess my set up boils off 2 gallons an hour???
7. At this point I had a lot on my mind...so I didn't check the temp, forgot to aerate, and pitched the yeast. Sweet.

Click to expand...

1. Sounds good.
2. Agressive recirculating can defeat the purpose of vorlaufing, and the size of the holes in the braid/fb/manifold have very little to do with it. You want to return the wort gently, such that it doesn't disturb the grain bed. A folded up piece of tinfoil or tupperware lid can be placed on top of the grain bed as something to pour the wort on to divert flow and prevent disturbing the grain bed.
3. Sounds good. When batch sparging it's the stirring that gets the sugars into solution, so make sure you stir until you think it's well mixed, and then stir a bunch more.
4. Sounds like you've already found fermcap.
5a. Probably was a bit low, so good call adding the DME.
5b. How long did you let it settle after getting it swirling? It takes 20-30 min for the debris to settle out and the cone to form well.
6. The high boil off is the main reason for the high SG reading. You could have added a gal of boiled water to get closer to both your intended volume and gravity. Next time you might try turning the burner down a little, as 2 gal/hr is a bit much. It will take a few batches before you get your system figured out and know what PB volume to shoot for in order to hit your desired volume into the fermenter.

kegdawg said:

Went round 2 today with your suggestions...went a little better. OG was way way low. Supposed to be 1.053, clocked in at 1.039...I don't think it was a mash problem, my tun didn't drop a degree in the hour it rested. I did however collect about a gallon more than I needed, (didn't boil off as much, turned the heat back. thanks h22lude!). Should I have let this boil off longer?

Click to expand...

Glad to hear it went better. The extra volume was likely part of the low gravity, but it looks like efficiency was also a factor. You'll get the volumes dialed in and boil-off figured out after another batch or two. If you'd boiled longer, the hop utilization would have been off, so it's probably better that you have more of a weaker beer. Most likely causes for low efficiency for new AG brewers batch sparging are IMO;
1. Crush (who crushed the grain and how?)
2. Incomplete dough-in (stir until your arms hurt, and then stir some more)
3. Not stirring well enough after the sparge water additions
4. Inaccurate measurements (volumes, hydro and thermometer calibration, etc.)

The good news is that low efficiency for the first couple batches is very common, and after a little practice it will likely improve.

thanks for the advice and encouragement!

I crushed my grains at Northern Brewer using whatever setting their crusher is. I figured they just had it set right, because I never see anyone else adjusting it. Is their a particular setting I should try next time?

One other thing that might help is to sparge with hotter water. You want to bring the grain bed up to 168-70, so you need hotter water (for me it is about 185). Once I figured this out I got a 5+% bump in efficiency.

The low gravity is likely due to the increased volume. Sounds like you are getting your equipment and process worked out. A few more batches and it should dial in.

mdgagne said:

+1 on the spray, i started using this a few batches ago and finally feel confident i can consistently prevent boilovers without adjusting the heat.

Click to expand...

Another idea for helping with the boil overs is to position a fan to blow on the top of the boiling wort.