First, slight caveat. I have helped a friend brew twice (one AG, one extract), so this was the first brew day by myself. If you're willing, please read through and comment/critique my technique.
I ordered the Great Lakes Edmund Fitzgerald clone kit from AHS. Edmund Fitzgerald is easily my favorite porter and, for those of you who haven't had it, is pretty much a light stout.
Here's my printout from BeerSmith:
Type: All Grain
Date: 2/12/2011
Batch Size: 5.25 gal
Brewer: S. Wolfe
Boil Size: 6.25 gal
Boil Time: 60 min
Equipment: Brew Pot (7.5 gal) and Igloo Cooler (10 Gal) (Note: turkey fryer + DIY MLT, thanks HBT!)
Also, I have a homemade CFC that I made from the Wiki instructions.
Ingredients:
10.25 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 85.42 %
0.75 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM) Grain 6.25 %
0.50 lb Black Barley (Stout) (500.0 SRM) Grain 4.17 %
0.50 lb Chocolate Malt (350.0 SRM) Grain 4.17 %
1.00 oz Northern Brewer [8.00 %] (60 min) Hops 24.9 IBU
0.50 oz Fuggles [4.20 %] (60 min) Hops 6.5 IBU
0.50 oz Fuggles [4.20 %] (30 min) Hops 5.0 IBU
1.00 oz Cascade [5.00 %] (5 min) Hops 3.1 IBU
1 Pkgs Windsor Yeast (Lallemand #-) Yeast-Ale
Mash:
15 qt of strike water @ 174.9F
Hold mash at 158.0F for 45 min (seems high?)
Sparge with 0.94 gal of 168.0F water
Sparge with 3.25 gal of 168.0F water
Est'd pre-boil gravity: 1.056 SG
In addition to the hops shown above, I also added a Whirlfloc tablet with 15 min left.
Now here's where I really got into trouble....I read a ton of tutorials on batch sparging until I felt comfortable doing it by myself. However, the brand new thermometer I got was WRONG! Here's the thermometer I got: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000PAO3HG/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20
It's the same one my buddy uses. I like the design. I added my strike water right at the suggested temperature (I stirred the water to ensure even temperature distribution). However, after doughing in (I put water in first, poured grain slowly with one hand as I stirred with the other), the thermometer said my mash was at 168.0F! So, I quickly added ice until I hit my 158.0F temp dead on (I wish I never did this). It held steady for the whole time. When I went to vorlauf/first sparge, it ran really slowly. However, my second batch of sparge water seemed to be holding its temperature fine so I didn't worry. I read a few tricks on here for a stuck sparge; pinching the tube and 'priming' it seemed to work OK temporarily, but I think in the future I will just stir the crap out of it and re-vorlauf (I assume this is OK?). I wound up doing this and it came out as a steady stream instead of a trickle/drip.
Here's where I realized I was somewhat screwed. I was texting with my friend during this time, and got lots of "RDWHAHB" in reply.
Now, I said that my second sparge water was holding its temp just fine (it was actually reading 171F and I wanted 168F). As soon as I pulled the lid off the bucket it was in, I knew something was wrong -- the water was about as warm as a hot tub. I grabbed my immersion thermometer, and what do you know, the water is 98F! So I reheated the second sparge water and gave it about 10 minutes of stirring hoping I might convert a bit of sugar (should I have 're-mashed' with hot water at this point?). I put the probe in an ice bath after this. It read 130F. Yeah, not even in the ballpark.
After sparging I took a preboil SG measurement. Unfortunately I didn't have any distilled/RO water, so I calibrated my refractometer with tap water (how bad is this?). I measured 1.036, when my target was 1.056.
I tried to do a good long boil before adding hops. I probably boiled for about an hour, got a good hot break, etc. This took the volume down a bit, and I added my 60 min hops.
Now I had to chill my wort...my CFC worked awesome, but I had a lot of trouble getting the flow started. I have a weldless bulkhead kit with diptube from BargainFittings. My dip tube is about 0.2" from the bottom of my BK. I stuck a SS scrubbie on the bottom to act as a filter. This wound up just blocking the filter. Would better whirlpooling at the end of the boil help? I think next time I will just loop a paint strainer/mesh bag around my dip tube. Thoughts?
After all that boiling, I wound up with 4.5 gal of wort at 1.046. Any idea what it will turn out like? Really sweet? I contemplated adding some corn sugar to my boil, but I decided to RDWHAHB instead since I didn't really know what volume to use.
I have a replacement thermometer on the way from Amazon and I'm planning to brew an AHS Franziskaner Hefe Weisse clone next weekend (I'll have to put the E.F. clone in the secondary to free up the primary), so any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Also, for future use, can I just paste the "BeerXML" brew sheet in my posts?
