What do you wish you knew then?

Doing my first all grain this weekend. Going to be doing EdWorts Haus Pale Ale. I've read countless threads, watched tons of videos, and have helped with a few AGs, so I'm pretty familiar with all the processes.

So, like the thread says, what do you know now that you wish you knew when you did your first AG? I'm looking for tips, tricks, timesavers, and any advice.

A bit about my setup:
-10 gallon water cooler mash tun w/ ball valve and SS braid
-turkey fryer w aluminum pot
-aluminum pot
-2 digital instant read thermometers
-Blichmann Brewmometer
-Copper wort chiller

I had trouble with the SS braid on my first all grain so it turned out terrible. Many others have had great luck with the braid so hopefully you will also. I bought a false bottom after the second failed batch. Make sure you know your volumes of water, strike temp, etc and you will do fine. Good luck!

Headspace kills temperatures in the mash.

I think you should be fine with your setup but I'll be honest, I don't think you'll get a lot of replies on this thread, I would try to research specific answers to specific questions.

IMHO the SS braid is not a winner, I agree, b/c I had a stuck mash and had to put my hand into scalding wort to save the brewday.

badmajon said:

I think you should be fine with your setup but I'll be honest, I don't think you'll get a lot of replies on this thread, I would try to research specific answers to specific questions.

IMHO the SS braid is not a winner, I agree, b/c I had a stuck mash and had to put my hand into scalding wort to save the brewday.

Click to expand...

yea, i've heard lots of differing opinions on the SS braid. Luckily, if it doesn't work, it didn't cost much. I'll have an air compressor nearby, so if for some reason i get a stuck mash, or sparge, i can just give it a quick shot of air. I know its not the best practice, but I've seen it work. Also have a pair of heat resistant gloves that go up to my shoulder, so i should be set.

I've got a 1/2" braid, but i've also got a larger braid as well. Figured I'd use the 1/2 first, see how my efficiency is, and if its lacking, i'll try the bigger braid next time around. copper manifold will be build eventually.

Wire collanders hold bugs no matter how long you soak it in starsan.

I was using one to filter hops and break material when dumping into a carboy until I figured out it infected 5 batches on me.

I wish I had known how important it is to stir thoroughly at both dough in and with the sparge water additions when batch sparging. I also wish I had known the importance of the crush, and how to tell a good crush from a bad crush. Those two things probably have the largest effect on efficiency for batch spargers, and yet I was clueless about both of them when I brewed my first AG

motleybrews said:

I've got a 1/2" braid, but i've also got a larger braid as well. Figured I'd use the 1/2 first, see how my efficiency is, and if its lacking, i'll try the bigger braid next time around. copper manifold will be build eventually.

Click to expand...

The effectiveness of the braid is in no way related to efficiency. If it keeps the majority of the grain particles from getting through and doesn't cause a stuck sparge, then there's no reason to use a different braid. FWIW I used a SS braid for well over a year, and never had any issues.

I wish I would have known how important a slow sparge is when fly sparging.

I also wish I would have built my heatstick and wooden stand off the bat. Gravity rules.

LandoLincoln said:

Headspace kills temperatures in the mash.

Click to expand...

No it doesn't.

I recently drilled holes an insulated my mash tun lid by spraying some "great stuff" insulation foam. I used to lose 3-4 F during an hour mash. Last time I mashed, I lost 0.5 F over the same amount of time.

Insulate the lids, the amount of headspace has no effect on temperature loss.

I've used the same braid for 406 batches and never had a bit of trouble with it. Don't assume you will.

What I wish I'd known is how damn easy it is to brew AG. Relax, don't freak out if something goes wrong, take good notes so you can correct next time. every time I teach somebody how to brew AG by batch sparging, we get through the mash to the boil and they look at me and say "Is that all there is to it?".

I wish I hadn't spent the money on a SS kettle and instead got a Keggle for 1/3 the price and could be doing 10 gallon batches now, but am stuck at 5 with my 8 Gal. kettle. I could have purchase a pump with the difference in cost...

I don't have the equipment for fly sparging but was stubborn about it because I thought it was the "better" method. After batch sparging my last 4 batches, I wish I'd just started there.

