AG here we come...!!!

[blend120]

So tomorrow's the day.... It will be my 10th batch of home brew and my first all grain batch. :rockin:

Today was a mess of activity to get ready. I have two better bottles full of my last two extract brews so I had to transfer the cluster fuggle ipa to secondary and dry hop but I wanted to harvest the yeast for the first time. I got 3 pint mason jars. Two look like they are mostly yeast the last looks like proteins etc outweigh the yeast.(WLP001) Had to sanitize the 2 Keggles, pump and silicone lines. Got the starter going early today.

What a pain in the rear getting the better bottle clean. I did the Easy Clean shake and it would not get the top layer of Yeast gunk off. Any suggestions?

So I'm looking at 9.75 lbs of grain. I was going to dough in with 3.5 gallons of 170 degree water to achieve 150 degrees. Then after an hour and run off put 5 gallons at 175 degrees in and get to about 6.5-7 gallons of wort. I have a rubbermade ten gallon Mash Tun. OG supposed to be 1.048.

Anything look like it needs to be changed? Thanks in advance!!

 

[emetcalf]

Looks good to me. You could split your sparge water into 2 separate sparges to increase your efficiency a little bit, but 1 big sparge will definitely work.

And just to be sure you know, you should drain a few quarts of wort and pour it back on top before you drain into your boil kettle to make sure you don't get bits of grain into the boil. And stir really well every time you add water.

 

[blend120]

Yes thank you! I was going to pump the wort through for a few minutes until in ran clean before I start putting it to the Kettle.

What do you mean to split the sparge? Do Initial dough in at 3.5 gallons then 2.5 and 2.5 gallons?

 

[emetcalf]

That is exactly what you want to do. Once it looks pretty clear you are set.

And yes, 2.5 gallons then drain, then another 2.5 and drain again. Stir when you add the water, then let it sit for 5-10 minutes to settle and pump the wort like you did for the first drain.

 

[Naggs]

Yes thank you! I was going to pump the wort through for a few minutes until in ran clean before I start putting it to the Kettle.

What do you mean to split the sparge? Do Initial dough in at 3.5 gallons then 2.5 and 2.5 gallons?

Let's not miss the opportunity to use the term "vorlauf"

 

[blend120]

Vorlauf all day baby! Thanks for the help and I"ll let you know how it goes!

 

[wilserbrewer]

170 strike temp seems high to achieve 150 rest... Green bay rackers calculator should help.

 

[Firebat138]

Ur strike should be around 162, as long as ur grain is room temp.. after that you are good to go. We love AG...

 

[blend120]

Ok, so we had a successful day! I'm not sure everything was 100% but I think it was close all things considered. So we ran the 3.5 gallons to 170 (as I didn't see the above post until now) and the temp went to about 153-154 at dough in. We let sit for 30 min checked temp was at 152-153 let sit another 30 and vorlauf, ran off to kettle. put 2.5 at 175 and let sit for 10 min, vorlauf, ran off and repeated this once more. We ended up with 7 gallons of wort on the nose. boiled it through and after chilling the refractometer read 1.049. Recipe states 1.048 so we are calling it a win. Racked and aerated, pitched the starter and placed in 66 degree basement.

The nice thing I found was being able to clean and put things away along the way while waiting until the next part. The beer is so light in color compared to anything I've made in the past. Not sure if this is extract vs AG thing or just the recipe.