prep for first pm this weekend

first off, here is the recipe, courtesy of beertools.com

Kolsch #1
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General
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Category: Light Hybrid Beer
Subcategory: Kölsch
Recipe Type: Partial Mash
Batch Size: 5 gal.
Volume Boiled: 4.5 gal.
Mash Efficiency: 72 %
Total Grain/Extract: 7.50 lbs.
Total Hops: 2.1 oz.

Ingredients
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4.00 lbs. English 2-row Pils
1 lbs. American Vienna
2.5 lbs. Dry Extra Light Extract
1.1 oz. Hallertau Hersbruck (Pellets, 4.50 %AA) boiled 60 minutes.
0.25 oz. Spalt & Saaz boiled 15 minutes.
0.25 oz. Spalt & Saaz boiled 1 minutes.
Yeast: WYeast smack pack Kolsch

Vital Statistics
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Original Gravity: 1.046
Terminal Gravity: 1.009
Color: 3.45 SRM
Bitterness: 24.9 IBU
Alcohol (%volume): 4.9 %

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Results prepared by BeerTools.com
http://www.beertools.com/
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my problem with going all grain is my ability to boil that much wort. someday...

so my goal is a partial mash of as much as i can muster, using two 12qt stockpots since that's all my stove can handle.

i split all my hops and extract between the pots, and the goal is to do a simple single infusion, batch sparge with a 5gallon Victory cooler/mash tun. i want to splitt the first runnings between the two pots, and again on the second runnings, so that both pots have 'relatively' the same gravity, and thus hop utilization. i planned for a mid/late extract addition to further help.

what's the consensus? will 5lbs of grain get me enough wort for two stock pots? should I do like 1.5quarts per pound?

thanks in advance for any comments and tips. i already have all he ingredients, except the grain, which i pickup saturday...he's going to crack it for me friday night so its fresh.

Malkore-

where in Ne. are you?

5 lbs should be fine with your partial mash. I like the idea of the spalt hops as well, most people just use the hersbruker, so to be crazy with the 10 gallons of kolsch i need to transfer tonight, when i brewed it i used the spalt too.

I would make a starter with your DME, that way it doesn't get over boiled and it would make it less complicated. You could make this starter right in your primary.
The yeast will even everything out, no need to worry about even gravities. Pouring the colled wort onto this starter will aerate it pretty well to give you a good start. That should give you a little more room in your pots as well. Thats my opinion. Good Luck.

cheezydemon said:

I would make a starter with your DME, that way it doesn't get over boiled and it would make it less complicated. You could make this starter right in your primary.
The yeast will even everything out, no need to worry about even gravities. Pouring the colled wort onto this starter will aerate it pretty well to give you a good start. That should give you a little more room in your pots as well. Thats my opinion. Good Luck.

Click to expand...

i don't think i really understand what you're saying here? how big a starter are you talking about?

Good question, I know that ideally a starter is not too concentrated, but I have done 3 lbs DME in 1 gallon with satisfactory results. Perhaps a little longer boil might be necessary.

i am in lincoln too. but today, i'm in denver.

i think i'm gonna chance it, and not make a starter. i know the potential consequences.

thanks for the advice so far

Reverend JC said:

Malkore-

where in Ne. are you?

5 lbs should be fine with your partial mash. I like the idea of the spalt hops as well, most people just use the hersbruker, so to be crazy with the 10 gallons of kolsch i need to transfer tonight, when i brewed it i used the spalt too.

Click to expand...

I put splat in mine too. I don't know much about these hops, but I really like my Kolsch so I would recommend it too.

well, the mash is resting at 149F per my thermometer. strike temp was 161, so the temp loss was about right. I did pre-heat my cooler-tun with 122F tap water.

I wasn't sure if you put the grain in first, then added the water and stirred...that's what I did though. Seemed to have 1 clumpy area, but got it mixed in.

I really hope I end up liking Kolsch beers...can't really find em around Lincoln, but it sounded pretty 'mild mannered'...as I'm not much of a hop-head.

Thanks for the comments and such. between the info here, www.howtobrew.com and the eval copy of ProMash, I think I have this figured out.

Now I'm just contemplating if I wanna ask for a turkey fryer for my birthday...and slowly figuring out how I could go all-grain, with a combination of indoor & outdoor brewing, based off a single burner, and a second cooler used as a hot liquor tank. We shall see...

almost time to start sparging!!

*update*

I'm done! Conversion was good, and I hit my target gravity dead on! I was coming up short with extract kits, so that's a bonus that it was the kit, and not me, causing lower OG's.

I didn't make a starter, but the pack claimed you didn't need to. It was kinda pricy, so it must be those newer 'high capacity' smack packs Wyeast started putting out. it claimed 100billion active cells if used in 6 months, and it was only 2 months old.

I'm very stoked, and now that I've gone through the whole process, a lot of things make perfect sense now.

Let me know if you would like to come over and check out the AG set up and see how easily it can be done for little money.

Glad it all worked out, your going to love it!