BiaB and No-Chill.

I have wasted soooo much $$$ on DIY projects that are sitting in my basement. I can't say that I completely regret it because it has been a total learning experience.

I now have a very SIMPLE and CONCISE process and makes just as good of beer as when I used to do things the more "traditional" way.

John

Yes. No Chill.

insubordinateK said:

No it doesn't.

I recently drilled holes an insulated my mash tun lid by spraying some "great stuff" insulation foam. I used to lose 3-4 F during an hour mash. Last time I mashed, I lost 0.5 F over the same amount of time.

Insulate the lids, the amount of headspace has no effect on temperature loss.

Click to expand...

Let me rephrase.

When doing my first mash, we were doing a small 1 gallon experimental batch in a 5 gallon mash tun. Consequently, the mash tun did not have very much grain / water in it for the mash. Beginning temperature 152°, ending temperature 120°.

Our second mash we did a 4.25 gallon batch. Same equipment, same processes, only much bigger volumes. Mash tun was completely full. Overly full, actually. Temp loss: less than one degree over 60 minutes.

I'm not going to chalk that up to poor lid insulation.

LandoLincoln said:

Let me rephrase.

When doing my first mash, we were doing a small 1 gallon experimental batch in a 5 gallon mash tun. Consequently, the mash tun did not have very much grain / water in it for the mash. Beginning temperature 152°, ending temperature 120°.

Our second mash we did a 4.25 gallon batch. Same equipment, same processes, only much bigger volumes. Mash tun was completely full. Overly full, actually. Temp loss: less than one degree over 60 minutes.

I'm not going to chalk that up to poor lid insulation.

Click to expand...

I think what you have hold of there, is 4 times the thermal mass. Losing 1 degree from 4.25 gallons is much harder than losing 1 degree from 1 gallon. It's neither headspace nor insulation.

Some notes from my all grain (apparently I have been only doing it a year and a half but with about 20+ brews under my belt... well you forget) anyway, get a huge rolling boil, this is very important. Also don't worry so much about hitting the exact temp for the infusion mash, +-2deg really won't hurt anything but if you are really worried, always go for the higher temp.

If you are batch sparging, use equal amounts in your strike water. The reason is two fold:
1) you don't generally have enough space in your cooler for a lot more than that anyway
2) every drop of water you put into your sparge will come out at the end

2 is important for calculating how much water you get at the end. If you expect to loose 1/2qt per pound of grain in grain absorption, you can calculate with reasonable effectiveness the amount of sparge water to put into the tun to get your 6.5G to boil.

The other tip I would HIGHLY recommend, start with fairly low grav beers like less than 7%, maybe 12-14lb of grain at the most. Getting your process down is hard and takes a while, getting it down when dealing with imperial stuff is really hard and you can't tell where you went wrong. Also your efficiency is less, so I would definitely start off with 10lb of grain and try to hit 54GP.

Also pick up "designing great beer" by Daniels if you haven't already. That book will really guide you through the process. After your 5th batch or so, you can start to go nuts. For now, just follow the guides because right now the most important thing is getting comfortable with brewing AG, eventually the important thing is expanding your abilities to brew all grain.

I didn't have the right strike water temp my first time, and after i doughed-in my mash was way low, better than high i suppose. depending on the grain temp it can lower the strike water temp by 5-10 deg.

Cromwell said:

I think what you have hold of there, is 4 times the thermal mass. Losing 1 degree from 4.25 gallons is much harder than losing 1 degree from 1 gallon. It's neither headspace nor insulation.

Click to expand...

What? Insulation has nothing to do with heat loss?

I just explained my experiment that suggests otherwise. In fact, common sense would go against what you just said.

Insulation has everything to do with heat loss which is why we choose to mash in coolers.

However, I will also say that LandoLincoln's experiment is revealing as well and I would change my original assumption. With less thermal mass, it is much easier to lose heat since a higher percentage of surface area is exposed to the headspace in a 1 gallon mash compared to a 4 gallon mash.

Sorry Cromwell, but I think both insulation and the "size" of the mash have everything to do with it.