need hekp with my first all grain brew

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punkerdru

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So today I brewed my first all grain batch, and my preboil volume ended up at 7.2 gallons instead of 6.5. My pre gravity OG was 39 instead of 55, so will I be OK boiling down to 5 gallons or should I add some extract to make up the difference?
 
Boil until you hit 6.5 gallons and then start your hop additions and 60 minute boil from there.
 
You're likely to get some input from some brewers with more experience than I at all grain, but until they chime in, I'd say to not fret about being off on the preboil volume one bit.

Just boil that sucker down to 5.5gal or whatever your mark is to start your hop additions and final 1hr boil, and go from there! I'm not even sure why you're trying to take OG readings at this point anyway, though I don't usually calculate out all the efficiency numbers like I know many do.

I'd definitely think long and hard (and be sure I had a damn good reason) before adding any extract. Before you do anything, though, get down to your 5.5gallons and reassess then before starting in on your final 1hr boil.
 
You're likely to get some input from some brewers with more experience than I at all grain, but until they chime in, I'd say to not fret about being off on the preboil volume one bit.

Just boil that sucker down to 5.5gal or whatever your mark is to start your hop additions and final 1hr boil, and go from there! I'm not even sure why you're trying to take OG readings at this point anyway, though I don't usually calculate out all the efficiency numbers like I know many do.

I'd definitely think long and hard (and be sure I had a damn good reason) before adding any extract. Before you do anything, though, get down to your 5.5gallons and reassess then before starting in on your final 1hr boil.

If he boils all the way down to 5.5 gallons and then boils for another hour he'll only end up with 4.5 gallons more or less... I think it would be more wise for him to boil to his original pre-boil amount of 6.5 that was intended. Then take a gravity reading and see if it's closer to the pre-boil gravity that was expected...
 
Not sure how to quote on my phone but...

I took a gravity reading pre boil because this is my first all grain brew and I wanted to see how I measured up to Beersmith. I came in low, but the advice to be real patient before adding extract is a good one. Being my first all grain, I think I'll take my chances and see how it turns out. I'm not ready to admit defeat this early!

I'm going to boil down and cool a sample to see what I get to. If it's a low alcohol brew, so what?

Also, how can I improve next time? I hit my temp at 158 for the mash, and had a nice clear sparge. It only took 30 minutes though, can I get better efficiency by going slower? 12 pounds of grain for a five gallon batch BTW.
 
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So I took the advice and I guess I wasn't as bad as I thought; I came in at 52 instead of 62, but that's ok... thanks for the help guys! I'm cooling down now and will let this turn out how it will.
 
Knowing the type of beer and recipe would be useful, but in general, mashing at 158 is a bit on the high side and could affect your efficiency. Your grain crush may also be a factor.
 
Traveling for work, sorry for the delay. Here's the recipe:


BeerSmith 2 Recipe Printout - http://www.beersmith.com
Recipe: Jalapeno IPA
Brewer: Drew
Asst Brewer:
Style: American IPA
TYPE: All Grain
Taste: (30.0)

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Boil Size: 6.52 gal
Post Boil Volume: 5.98 gal
Batch Size (fermenter): 5.00 gal
Bottling Volume: 4.60 gal
Estimated OG: 1.062 SG
Estimated Color: 8.3 SRM
Estimated IBU: 71.4 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 72.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 82.8 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
10 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 1 83.3 %
1 lbs Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L (40.0 SRM) Grain 2 8.3 %
1 lbs Munich Malt - 10L (10.0 SRM) Grain 3 8.3 %
1.50 oz Centennial [10.00 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 4 47.2 IBUs
1.00 oz Centennial [10.00 %] - Boil 30.0 min Hop 5 24.2 IBUs
1.00 oz Cascade [5.50 %] - Aroma Steep 15.0 min Hop 6 0.0 IBUs
1.00 oz Cascade [5.50 %] - Aroma Steep 0.0 min Hop 7 0.0 IBUs
1.0 pkg Safale American (DCL/Fermentis #US-05) Yeast 8 -


Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Light Body, No Mash Out
Total Grain Weight: 12 lbs
----------------------------
Name Description Step Temper Step Time
Mash In Add 15.00 qt of water at 164.4 F 150.0 F 60 min

Sparge: Fly sparge with 4.46 gal water at 168.0 F
Notes:
------



Looking back on my notes and my brewday in general, I think the culprit might have been me. Just got a new setup for all grain, it includes a fly sparge with a ball valve. I checked on the sparge a couple times but I only had like a half inch of water on top of the grain bed if that. So I'm thinking maybe the water really only washed a part of the bed instead of the whole thing. Will the sparge water circulate through the grains or just flow down one path?
 
