First all-grain brew day success

[Rhetorik]

After a rough year last year, I made the switch to all-grain after a many-month hiatus from brewing and had my first brew day yesterday. Everything went quite smoothly, although it took a lot longer than my partial mash brew days; I'm chalking a lot of this to it being my first time, and expect my speed to increase as I get more experience. I went with a Rye IPA, and was told to expect ~65% efficiency; I've listed my recipe below, as well as some pics of me losing my innocence to the partial mash gods.

All-grain Rye IPA, 12gal:
20lbs Pale Ale 2 Row
8.5lbs Canadian Rye Malt
1.5lbs Caramel 40L
1lb rice hulls

Mashed @ 153F for 60 minutes; batch sparge at 168F

2oz Centennial (11.6%) @ 60
2oz Centennial (11.6%) @ 30
2tsp Irish moss @ 10
2oz Centennial (11.6%) @ 5
4oz Amarillo (9.4%) @ 5
1oz Centennial (11.6%) @ Flameout/Whirlpool
1oz Simcoe (12%) @ Flameout/Whirlpool
4oz Amarillo (9.4%) @ Flameout/Whirlpool

The batch was split into 2 carboys:
3 packs Safale US-05 (1.5 packs per carboy)
Carboy #1 will be dry-hopped with 2oz Simcoe for 5 days
Carboy #2 will be dry-hopped with 2oz Galaxy for 5 days

Gypsum and calicum chloride added to the mash for an overall profile of
Ca: 105.9 / Mg: 2.2 / Na: 16.4 / Sulfate: 173.9 / Chloride: 69.2

I hit my mash temps pretty much perfectly; the sparge was one-two degrees low at 166/167F. At the suggested 65% efficiency I was told to expect, my pre-boil OG would have been 1.05. I hit 1.06; my measured post-boil OG was 1.066. This would put me around 75% efficiency I think.

Overall I'm quite happy with how things have turned out. The 2 carboys are now in a closet with a swamp cooler set-up, and hopefully there'll be some visible activity when I get home! Thanks for reading, I just wanted to share as it was a lot of fun and I look forward to my next batch.

 

[dsniegocki]

Damn, I'm glad my brew day doesn't have to start with clearing a spot in the snow. Congrats on the move to AG, once I did there was no going back!

(BTW, everyone knows that Donatello is the best TMNT)

 

[zchwlsn]

I just popped my cherry this weekend too with an oatmeal stout. Had my first blow off too

 

[kombat]

Congrats, nice job! Always nice to see another Ottawa brewer! Have you gotten onto the homebrew club's (Members of Barleyment) email list yet? What part of the city are you in (I'm in Barrhaven)?

 

[Rhetorik]

Congrats, nice job! Always nice to see another Ottawa brewer! Have you gotten onto the homebrew club's (Members of Barleyment) email list yet? What part of the city are you in (I'm in Barrhaven)?

I'm in the Glebe. You can see Patterson Creek from my back balcony (where I brewed)

I'm on the Members of Barleyment facebook group; I'm not on their email list. I have no goddamn clue how their website works TBH.

 

[chudsonvt]

Had my first blow off too

You may want to get a blow-off tube. Then swap to the stopper after primary has died down. You put the hose into sanitized water to act as the air lock but it won't clog and blow your top off. Either of these should do:

http://www.midwestsupplies.com/carboy-cap-3-5-6-gallon-carboys.html

http://www.northernbrewer.com/brewing/brewing-equipment/fermenting-equipment/blow-off-tubing/better-bottle-blowoff-assembly
You will also need a blowoff hose to go with this one. But this is what I use for primary.

 

[Rhetorik]

^I'm using the orange guys on my carboys with 1/2" tubing. There wasn't much activity in them this morning (730am, pitched the yeast at 10pm last night, so not surprising) but them temp also seemed low. I took out a couple of the ice packs I had to help out with that (still have the carboys wrapped in damp towels) so I'm hoping that it's off to the races when I get home this evening. Hopefully no messy blow-off though... then I'd have a lot of laundry to do, and my expensive-as-heck motorcycle race suit would be a disaster.

 

[chudsonvt]

^I'm using the orange guys on my carboys with 1/2" tubing. There wasn't much activity in them this morning (730am, pitched the yeast at 10pm last night, so not surprising) but them temp also seemed low. I took out a couple of the ice packs I had to help out with that (still have the carboys wrapped in damp towels) so I'm hoping that it's off to the races when I get home this evening. Hopefully no messy blow-off though... then I'd have a lot of laundry to do, and my expensive-as-heck motorcycle race suit would be a disaster.

If you are using the orange one, you should be fine. I never had one clog. Although they seem to to get close to it sometimes. But then you hear a rush of bubbles in your blow off water. Sounds funny, haha

 

[Rhetorik]

The 2 carboys look to be fermenting away - not too crazy in terms of activity, but there's some healthy krausen formed. Ambient temp in the closet is ~56F because it's bloody cold in the apartment right now; unfortunately my thermometer strips on the fermenters are the small ones that only go as low as 66F, and it seems the current fermenting temp is below that. I took the cold packs out of the swamp cooler this morning (but left the wet towels) to hopefully bump them up a few degrees.