And so my first AG batch begins

[EddieB428]

I'm now starting my first AG batch. I've done a few partial mashes in the past. I'm eager to see how well this turns out with the addition of a corona style mill and mash tun to my equipment. I was going to do a 90 minute boil but decided to go with a 60 minute.

Imperial IPA
Batch Size: 3 gallons
Boil time: 60 minutes

Grain
4 lbs Briess 2-row Brewer's Malt
3 lbs Briess 2-row Pale Ale Malt
1 lb Briess Crystal 60L

Hops*
1 oz Amarillo
0.5 oz Northern Brewer
0.5 oz Chinook
Constant additions every 4 minutes from 60 to flame out.

Yeast
White Labs WLP001 California Ale Yeast (no starter)

Mash Info - Mashing a little lower to make it a bit drier
Mash in with 2.5 gallons @ 163.7 to hit 152 for 60 minutes
Batch Sparge - 2.5 gallons @ 168

The crystal malt is a little high, I got carried away with the mill and crushed it all and mixed it with the other grains before realizing I didn't want to use it all.

I'm currently heating about 3.5 gallons of water to 170 to preheat the mash tun. And there's the thermometer telling me it's ready.

More to come!

 

[Sippin37]

Hops*
1 oz Amarillo
0.5 oz Northern Brewer
0.5 oz Chinook
Constant additions every 4 minutes from 60 to flame out.

I'm guessing those are the total amount of hops to be used throughout the 60 min. boil? If so, how does doing this compare to perhaps at 60, 30, 15, 5, flameout? I've never even thought about doing this and am curious to hear what kind of differences you see.

 

[Bensiff]

Yup, no need to go 90 minute with that grain bill. Nice and easy, good for the first go at an AG. If you want unsolicited opinion though, I'd hit it with enough hops to bitter at 60 then put the rest in in the last 10 to push the flavor...just sad to see something like Amarillo be used for bittering. Good luck.

 

[EddieB428]

Attempt number 2 after a small set back. When I poured in the water to preheat the tun I found out that it leaked. After some playing around with washers and tightening, I've got it holding water. This did allow me to see how much I'm unable to drain. The tun stops draining with about 1/3 gallon left in the bottom so I adjusted my mash in water accordingly.

The original plan was to do a 90 minute boil and hop continuously. Once I get the mash going I'll play around with some numbers and maybe change up the hops additions.

 

[EddieB428]

Mash is going. I was shooting for 152 but hit 153. That's close enough for me. Only lost a cup or 2 of water because I must have knocked the ball valve lever about a quarter turn when I moved the mash tun from the sink to the floor and didn't notice.

Now I'm playing around with the hop schedule. I'm thinking I may go with 1/2 oz Chinook at 60, then 1 oz Amarillo, 1/2 oz Chinook, 1/2 oz Northern Brewer split up at 30, 20, 10, 5, and flame out. Which would give me about 73 IBU which is within the style range for an IIPA. Trying to decide if I want to use the whole ounce of Northern Brewer which would push it up to 82.5 IBU.

 

[crackhead7]

just be carful with the amount of chinook i find that it can have a harsh hop tone verses others.

 

[EddieB428]

Chinook added and 60 minute timer started.

Decided to go with the full ounce of Northern Brewer. Hop additions are all measured out and ready to go. My scale isn't the most accurate so it's probably not an exact split.

Now to finish cleaning/sanitizing and get my aquarium heater fired up in my brew closet.

 

[EddieB428]

I checked my preboil sample after cooling to 66*. With correction it came out to 1.045. The estimated gravity was 1.052. I think this is going to come out a little lower than expected. Next time I'll have some numbers to go off of when planning the recipe.

 

[EddieB428]

Blah..so I didn't get anywhere near the efficiency I was hoping for. At 72% I should have gotten a 1.070 OG and I ended up with a 1.056 OG. Plugging the numbers into Beersmith gives me about a 62% efficiency. So my Imperial IPA is going to be a very hoppy normal IPA. With good attenuation I should end up at 5.4% ABV.

For my next batch, I'm going to tighten up the mill and crush a little finer. My crush looked good in comparison to pictures I've seen. My mash temp dropped from 153 to 149 over the hour, but I don't think that played a part.

The carboy is sitting in a water bath at the moment. The water temp is high because I made the mistake of using fairly warm water from the bath tub to fill the tote but it should drop overnight to acceptable temperatures.