First all-grain batch: Success. Falconer's Flight IPA. (With pics)

[pabloj13]

Set out to make my first all-grain batch, planning to make a Two-Hearted clone (not knowing about the great centennial shortage). Made a few changes, including swapping out the Centennial for Falconer's Flight. Used my new 10 gallon converted Igloo with false bottom.

5 Gallon batch

Grain bill
10# 2-row
2# Vienna
0.8# Cara-Pils Dextrine
0.8# Carared

60' mash at 151

Hops
FF, 1oz. 90'
FF, 1oz. 30'
FF, 0.5oz. 15'
FF, 0.5oz. 1'
FF, 1oz. dry hopped in secondary

Shooting for 1.070 but only got 1.058. I think my problem was not getting the grain bed warm enough during the batch sparge (single batch) and not stirring well enough. I made a new mash paddle to hopefully remedy this situation for my next batch.

Got down to 1.009 with 1056 (starters rule!). Fermented like crazy.

4 weeks in primary. 1 week in secondary with dry hops. 3 weeks bottle conditioned.

Really happy with the head and lacing. The mouth feel of all-grain is so different to me than extract. I feel like I didn't get enough bitterness out of my 90' hops despite the long boil. I suspect it is because I really couldn't get it up to full boil due to size limitations of my pot (you can see the line of hop residue from the start of the boil). Planning to upgrade to a 9 gallon SS pot soon.

Overall very happy with my first all-grain. Washed the yeast and plan on making an oatmeal stout this Sunday.

 

[rednekhippiemotrcyclfreak]

Nice color in the glass. Can you give a little more description on the Falconer's Flight hop taste?

 

[cricky101]

Nice color in the glass. Can you give a little more description on the Falconer's Flight hop taste?

I'd love to hear about it, too.

I have the exact thing planned and the same grain bill and am debating making another two-hearted clone (got some centennials in the freezer) or using the Falconer's Flight I picked up recently.

Anything you'd change in your recipe?

 

[pabloj13]

Thanks, guys. I love these hops. I would definitely make a batch with them. The recipe (outside of actually hitting my OG) I wouldn't change. The only issue I really have is the lack of up front bitterness. But like I said, I think I didn't really get the hop utilization I could have. What I like about these hops is how complex they are. Didn't have any Centennial beers on hand to test it against, but had some Torpedo. Obviously Torpedo is a citrus bomb, but what I liked was that FF nearly stood up to Citra in the citrus department, but had other notes that citra lacked like tropical fruit and really nice floral bouquet. I guess I shouldn't say Citra lacked them, but it is much more evenly balanced with FF.

 

[cricky101]

Sounds great (and that's a sweet mash paddle!). I'll definitely be doing something similar tomorrow.

Were you shooting for a specific IBU in your recipe? I really enjoy Torpedo's level of bitterness, and I think that comes in at about 70 IBUs ...

 

[pabloj13]

Sounds great (and that's a sweet mash paddle!). I'll definitely be doing something similar tomorrow.

Were you shooting for a specific IBU in your recipe? I really enjoy Torpedo's level of bitterness, and I think that comes in at about 70 IBUs ...

According to Promash it should have come in at 86. I think it was even less than Torpedo, maybe somewhere in the 60's.

Oh and thanks. I just got a 1x6 piece of red oak (would have preferred a smaller pore wood like maple) and went to town on it with jigsaw, router and sander. Light coat of mineral oil and finished. Took about 20 minutes. Can't wait to use it.

 

[DaDzBrewery]

Another thing to look at, as far as your low Gravity, is you mentioned you couldn't get it to a full boil because of the size of your pot.. That would would effect it, because you have to account for boil off ( which is concentrating your wort to a higher gravity ) I always take a preboil SG reading and write that down with the volume of wort I started at, and then the volume after boil along with the SG.. that way in future brews I know what equipment does and I can adjust the gravity before I boil.. for a better effeciency..

 

[pabloj13]

Another thing to look at, as far as your low Gravity, is you mentioned you couldn't get it to a full boil because of the size of your pot.. That would would effect it, because you have to account for boil off ( which is concentrating your wort to a higher gravity ) I always take a preboil SG reading and write that down with the volume of wort I started at, and then the volume after boil along with the SG.. that way in future brews I know what equipment does and I can adjust the gravity before I boil.. for a better effeciency..

Yeah I still haven't worked out the evaporation rate with this setup yet, but I did take preboil gravity and calculated efficiency using that number in Promash. I made a sturdy mash paddle and have had better luck now in the low 70's. :cross:

 

[slarkin712]

I don't think you had much of a problem with mash efficiency. For my setup, I would use 2 lbs more of grain to get to 1.070. Also, with a mash temp of 151 I might consider mashing longer than 60 minutes.

 

[durandf]

I have done 4 patial extracts and now I want to go all grain. I just bottled my 4th extract. Where is the best single source video to go to do this right? Thanks

 

[slarkin712]

I have done 4 patial extracts and now I want to go all grain. I just bottled my 4th extract. Where is the best single source video to go to do this right? Thanks

Check out this sticky:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f36/all-grain-pictorial-video-tutorials-78963/

 

[DaDzBrewery]

I have done 4 patial extracts and now I want to go all grain. I just bottled my 4th extract. Where is the best single source video to go to do this right? Thanks

This is a decent video from HokieHomeBrew.. He's a good guy, And this is a simple video, that's not so confusing for the first time all-grainer.. He gives you the recipe as well so you could brew the same beer and reflect back to his video while you brew it..