First all grain, so many questions.

[beersydoesit]

Just got my BYO magazine and they had an article on all grain made simple. I had been "sneaking up" on all grain for a while. I had all the stuff, I had a mash tun even just waiting for me to grow a backbone and do it.

So I did the BYO recipe.
It is a very tasty looking pale ale. The mag said it was a forgiving recipe. Good thing.

The questions though.
The instructions seemed to have me let the mash rest for 40 minutes and then add water to bring the temp to 170 F. So can you mash too long? What happens? Tannins? or is it just a waste of time?

I had the temp at 170 when I started recycling but it dropped below 170 into the 160s. Are there dangers here?

Next the BYO had me recycle wort "until the wort was clearer or 20 minutes had passed" Huh? Can I recycle too long? If the wort doesn't clear up what does that mean in the beer?

The magazine had a section titled "When to stop" or something just like that. I had never thought about that before. I recycled until the wort was pretty clear (it took more than 20 minutes) and took the next 7 or so gallons. BYO said take 6.5. I took gravity readings of the wort that came out after out of curiosity and it seemed pretty low so I probably got most of the good stuff.
I guess the question is "When do you stop sparging?"

Lastly while I was sparging I seemed to remeber to worry about hot side aeration. Sadly I didn't know how to avoid a certain amount of splashing while I was recycling. Do let the wort "trickle" into the pitcher for recycling or do people catch the wort more quietly?

I started late and it took forever but it smelled great and I learned a bunch.:rockin:

 

[lumpher]

that makes my head spin. i mash at 168, and that brings the water to 152-154. i let it sit for an hour. i drain about 2 quarts, pour it back in, drain the rest into the boil keggle. i sparge in some more at about 180, cools down to about 170. soak it for about 20-30, then add it in. gives me about 13g for my 11g net after a 75 minute boil, usually

 

[thedidey]

Let's see.

I wouldn't worry about mashing too long. Not sure what could happen other than the temperature dropping and getting more fermentable sugars than you expected. Mashing for too little time is a much bigger concern.

You are recycling specifically for clarity (vorlaufing). As long at the temperature is where you want it to be you can recirculate as much as you want. Sounds like it cleared up which is what you want. The grains become the filter and get out the small stuff. If it does not clear up you might be boiling grain bits and get weird flavors. I go nice and slow and usually end up vorlaufing about 2/3-1 galllon.

The reason you use 170 water to sparge is to stop the conversion of the sugars. In this table from How to Brew (http://www.howtobrew.com/section3/chapter14-1.html) you can see that no conversion is really going to happen over 162 cause the enzymes won't work above those temps.

I stop sparging when I have the amount of wort that I need to get to my target batch size. You can try to calculate how much sparge water you're going to need by assuming a certain amount of absorption by the grains, but its easier for me to heat up too much water and leave a little in the tun. Like you said....you get the best of it.

Don't know enough about hot side aeration to be worth saying anything.

 

[Brewsmith]

The instructions seemed to have me let the mash rest for 40 minutes and then add water to bring the temp to 170 F. So can you mash too long? What happens? Tannins? or is it just a waste of time?

You can a more fermentable wort from more conversion of long chain sugars into smaller ones, but mostly a waste of time at this point in your all-grain career.

I had the temp at 170 when I started recycling but it dropped below 170 into the 160s. Are there dangers here?

Not really

Next the BYO had me recycle wort "until the wort was clearer or 20 minutes had passed" Huh? Can I recycle too long? If the wort doesn't clear up what does that mean in the beer?

You are looking to keep out the husks, chunky malt particles and the initial cloudy wort from other malt powder and dust. Too long? Again not really

When do you stop sparging?

1. When you have enough wort that gets you the boil volume you want
2. When your runoff gravity drops to 1.010 (although I've heard 1.012 and even up to 1.016)
3. When you just know after using your all grain system many times

The BYO article has it about right

Do let the wort "trickle" into the pitcher for recycling or do people catch the wort more quietly?

Hot side aeration is mostly not a real factor for homebrewers. You would literally have to shake up the entire wort to make a significant effect. Don't worry about it, it looks like you're fine.

I started late and it took forever but it smelled great and I learned a bunch.:rockin:

That's sounds like the beginning of many successful all-grain brews. Here's to many more. Cheers!

 

[beersydoesit]

Thanks for the responses. Come on over and we can sample it when it's ready.