Doing my first AG tomorrow an Amber Ale

I went down to the local homebrew shop today and purchased my grains ect for my first all grain. I am "copying" Northern Brewers American amber which I have done as an extract kit before. I am slightly modifing the recipe though, the original is as follows:
6.5 lbs Rahr 2-row pale
2 lbs German Munich
1 lb crystal 60

1.5oz cascade pellets at 60 (I think they are 5.5 alpha)
1 oz cascade pellets at 1

What I am doing:
7 lbs American 2-row, he didn't have Rahr and we figured why not make it an even 10 lbs total
2 lbs German Munich
1 lb crystal 60

1 oz cascade whole leaf 9.0 alpha at 60
1 oz cascade whole leaf at 5

I chatted with the shop owner about water volume for mashing and he was saying about 1-1/8 to 1-1/4 quarts of water per lb and bring the water up to 167 degrees or so to get a mashing temp in the mid 150's.

In all it was a good trip to the homebrew store, he had some corny's in stock so I grabbed another as well.

Good luck with everything. You all researched on method and ready to go?

Looks good!

I'd suggest mashing in at 1.25-1.33 quarts of water per pound (so, 12.5-13.3 quarts), about 11 degrees warmer than your desired mash temp. I'd mash that at 152, so I'd mash in at 163 or so. Preheat your mashtun, and then keep a little boiling water handy and a few ice cube trays, just in case you miss high (or low).

But, before adjusting, stir well. Then stir some more, and cover it and let it sit a couple of minutes before doing anything. Sometimes, the thermometer reads high and people add a little boiling water and then it's too high and add some ice and go on and on.

Stir well, and let it sit for a minute to equalize. Then check the temp. If it's high or low, add a little ice or boiling water. Then stir well and check again after a few minutes. As long as you're in the 150-155 area, I'd let it go. Too many brewers go back and forth too high, too low, etc. Aim for 152-153, but accept a couple of degrees either way- and I promise it will be good!

Yooper said:

Preheat your mashtun, and then keep a little boiling water handy and a few ice cube trays, just in case you miss high (or low).

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When I first started I was missing my mash temp pretty regularly but once I started adding a gallon of really hot water to my cooler mashtun to preheat it I started getting closer.

kehaar here on HBT gave me some excellent advice for heating the cooler mashtun:

kehaar said:

To preheat raise the mash water to 10-15 F above strike temp. Add that hot water to your tun and then close the lid for 15 minutes. After 15 min is up open the tun, measure the temp and then stir until the temp drops to your strike temp + 3F (room for error). Then add your grain and stir until the mash temp drops to your target mash temp (maybe 5 minutes of stirring).

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While this method may take a few more minutes, it does allow you to add your malt to the mash at the precise temperature.

Cool, all good advice, how much sparge water should I expect to prepare? For sparging I am probably going to put the water in my bottling bucket and use the large eye bolt I have in the load baring beam I use for pulling engines out of cars to hoist the bucket above the mash tun which will be on a tall stool above the boil kettle

AndrewD said:

kehaar here on HBT gave me some excellent advice for heating the cooler mashtun:

While this method may take a few more minutes, it does allow you to add your malt to the mash at the precise temperature.

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Thanks, AndrewD!

NateG said:

Cool, all good advice, how much sparge water should I expect to prepare? For sparging I am probably going to put the water in my bottling bucket and use the large eye bolt I have in the load baring beam I use for pulling engines out of cars to hoist the bucket above the mash tun which will be on a tall stool above the boil kettle

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Well, let's see. You have 9 pounds of grain. So, you'd use 1.25-1.5 quarts per pound of grain in the mash. So, call it 12 quarts. That's 3 gallons for the mash. (Have a little boiling water handy nearby and some ice cubes, just in case you miss high or low- but stir VERY well and wait 5 minutes before adjusting anything!).

The grain should absorb about a gallon of water in the mash, so you'd get two gallons out of the mash as first runnings.

What is your boil volume going to be? If it's 6.5 gallons, and you get 2 gallons out of the mash, you'll need 4.5 gallons of sparge water.

I've brewed a similar amber a couple of times, turns out great with Wyeast 1007. Good luck!

Well, three weeks in primary and a week in the keg and it's beer, still a little cloudy.

NateG said:

Well, three weeks in primary and a week in the keg and it's beer, still a little cloudy.

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Nice picture. Is 7:16am too early for a homebrew?

These beers seem to benefit greatly from long cold-conditioning; they clear considerably and the taste keeps improving. The last beer of my amber batches is always the best (and I nearly cry as I finish it)

Yeah the last one I did was its best after a month in the keg which is why I left it in the fermenter longer this time and it has better flavor green thenthe last one did green so I have some pretty high hopes for this batch.