GearDaddys
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Sep 19, 2014
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Greetings..
So after HOURS and HOURS of reading and preparing.. I did my first all grain/BIAB batch today.. WOOHOO.. Had a ton of fun doing it, and learned a lot.. Thankfully I didn't have too much drama, other than a slightly torn bag due to me forgetting about the dang temp probe in my kettle.. (Crap).. Was hoping some of you would look over my numbers, and possibly comment on what I should do next time..
I am using a 15 gallon kettle MegaPot1.2.. And the recipe that I chose was one from this site.. It was a clone of Stone "Enjoy By".. Perhaps ambitious for my first go around, but hey.. go big or go home right?? I also used beersmith to calculate everything out, and checked every setting probably 4 times..
Strike/Mash temps worked out perfectly.. After mashing in I was less than a degree of from the expected temp in beersmith.. I was jazzed right off the bat with that. After the final step of the mash out, I raised the grain bag with a hoist, and let it drain for a little bit.. Then I squeezed it gently and was surprised by how much wort came out of the bag.. After squeezing it, I used my refractometer to check pre boil gravity.. To my surprise, after squeezing the bag, I came up with 1.054.. Dead on per beersmith.. Interestingly though, I had .3 Gallons of wort more than I should have in the kettle at this point. I decided not to sweat it because the gravity was spot on. Mash effiency according to beersmith was 78 percent. (I thought that this was pretty good)..
Boil went without any problems.. It was a 90 minute boil.. After the boil, I cooled with wort chiller, and then transferred to the fermenter. I had planned on transferring 5.5 gallons into my fermenter, but I had more wort than I was prepared to have! So I put 6 in my fermenter.. and still had 1/4 gallon left in my kettle above the 1/4 gallon that I had planned to leave behind for "Trub Loss".. After pitching, I took my OG reading and found it a little bit low. I came in at 1.074.. The recipe calls for OG of 1.082.. I guess it could have been worse!
I have a few questions about what to do with beersmith now.. I know how to adjust brewhouse effiency numbers to match up the predicted and actual mash effiency numbers.. Should I for the sake of calculations enter in my actual batch size as 6.25 (which I could have had if I had a larger fermenter) or do I put in just the 6.0 that I actually put into my fermentor?
Also, any thoughts on why I would have started so well on my preboil gravity, then wound up with too much wort, at a lower than expected OG? Is the difference that I got vs the recipe something I should be concerned with, or is this an acceptable difference? I'm wondering if I should tweak the "Grain Absorbtion" numbers in beersmith, as this was where I started with too much wort.. I should mention that I measured my original water volume to a gnats ass.. so I know I started with the correct amount..
Anyway, thanks a TON for reading all of this, and I apologize for being so long winded.. Just wanted to share in the excitement of my first all grain brew!
Cheers!
GD
So after HOURS and HOURS of reading and preparing.. I did my first all grain/BIAB batch today.. WOOHOO.. Had a ton of fun doing it, and learned a lot.. Thankfully I didn't have too much drama, other than a slightly torn bag due to me forgetting about the dang temp probe in my kettle.. (Crap).. Was hoping some of you would look over my numbers, and possibly comment on what I should do next time..
I am using a 15 gallon kettle MegaPot1.2.. And the recipe that I chose was one from this site.. It was a clone of Stone "Enjoy By".. Perhaps ambitious for my first go around, but hey.. go big or go home right?? I also used beersmith to calculate everything out, and checked every setting probably 4 times..
Strike/Mash temps worked out perfectly.. After mashing in I was less than a degree of from the expected temp in beersmith.. I was jazzed right off the bat with that. After the final step of the mash out, I raised the grain bag with a hoist, and let it drain for a little bit.. Then I squeezed it gently and was surprised by how much wort came out of the bag.. After squeezing it, I used my refractometer to check pre boil gravity.. To my surprise, after squeezing the bag, I came up with 1.054.. Dead on per beersmith.. Interestingly though, I had .3 Gallons of wort more than I should have in the kettle at this point. I decided not to sweat it because the gravity was spot on. Mash effiency according to beersmith was 78 percent. (I thought that this was pretty good)..
Boil went without any problems.. It was a 90 minute boil.. After the boil, I cooled with wort chiller, and then transferred to the fermenter. I had planned on transferring 5.5 gallons into my fermenter, but I had more wort than I was prepared to have! So I put 6 in my fermenter.. and still had 1/4 gallon left in my kettle above the 1/4 gallon that I had planned to leave behind for "Trub Loss".. After pitching, I took my OG reading and found it a little bit low. I came in at 1.074.. The recipe calls for OG of 1.082.. I guess it could have been worse!
I have a few questions about what to do with beersmith now.. I know how to adjust brewhouse effiency numbers to match up the predicted and actual mash effiency numbers.. Should I for the sake of calculations enter in my actual batch size as 6.25 (which I could have had if I had a larger fermenter) or do I put in just the 6.0 that I actually put into my fermentor?
Also, any thoughts on why I would have started so well on my preboil gravity, then wound up with too much wort, at a lower than expected OG? Is the difference that I got vs the recipe something I should be concerned with, or is this an acceptable difference? I'm wondering if I should tweak the "Grain Absorbtion" numbers in beersmith, as this was where I started with too much wort.. I should mention that I measured my original water volume to a gnats ass.. so I know I started with the correct amount..
Anyway, thanks a TON for reading all of this, and I apologize for being so long winded.. Just wanted to share in the excitement of my first all grain brew!
Cheers!
GD