First AG-- I forgot to sparge! Boooo...

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scocam

scocam

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Well, apparently in my excitement (but certainly not due in any part to my semi-lack of sobriety), I forgot to sparge after boiling the wort. I realized my error about an hour later and created a concentrated wort from reboiling a small batch and then gently squeezing the bag of grains and then sparging. The rest of the process was by the book but the sparge turned out to be a complete fiasco. The brew is or should be a Fat Tire clone.

It's been in secondary for a week and it looks fine (possibly a bit cloudy). OG is right at ~1.05 which is where I should be. What do you think the results of such a fragmented sparging will be?


Thanks!
Scott
 
The only time you boil grain is when you are decocting and brew.

I hope you didn't boil your grain as part of a single infusion brew.
You could extract astringensy from boiling the husks.
 
Dude said:
This makes no sense. If you had wort in your kettle, you sparged.
Click to expand...

The OP drained his first runnings, but never added any sparge water. Thus, his "wort in the kettle" was just the first runnings.
 
You'd think the small volume in the pot would be a hint that a large portion of your wort is missing.

You were loaded, weren't you, scocam? :D
 
scocam said:
I forgot to sparge after boiling the wort. I realized my error about an hour later and created a concentrated wort from reboiling a small batch and then gently squeezing the bag of grains and then sparging.
Click to expand...

It sounds to me like you boiled your wort with your grains still in it. Is that what you did? Or were you still loaded when you wrote this up :drunk: :D
 
Something else that sounds strange... you're using a grain bag with all grain brewing? How much grain are you using?
 
Hopefully, when the OP sobers up, he can come back and explain to us what exactly he did and did not do.... to much confusion on terminology, as it stands.

Does the question make more sense if we assume that the OP was NOT, in fact, doing an AG batch, but instead was doing an extract-with-steeping grains batch? If we assume that he doesn't know what "All Grain" means, the rest of the question makes sense, doesn't it?....
 
Fingers said:
You'd think the small volume in the pot would be a hint that a large portion of your wort is missing.

You were loaded, weren't you, scocam? :D
Click to expand...

It's his first AG...it's entirely possible that his water:grain ration was 1.5 or more. But yeah, he seemed loaded. Especially regarding the "boiling the grains" part. Something tells me he wasn't doing a decoction on his first AG attempt ;)
 
the_bird said:
Does the question make more sense if we assume that the OP was NOT, in fact, doing an AG batch, but instead was doing an extract-with-steeping grains batch? If we assume that he doesn't know what "All Grain" means, the rest of the question makes sense, doesn't it?....
Click to expand...

Yes, it does make more sense. If he steeped grains, boiled without removing them, then tried to sparge, that would be weird but it seems to fit what he's described.

the_bird said:
Hopefully, when the OP sobers up, he can come back and explain to us what exactly he did and did not do
Click to expand...

I hope so. I can't wait to hear this... :D
 
I'm completely lost at understanding scocam first post here on HBT.

This is what happens when you brew beer on beer. :D
 
scocam said:
...It's been in secondary for a week and it looks fine (possibly a bit cloudy). OG is right at ~1.05 which is where I should be. ...
Click to expand...
Ummmm.

Something wrong with my math? One week...and his G is at 1.050?

This is like that guy at a sporting event that stands up out of no where, blurts out something vague and incomprehensible, then sits back down for the rest of the game without a word.

I need a beer.
 
I am as confussed as the rest of you, but given the fact that this has been his only post, I wonder if all the speculation hasn't scared away a n00b??? Just wondering......:confused:


Or maybe he found this forum in his state of disrepair, and when he sobered up, couldn't find it again????Hmmmmmmm:drunk:
 
BierMuncher said:
Ummmm.

Something wrong with my math? One week...and his G is at 1.050?

This is like that guy at a sporting event that stands up out of no where, blurts out something vague and incomprehensible, then sits back down for the rest of the game without a word.

I need a beer.
Click to expand...

Small yield? Could end up being a decent 1.5-2 gallon batch.
 
I think his starting gravity was 1.050, not the current.

with an emphasis on the words "I think".
 
Geez, I sure hope we haven't scared away a newb. I'd feel bad, but I'm a bit of a dork anyway so it won't impact me for too long, but I'd still feel bad. I hope he/she comes back.

Damn bunch of EAC's.
 
I got it figured out

"Well, apparently in my excitement (but certainly not due in any part to my semi-lack of sobriety)"
He's Drunk.


"I forgot to sparge after boiling the wort. I realized my error about an hour later"
Forgot to put the specialty grain bag in BEFORE the boil. realized his error while the wort was boiling


"...created a concentrated wort from reboiling a small batch and then gently squeezing the bag of grains and then sparging."
He probobly realized his error after he cooled the wort so he took some of the wort and reheated it then added the grain bag.


"The rest of the process was by the book but the sparge turned out to be a complete fiasco. The brew is or should be a Fat Tire clone."
All else seemed to go fine. He thinks


"It's been in secondary for a week and it looks fine (possibly a bit cloudy). OG is right at ~1.05 which is where I should be."
It's probably at 1.005 and a little clouby


"What do you think the results of such a fragmented sparging will be?"
My guess is it will be the best beer ever made in the world and he won't know how to do it again.
 
Wow! Now that's a lot more answers/replies than I was expecting!
Sorry for leaving you all hanging. I guess I didn't realize so much community support could happen in only 21 hours. First of all, thank you to everyone who commented for your time and reply to my inaugural post!

boo boo - My error; I boiled 2.5 gallons to ~165F, killed the heat and then added the grain bag. and steeped for 30 minutes. After that, I forgot the sparge.

dude - Evan! is correct, I only had first running in the kettle but enough that I didn't notice the missing sparge water.

