First All-Grain - Brew Day from Hell

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bonecitybrewco

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Well, pulled the trigger and did my first all grain batch. Cream of Three Crops with a tiny hop twist and Kolsch yeast. Seemed simple enough. Where do I start?

Was supposed to brew Saturday morning, ended up being delayed due to a late yeast delivery.

Was supposed to start yesterday morning, ended up being around 2 pm once everything was staged and ready to go.

Then it got worse...

First, missed my mash temp by 6 degrees (low). Great. Oh well, forgot to check off the box for adding mash tun deadspace to mash volume anyways, so added half gallon of 180 sparge water to bring the bed up to temp. Mixed in, still a few degrees short. Oh well, it'll do. My OCD doesn't like it, but I knew that with the 90 minute mash, I should be okay.

Then I got a stuck sparge. Which, given how everything else was going, didn't really phase me. Dumped it into a bucket, mixed it up real good, cleared off false bottom, and re-added. Vorlaufed probably a gallon just to really make sure sparge was flowing and grain was cleared out. This also greatly reduced my total sparge time.

All that being said, with some good self-talk and convincing, I relaxed, didn't worry, and had a home brew. Sure enough, I nailed my pre-boil gravity and volumes (to my own amazement). However, with a new burner, couldn't quite get to a rolling boil fast enough and ended up losing too much to boil off and overshot my OG by 6 points. I could have just added make up water, however, would rather just have a stronger beer I suppose. Everything else went smoothly, up until pitching. I made a minor mistake with the yeast starter. WY2565. I meant to make it 1.5L, ended up being 1.25. Pitched 750 ml 24 hours ago. Still no fermentation signs at all. Will pitch the rest of that starter by 10PM tonight if I still don't see anything. Though, I see a lot of people saying it's slow to start. Sitting in the fermenter at 15C(59F). Right in ferm targets. This might be the straw that breaks me.

But, the RDWHAHB worked last time, maybe just leave it?
 
I've got two very nice homebrews sitting here, as a bet, that say it'll all be fine.

Oh, wait--I'm just going to R, DW, and I'll HAHB of my own while I watch this unfold. :)

BTW: You have the most important one out of the way--the first one. Imagine how much smoother and better each subsequent session will go. I've done five all-grain brews and each one is better.
 
You didn't get bugs in it, boil over, mix up your hop additions, or spill any on the ground?
Sounds like a good brew day! :)


Thanks for reminding me! A male mosquito! But that was before boil and was fished out with a sanitized strainer! I adjusted for it in Beersmith though. I figure it was a 1 min steep pre boil.
 
I've got two very nice homebrews sitting here, as a bet, that say it'll all be fine.

Oh, wait--I'm just going to R, DW, and I'll HAHB of my own while I watch this unfold. :)

BTW: You have the most important one out of the way--the first one. Imagine how much smoother and better each subsequent session will go. I've done five all-grain brews and each one is better.


Thanks! Sure enough, as of 6 pm, lots more foam starting to form. Have a blow off tube because I've heard that WY2565 can take off like a beast, but we will see what happens.
 
And here I was expecting carnage and wort all over the floor. It sounds more like a brewday with a couple of hiccups. Even the starter size was not enough of a problem to classify it as "from hell"..

I bet it turns out fine, even if it is not exactly as it should have been.
 
BTW: You have the most important one out of the way--the first one. Imagine how much smoother and better each subsequent session will go. I've done five all-grain brews and each one is better.

Ha, I'm not so sure of that! Certainly as you do more AG brewing, the average terribleness of your brewdays goes down, but you'll still probably have a doozy every once in a while...
 
I suspect that will be true.

I just mean the quality of my mistakes improves. :)

Well put. I find that I still occasionally make mistakes, whether the same old missteps or exciting new screwups, but I am better at resolving them because I've been through them or at least read about others who have. I'm better at not worrying about them because I have experienced the magical powers of yeast to fix my screwups and create good beer out of mediocre wort. It also doesn't hurt that my pipeline is usually strong enough to take the hit if a batch really does go south. That's a big part of the nerves for a new brewer: if you screw up early on, you don't have other homebrew to drink while you wait for the next batch to come out.
 
This all sounds normal to me. Nothing ever goes perfect so don't worry. Just a few minor problems. In on all grain number 10 and still yet to hit my mash temp dead on and all my beers have not only been drinkable but damn good if you ask me. Turned a homebrew hater friend into a homebrew lover. Wouldn't worry about 8 degrees. Will just be a little drier and hey Summer's here so might make it an easy drinking summer beer.
 
After over 80 batches of all grain I still mess up on mash temperature occasionally. A quick correction leads to a great beer. (as quick as possible, sometimes 10-15 minutes of the mash time to get it close) It might be drier or maltier than intended, but they still make great beers.
 
Adding photos to this thread, because, they just make it more interesting.