Edit: the target F.G. is 1.017, which puts my ABV at 3.8%.
I ordered the Great Lakes Edmund Fitzgerald clone kit from AHS. Edmund Fitzgerald is easily my favorite porter and, for those of you who haven't had it, is pretty much a light stout.
Here's my printout from BeerSmith:
Type: All Grain
Date: 2/12/2011
Batch Size: 5.25 gal
Brewer: S. Wolfe
Boil Size: 6.25 gal
Boil Time: 60 min
Equipment: Brew Pot (7.5 gal) and Igloo Cooler (10 Gal) (Note: turkey fryer + DIY MLT, thanks HBT!)
Also, I have a homemade CFC that I made from the Wiki instructions.
Ingredients:
10.25 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 85.42 %
0.75 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM) Grain 6.25 %
0.50 lb Black Barley (Stout) (500.0 SRM) Grain 4.17 %
0.50 lb Chocolate Malt (350.0 SRM) Grain 4.17 %
1.00 oz Northern Brewer [8.00 %] (60 min) Hops 24.9 IBU
0.50 oz Fuggles [4.20 %] (60 min) Hops 6.5 IBU
0.50 oz Fuggles [4.20 %] (30 min) Hops 5.0 IBU
1.00 oz Cascade [5.00 %] (5 min) Hops 3.1 IBU
1 Pkgs Windsor Yeast (Lallemand #-) Yeast-Ale
Mash:
15 qt of strike water @ 174.9F
Hold mash at 158.0F for 45 min (seems high?)
Sparge with 0.94 gal of 168.0F water
Sparge with 3.25 gal of 168.0F water
Est'd pre-boil gravity: 1.056 SG
In addition to the hops shown above, I also added a Whirlfloc tablet with 15 min left.
Now here's where I really got into trouble....I read a ton of tutorials on batch sparging until I felt comfortable doing it by myself. However, the brand new thermometer I got was WRONG! Here's the thermometer I got: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000PAO3HG/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20
It's the same one my buddy uses. I like the design. I added my strike water right at the suggested temperature (I stirred the water to ensure even temperature distribution). However, after doughing in (I put water in first, poured grain slowly with one hand as I stirred with the other), the thermometer said my mash was at 168.0F! So, I quickly added ice until I hit my 158.0F temp dead on (I wish I never did this). It held steady for the whole time. When I went to vorlauf/first sparge, it ran really slowly. However, my second batch of sparge water seemed to be holding its temperature fine so I didn't worry. I read a few tricks on here for a stuck sparge; pinching the tube and 'priming' it seemed to work OK temporarily, but I think in the future I will just stir the crap out of it and re-vorlauf (I assume this is OK?). I wound up doing this and it came out as a steady stream instead of a trickle/drip.
Here's where I realized I was somewhat screwed. I was texting with my friend during this time, and got lots of "RDWHAHB" in reply.
Now, I said that my second sparge water was holding its temp just fine (it was actually reading 171F and I wanted 168F). As soon as I pulled the lid off the bucket it was in, I knew something was wrong -- the water was about as warm as a hot tub. I grabbed my immersion thermometer, and what do you know, the water is 98F! So I reheated the second sparge water and gave it about 10 minutes of stirring hoping I might convert a bit of sugar (should I have 're-mashed' with hot water at this point?). I put the probe in an ice bath after this. It read 130F. Yeah, not even in the ballpark.After sparging I took a preboil SG measurement. Unfortunately I didn't have any distilled/RO water, so I calibrated my refractometer with tap water (how bad is this?). I measured 1.036, when my target was 1.056.
I tried to do a good long boil before adding hops. I probably boiled for about an hour, got a good hot break, etc. This took the volume down a bit, and I added my 60 min hops.
Now I had to chill my wort...my CFC worked awesome, but I had a lot of trouble getting the flow started. I have a weldless bulkhead kit with diptube from BargainFittings. My dip tube is about 0.2" from the bottom of my BK. I stuck a SS scrubbie on the bottom to act as a filter. This wound up just blocking the filter. Would better whirlpooling at the end of the boil help? I think next time I will just loop a paint strainer/mesh bag around my dip tube. Thoughts?
After all that boiling, I wound up with 4.5 gal of wort at 1.046. Any idea what it will turn out like? Really sweet? I contemplated adding some corn sugar to my boil, but I decided to RDWHAHB instead since I didn't really know what volume to use.
I have a replacement thermometer on the way from Amazon and I'm planning to brew an AHS Franziskaner Hefe Weisse clone next weekend (I'll have to put the E.F. clone in the secondary to free up the primary), so any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Also, for future use, can I just paste the "BeerXML" brew sheet in my posts?
Edit: the target F.G. is 1.017, which puts my ABV at 3.8%.
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