Evan! - What is an OP and should I be offended? Actually, with a move like this I have no right to be offended from any comment. :drunk:

Fingers - The volume in the pot was about 2.5 gallons. I was also boiling-up an additional 3 gallons in another pot to add. I wouldn't say I was loaded but I was definitely having a good time!

brloomis - Nope. I didn't boil the grains. And yes, I might have been a little loaded when I wrote this up but that was a whole week later! :D

FSR402 - That makes *many* of us!

trencher - I was using ~10.5 lbs of grain total. I had no filter so I opted for a large loose bag instead.

the_bird - Your partially correct although it was actually an AG. The terminology is that of a (obviously) novice brewer. Couldn't tell could you!

I just can't get to the rest... there are so many. Now that I reread my post and all of your comments, I tend to agree with BierMuncher's saying, "This is like that guy at a sporting event that stands up out of no where, blurts out something vague and incomprehensible, then sits back down for the rest of the game without a word."

The recipe is the Fat Tire clone from Austin Homebrew Supply

My process...
Boiled 2.5 gallons water to 165F then added water salts and steeped all 10.5lbs of grain for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes I should have sparged and returned the resulting water to the to the kettle. I completely missed this step only to remember about an hour later. I then reboiled a smaller about of water, took it off the heat, let the grain bag steep for ~15 minutes and then gently squeezed (or rotated the grains within the bag collecting the runoff) and then finally sparged, brought back to a boil, cooled and then joined its lost brethren in the primary.

It was my re-steeping the grains and then sparging after an hour that was my primary concern.

Wow, I'm still amazed at the overwhelming response to this post. As a token of my gratitude for everyone's help and support, I've become a lifetime member to support the great community that you all have. I'm looking forward to learning more and tapping (bad pun intended) some of the wisdom that is on the board.


Cheers,
Scott
 
Way to step up the support for the site, Scott!

By the way, you can't boil at 165F. Boiling infers a much higher temp and another process. You might want to let your grains mash for a full 60 minutes too. I don't know what to say about the grain bag. Didn't you mix all your grains together?
 
Nope! Actually, you may have hit the nail on the head with your last comment! I'll be sure to let everyone know.
Mutine Bullfrog said:
My guess is it will be the best beer ever made in the world and he won't know how to do it again.
Click to expand...

Mutine Bullfrog said:
Damn! I really thought I had it nailed. Oh well time for another brew. :mug:
Click to expand...
 
Thanks, Fingers. I was wondering about the steeping time as well since almost everything I've read stated that an hour was the norm but the directions I had said only 30 minutes. I'll stick with what I read here rather than a generic, one-size-fits-all, xerox from now on. The bag was also a suggestion from a local homebrew guy; not Austin Homebrew (just for the record).


Fingers said:
Way to step up the support for the site, Scott!

By the way, you can't boil at 165F. Boiling infers a much higher temp and another process. You might want to let your grains mash for a full 60 minutes too. I don't know what to say about the grain bag. Didn't you mix all your grains together?
Click to expand...
 
scocam said:
I'll stick with what I read here rather than a generic, one-size-fits-all, xerox from now on.
Click to expand...

I don't know for sure about Austin Homebrew, but the kits from Midwest Homebrew Supply come with directions specifically tailored to that recipe. For example, let's say your kit comes with some Fuggles bittering and some Goldings aroma hops (I dunno if those hops go well together, just using names I know). They will print the directions to say put the Fuggles in at 60 minutes and put the Goldings in at 5 minutes. I'm not saying don't listen to us, :tank: just saying don't assume the directions are worthless until you've at least given them a once-over.

And BTW = By The Way. :mug:
 
Thanks for the explanation and the welcome. BTW- Nice avatar-- Mississippi John Hurt is one of my favorite delta bluesmen.


HighPlainsDrifter said:
BTW, OP=original poster. :mug:

Welcome to the site, it is a wealth of good info!
Click to expand...
 
Ok it's clear now.
You mashed for 30 minutes using a grain bag for MLT then forgot to sparge the grains and just moved on. Then you boiled it, cooled it, then slapped yourself in the forehead. Then reheated some wort, dropped the grains into the reheated wort, then cooled that and added that wort to the rest in the fermenter.


So was this your first brew? If so I give you props for going all out with an AG brew right away. :rockin:

This is what I think you need to do now.
Do this same kit again, but do it the right way, ferment it at the same temps and the same amount of time as the other and see what the difference between the two are.
 
I'm glad we got all that straightened out. I learned a lot my self. At first I thought some new poster was messing with us, then someone called him an OP, so I was thinking newbie like Opie (from the Andy Griffith Show, youngsters here have no idea WTF I'm talking about here :) It's a 5 year old Ronnie Howard.)

Then Scocam steps up and buys a lifetime membership in spite of EACs jumping in.

Waydago & welcome to HBT! Trial by fire :D
 
That's precisely it-- you got it. Heck no, this isn't my first brew! It's my second. :)
Good idea on duplicating the recipe. I'd like to be able to better discern differences in taste from the different sparging methods. Actually, that's an excellent idea. Thanks!


Scott




FSR402 said:
Ok it's clear now.
You mashed for 30 minutes using a grain bag for MLT then forgot to sparge the grains and just moved on. Then you boiled it, cooled it, then slapped yourself in the forehead. Then reheated some wort, dropped the grains into the reheated wort, then cooled that and added that wort to the rest in the fermenter.


So was this your first brew? If so I give you props for going all out with an AG brew right away. :rockin:

This is what I think you need to do now.
Do this same kit again, but do it the right way, ferment it at the same temps and the same amount of time as the other and see what the difference between the two are.
Click to expand...
 

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