Fly sparging once I actually got the sparge flowing
bLoMUDU.jpg


Note the grain on the walls of the pot. Had to strain that out. Pot was used as holding vessel for mash while I fixed the stuck sparge, and in the rush of everything I didn't quite 100% clean the pot of all grain hulls. Next time, won't happen.
to29FXD.jpg


0.33oz Galena @ 60, 0.33oz Citra @ 5, Whirlfloc @ 5
gGFdoTX.jpg


I got a late start, and as a result, it got dark...
AoalJsB.jpg


Whirlpool kind of worked. Will change my technique slightly next time to hopefully avoid as much on the edges. I'm amazed at how much this cleared just from the Whirlfloc right in the kettle. Look at that cone of goo!
w0UXNr4.jpg


Transferring to primary once it hit 58-60.
Yq8xtrL.jpg


Monday Afternoon
WJ8NU51.jpg


Tuesday Morning:
TEDrTq8.jpg


Wednesday Morning:
4GKrKgi.jpg


Unfortunately, the blow off is no longer bubbling at all. I know that bubbling =/= fermentation, however, it was going so strongly the past 24 hours that I figured it would continue. I shone a light on the carboy and there is still a LOT of movement inside. Debating whether I can change to an airlock now that high krausen has hit. Will check after work and see.

Any thoughts so far?
 
Well, as of this morning Krausen is starting to fall, with still a lot of yeast "activity" visible in the fermenter. Hoping to take a gravity reading this weekend. Too soon? Too late? First time using WY2565. I've read a lot of posts saying it's slow.
 
Every brew is a new lesson! I constantly screw things up and learn from it. In the end it's beer and your friends will gladly help you drink it!
 
Just a quick update:

Took a gravity reading yesterday (2 weeks in) and was at 1.018. I had a mini freakout because I figured it was stalled, however according to Beersmith, this is the exact target going into secondary, which is fantastic. I removed it from the water and now have it sitting wrapped in towels. Hoping to get it up to 70 for a few days to finish off and get down to target FG of 1.011-.1012 (depending on attenuation - WY2565 is apparently between 73 and 77). It tasted good, albeit sweet. Really can't tell full flavour profile until it hits FG though. Will be taking a sample Thursday evening and then again on Sunday to confirm FG. Thanks to everyone who has talked me down off the multiple ledges throughout this thread.
 
Well, pulled the trigger and did my first all grain batch. Cream of Three Crops with a tiny hop twist and Kolsch yeast. Seemed simple enough. Where do I start?

Was supposed to brew Saturday morning, ended up being delayed due to a late yeast delivery.

Was supposed to start yesterday morning, ended up being around 2 pm once everything was staged and ready to go.

Then it got worse...

First, missed my mash temp by 6 degrees (low). Great. Oh well, forgot to check off the box for adding mash tun deadspace to mash volume anyways, so added half gallon of 180 sparge water to bring the bed up to temp. Mixed in, still a few degrees short. Oh well, it'll do. My OCD doesn't like it, but I knew that with the 90 minute mash, I should be okay.

Then I got a stuck sparge. Which, given how everything else was going, didn't really phase me. Dumped it into a bucket, mixed it up real good, cleared off false bottom, and re-added. Vorlaufed probably a gallon just to really make sure sparge was flowing and grain was cleared out. This also greatly reduced my total sparge time.

All that being said, with some good self-talk and convincing, I relaxed, didn't worry, and had a home brew. Sure enough, I nailed my pre-boil gravity and volumes (to my own amazement). However, with a new burner, couldn't quite get to a rolling boil fast enough and ended up losing too much to boil off and overshot my OG by 6 points. I could have just added make up water, however, would rather just have a stronger beer I suppose. Everything else went smoothly, up until pitching. I made a minor mistake with the yeast starter. WY2565. I meant to make it 1.5L, ended up being 1.25. Pitched 750 ml 24 hours ago. Still no fermentation signs at all. Will pitch the rest of that starter by 10PM tonight if I still don't see anything. Though, I see a lot of people saying it's slow to start. Sitting in the fermenter at 15C(59F). Right in ferm targets. This might be the straw that breaks me.

But, the RDWHAHB worked last time, maybe just leave it?

none of those numbers are terribly important. Your mash temp being a few deg off, adding 0.5G of hot water to mash, boiling off a bit too much, missing OG by 6 points, started being 1.25 instead of 1.5L.

You need to relax. It will be fine.
 
none of those numbers are terribly important. Your mash temp being a few deg off, adding 0.5G of hot water to mash, boiling off a bit too much, missing OG by 6 points, started being 1.25 instead of 1.5L.

You need to relax. It will be fine.


Thanks... I think?

Side bar, Sunday was 1.018, today (Tuesday) was 1.016. Acceptable drop rate?

I know that WY2565 has an attenuation between 73 and 77% so my theoretical FG should be around 1.013 and 1.011 based on my OG of 1.050 however, considering my mash was lower temp, should I expect to see higher attenuation over and above what Wyeast rates it at?
 
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