Check your absorption calculations, also did you add boiling water to raise temps to mash out? This is probably the source of your volume errors, off the top of my head it appears you used 12 lbs of grain, so lost ~1.5 gallons to absorption leaving first runnings of 2.25 gallons, plus 4.46 gallons of sparge puts you at 6.71 gallons without taking into account any liquid added as a mashout, so 7.5 gallons seems reasonable assuming a mashout addition.

As for mash temps, IMHO 158 is WAY too high for an ipa, especially with a pound of crystal, you'll end up with a body too heavy (for my taste). I'd suggest addition of some simple sugars and a mash temp closer to 151 or 152.

Another consideration: I noticed (perceived) improvements in my mashing when I started using a pH stabilizer, so maybe try that out (I have no idea if this is a lacebo or not though).
 
I didnt do a mash out, just went right to sparge; is a mashout necessary? I felt like the all grain was complicated enough already, so I was trying to keep it simple wherever possible. Also, I did let a little too much water run out of my HLT when sparging, so that's how I got to 7.5 gallons. I really want to get a sight glass to keep a better eye on my volumes, although I'm pretty sure I could have been a little more attentive.

Yeah, 158 was higher than i wanted. I was shooting for 152, but first time with new equipment and once I doughed in and stirred I was at 142, which I thought was too low so... I added some hotter water there but ended up doing to much and that's how I got to 158.

pH stabilizer is a good suggestion, I haven't tested my water yet so I'm not sure where my pH would be. Funny how even after reading several threads about how to just RDWHAHB, I still freaked when my temp was lower than I thought it should be and overcompensated.

Thanks for the feedback! I wish I had an experienced brewer to hang out with and learn from, but I'm finding this forum almost as good. Guess the only thing to do is practice more :tank:
 
I'm still not sure exactly what caused the lower OG, it could be a lot of things, certainly your new process may need some fine tuning. I still think the mash temperature is too high.

I notice a few things based on your Beersmith print out. You have the mash profile set to light body which calls for a mash temp. of 150, not 158; I'm not sure if that was intentional, or not. I'm pretty new to AG and beersmith, but I usually use the medium body profile and I've only mashed in the low 150s thus far, which seems to be pretty common for most beer styles, certainly for an IPA. Also, your equipment profile it set to 5.98 gallons post boil, and 5 gallons into the fermenter. You know your setup better than I do, but .98 gallons seems high. Dialing in the beersmith numbers to your equipment is important to hit your volumes and your gravity.

I hope this helps. Good luck and keep at it. You'll get your process and equipment down in a few batches. :mug:
 
Dialing in the beersmith numbers to your equipment is important to hit your volumes and your gravity.

How exactly do I go about 'dialing in' Beersmith? Are there settings I can change or something? I think what I'm going to do is brew this same recipe a couple more times, and see if I can get things to where they're supposed to be. One quick question about my strike water: I preheated the MLT (cooler) with my strike water volume, but it's a 9 gallon cooler so the liquid level was pretty low with only 15 quarts (a little less than half full). Should I preheat with it all the way full, or is it not that important?
 
Under your equipment profile is where you make most changes. Things like boil off rate, loses related to transferring beer post boil and post fermentation, etc, etc. It's a highly configurable program. You'll just have to play around with it. Definitely setup a custom equipment profile so beersmith can calculate things accurately.
 
Looks like there are a few things going on in beersmith. It seems to me that the boil off rate must be underestimated. Also it's calculating a mash efficiency of 82%. I'll bet that you got around 70% which is pretty good especially considering its your first all grain so every piece of equipment is new and every step of procedure is new. So I think what you got is probably close to what you should have gotten it you had beersmith calculating conservatively for a newbie all grainer. I'd start entering recipes at 70% mash efficiency and adjust from there based on your results. I currently design based on 75% and usually hit about 74-80 if I consistently get to 80 I'll adjust my recipe design accordingly.

Good luck as you develop your process.
 
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