First all grain Porter in the fermenter

Yesterday a friend and I brewed our first all grain batch, i'd done some extract in the past and he's done some great extract/grains..

Basic Porter, 5 gal, OG 1.060
.5lb black patent malt
.5lb chocolate malt
.5lb 60L crystal
2lb Munich malt
9lb American 2 row
1oz Kent Golding hops, 60min
1oz Kent Golding hops, 30min (supposed to be 20)
1oz Kent Golding hops, 5 min

Mashed at 152 for one hour, which we nailed in a cooler mash tun.

the online calc I used to find the water volumes showed 4.2 gallons for mash and 5.7 for sparge, we ended up with 3g of wort out of the mash, that we put on to boil while sparging.. the sparge water was a little hot at around 180, and all 5.7 came back out (vourlaufed the first gallon)

Since we had a 8 gallon pot to boil in, all 5.7 of sparge didn't fit, so we left about 2 gallons in the tun.

we boiled about 7.5 gallons of wort, and added hops at the recomended times, but missed the OG with a 1.038 instead of 1.060..

I'm assuming we should have boiled the wort down until we could fit in the other 2 gallons of sparge ?

or were my mash/sparge volumes way off ??

Either way, it's in the fermenter now, and we had fun, and it's bubbling away nicely.

I'm assuming we should have boiled the wort down until we could fit in the other 2 gallons of sparge ?

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Yeah, boil down until you can fit the rest of the wort in. When you batch sparge, all of the sparge water will come back because the grain is already saturated. I generally do two sparges and get 1/2 the sugar in the first runnings, 1/3 in the second and 1/6 in the final sparge.

1.038 is fine for a porter.

You should have boiled the wort down, yes... 1.038 is kinda light, but it is not a disaster.

Also, your mash water volume seems good but I think that's too much sparge water for 12.5 lbs of grain.

For my mash I typically use 0.33 gals/lb of grain...
Then I adjust my sparge volume depending on how much I get from the mash in order to make up my total boil volume.

12.5 lbs grain:
MASH: 4.15 gallons
Results in: 3 Gallons 1st runnings

My total pre-boil volume target is: 7.0 gallons (I want 5.5g post boil so thats 1.5g boil off)
SPARGE: 7.0g - 3g = 4.0 gallons

wow. i also brewed my first all-grain over the weekend. it was a porter. it was damn near the exact recipe too. only changes was i used 3.5lb munich, 7.5lb pale 2-row, 1.5oz us goldings at 60, 0.5oz williamette at 30, 0.5oz williamette at 15. and I mashed at 154, hit 70% (good for me).

my only issue was cooling and racking. i left about a gallon in the kettle. pretty angry about that. but, i got 5 gallons of 1.055 in the fermentor.

i used 2.5 gallons for 1st sparge and 1.75 for 2nd sparge. got about 5 gallons in the kettle. topped off to 6 gallons and boiled away

thanks for the tips guys ! Next time I'll reduce the amount of sparge water, and boil longer !

if you reduce your sparge water to correct volumes, your boil can stay at 1 hour.

I'm can't wait to try again !

In other news, my airlock has really slowed down after only 3 days yesterday it was bubbling a little every 30 seconds, and today it's even slower (haven't had time to time it yet)
I used Nottingham dry yeast, and the temp is around 65F during the day and probably drops into the 50's at night (the floor the ale pail is sitting on is probably in the 50s all day)

Is it just slow because it's cold, or should i shout at it/throw a couple of bananas in ??

Just found this on the Danstar website:

The recommended fermentation temperature range of this strain is 14° to 21°C (57° to 70°F) with good tolerance to low fermentation temperatures (12°C/54°F) that allow this strain to be used in lager-style beer. With a relatively high alcohol tolerance, Nottingham is a great choice for creation of higher-alcohol specialty beers!

--- so if the temp has dropped below 54 does the yeast go to sleep, or die ??
--- It also says that the fermentation could be finished in as little as 4 days at 62F, but that seems highly unlikely, it was only brewed on Sunday, but only had an OG of 1.038
--- Just had a look at an unheated fishtank (full of H20 and a fish) and the temp is 66F - I don't think the fish generates too much heat/friction..

maybe i should put the fish in the beer, the fish would probably like that. would that impart a fishy aftertaste

do you have a brewmometer?

slowing after 3 days of active fermentation is normal. it'll probably stop altogether soon. that being said, leave it in the primary at least 2 weeks.

Motobrewer, I tested today with a brewmometer it's down to 1.008, now it's just a waiting game, me vs. porter...

do you think it'll drop much lower?

by brewmometer, i meant temperature.

i checked mine today, it's at 1.010. but i started at 1.055. if you started at 1.038, it might be done, it might have more. only way to know for sure is check again in 3 days.

how does it taste?

it tasted pretty good, you could definitely taste that typical "porter" flavor..
How long has yours been in the primary ??

6 days. i'll check the grav again sunday. i usually don't even start checking until after 10 days, but this had a bit of a strange ferment. see this:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f163/smallest-krausen-ever-155049/

regardless, i'll wait until 14 days, cold crash, the rack to keg.

So, after a week in the primary, and a week in the secondary, I bottled this on Sunday.
Cracked one open tonight,and it's delicious, just not very bubbly.. I'm assuming it's because I am the most impatient person in the world and I only lasted three days.

What is the minimum time you wait??

It's ok to say "It's pretty damn obvious it doesn't have bubbles yet, it's only been 3 days (actually 2 days and change) since you bottled it.." infact, i don't mind if you copy and paste that..

3 weeks @70F.

not joking.

joey, have you left it alone, or have you been sampling?

mine's been in the keg almost 2 weeks. i brewed on the 2nd, had it in the primary for 2.5 weeks, then racked to keg.

i pulled a pint two days ago, it was very good. still a tad bready/harsh, i'll give it another week or so then go after it.

motobrewer said:

6 days. i'll check the grav again sunday. i usually don't even start checking until after 10 days, but this had a bit of a strange ferment. see this:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f163/smallest-krausen-ever-155049/

regardless, i'll wait until 14 days, cold crash, the rack to keg.

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Not to hijack, but I had a similar thing. Had a pale ale and old ale, 1.060 and 1.070, respectively and both pitched with s04. Ferment was the weakest crap thing I have ever seen, and was sure that it had stalled. Took a hydro reading 5 days later and both dropped to ~1.013. Perfect. More proof that the hydrometer is the only way to verify fermenting progress.

I'm heading in.. I've had a couple, they are great.. not really strong, but great flavor !! Now the funny problem is, I added the dextrose to the bottling bucket, and then racked the beer in, figuring this would mix it up nicely.. I guess I should have stirred it, because out of the 4-6 bottles I've had so far, two have had a beautiful head and nicely carbed, and 4 have been not near as carbed.. i wonder if it is the serving temp, as I'm not sure how long any had been in the fridge (but I did leave them in there until they were good and cold)

it just needs time. you bottled this on 1/17/2010, right?

it needs at least 3 weeks at 70F (so, take them all out of the fridge) to fully carb.

i had a bitter (1.035 OG) that i bottled, and it took a good 4-5 weeks for all of them to carb. it will very, but they all will (should) eventually carb.