First two all grain batches- Advice and comments needed

[Dadux]

So i've been brewing mead for a while and I've decided to try my hand at beer. Im gonna post the detailed recipes of what i intend to do so you can point me in the right direction if something is not as it should.

My equipment is very limited, so bear with me. If this go well I might expand and get better stuff.
So I plan to make two batches, a bit different but not much. I want easy to drink beer that is at least at the cheap commercial beer level and that i can share with friends.

Batch 1, "Pale Ale": Total 14-15 liters, IBU around 32 and 6% ABV. OG after boil: 1.060. Fg 1.014
Ingredients:
3kg Pale ale malt, 0.5kg munich malt.
Liberty bell Mangrove jacks ale yeast (1 pack) (needs starter?)
Magnus pellets (14% alpha acids, 10g boiled for 30 mins, 10 grams boiled for 10 mins)
Hersbrucker whole hops (4% Alpha acids, 10 grams biled for 10 mins, 10-20g dry hopping, any recommended ammount?)

My pot might not be able to hold 15 liters so i might need to split it, and has no tap, but the idea is:
Mash at 66ºC for 45 to 60 minutes at 2.5 liters per kg of malt (8.75 liters).
Pour the wort through a strainer. the grain will stay in the strainer. Add slowly another 8 liters of water at 70ºC to this to "sparge". Boil until 14 liters, then cool to 25ºC, put in the fermenter (at 20ºC) and add the rehydrated yeast. After 10 days/two weeks transfer to secondary, and add the hops for dry hopping. After 1-2 weeks rack again, add sugar and bottle (2-2.5 volumes of CO2)

Batch 2: Vey similar, 14-15l and IBU: 28 and 6% ABV, OG after boil: 1.060. Fg 1.014. I want this to taste maltier. Diferences in bold
Ingredients:
2kg Pale ale malt, 1.5kg munich malt.
Liberty bell Mangrove jacks ale yeast (1 pack) (needs starter?)
Magnus pellets (14% Alpha acids, 10g boiled for 20 mins, 10 grams boiled for 10 mins)
Hersbrucker whole hops (4% Alpha acids, 10 grams biled for 10 mins, 10-20g dry hopping, any recommended ammount?)

Mash at 69ºC for 45 to 60 minutes at 2.5 liters per kg of malt (8.75 liters).
Pour the wort through a strainer. the grain will stay in the strainer. Add slowly another 8 liters of water at 70ºC to this to "sparge". Boil until 14 liters, then cool to 25ºC, put in the fermenter (at 20ºC) and add the rehydrated yeast. After 10 days/two weeks transfer to secondary, and add the hops for dry hopping. After 1-2 weeks rack again, add sugar and bottle (2-2.5 volumes of CO2).

SO can anyone offer advice on the starter and dry hopping? should i change yeast or hops or malts or the process? Is the strainer technique for sparging going to yield decent results? I want to keep this simple and cheap (2 hop types, 2 malt types), if i get good beer i'll make more and step up my game.

 

[Transamguy77]

It looks like a solid plan, I would recommend putting your grains in a paint strainer bag then you can just pull the bag and set it in a colander and pour your sparge water through it.

If you are using dry yeast there is no need to make a starter, just rehydrate and pitch.

And as far as dry hopping goes personally I don't transfer and I dry hop in primary.

 

[Dadux]

Nice, thanks!
By not transfer you mean you dont rack until bottling time? Dry hopping in primary may be easier, yes

 

[Transamguy77]

Yes I only rack to bottling bucket and then straight into bottles. Actually now that I keg I actually dry hop in the keg

 

[Dadux]

Any comment on how many hops to use? in dry hopping? and can i leave them in the primary for 3 weeks or so? or is that too much?

 

[z-bob]

I would not dry-hop this beer. It looks kind-of German, and AFAIK they don't use much late addition hops. Let the malt shine. You want enough bitterness for balance, and a little floral or spicy hops aroma when you burp, but that's it

 

[Dadux]

Thats my idea for the second one, with more munich and a bit less IBU. I wanted the maltiness to dominate more.
But the first one is more of a pale ale and i want it to have some hoppy flavour and aroma. Plus the yeast has 75% attenuation which will probably leave a rather "dry" beer (i dont consider that dry at all but lets say drier) And I admit I've read everything from using 30 grams for dry hopping to 5 grams so i dont know.
I was planning on adding half or so aroma hops in the second one. But maybe just some in the end of the boil is enough.

 

[Transamguy77]

I'm with Z-Bob on this one, I wouldn't dry hop it either I would just package this one up and see how it is when it's done. If you feel like you should have dry hopped it then you could make it again with the dry hops.

As far as how much to add it kind of depends how much flavor and aroma your looking for, if you want in your face the add and oz if you just want a hint the half or less. This is what's cool about making it yourself you can taylor it to what you like.

 

[Dadux]

Ok. Im going with hops on the first but will do the more german style in the second one (one addition at 30 mins and one at 15 mins but thats it). Attempting this tomorrow. Im downscaling to 13l, the buckets can have 16l maximum, im guessing its enough headspace.
If you can give me any more advice now its the time. And thanks for what you already suggested!

 

[Dadux]

The beer has been brewed. I feel there is too much turb...what is the usual? In the first one around 1l of stuff is piling up at the bottom. Hope i dont have more than 2l of racking losses per bucket

 

[z-bob]

I don't know that there is a usual amount. But don't worry, it packs down.

 

[Dadux]

So a few things i did not expect are happening.
Its been 36h since pitch more or less, the bubbling started less than 1h from pitch and went to 1 bubble every 4s or so. Now its at 1 per minute or so. This feels a little bit weird. I know bubbles and fermentation are not correlated but i cant but wonder if the ferment might already be slowing down after only one day? Or more like finishing. 1 bubble per minute is so slow.
Unfortunately i dont have my hydrometer with me cause i moved and left it, dumb move. I didnt think it was going to be much of a problem, i've made a lot of mead batches without it, altough i wish i had it now.
The other surprising thing is the lack of kraussen. There has been little to no foam in both containers, and i thought i would foam like crazy! But nope.

All of this happens/happened in both buckets

 

[RM-MN]

So a few things i did not expect are happening.
Its been 36h since pitch more or less, the bubbling started less than 1h from pitch and went to 1 bubble every 4s or so. Now its at 1 per minute or so. This feels a little bit weird. I know bubbles and fermentation are not correlated but i cant but wonder if the ferment might already be slowing down after only one day? Or more like finishing. 1 bubble per minute is so slow.
Unfortunately i dont have my hydrometer with me cause i moved and left it, dumb move. I didnt think it was going to be much of a problem, i've made a lot of mead batches without it, altough i wish i had it now.
The other surprising thing is the lack of kraussen. There has been little to no foam in both containers, and i thought i would foam like crazy! But nope.

All of this happens/happened in both buckets

With good temperature control during the ferment I don't get much krausen either as the bubbles have time to break limiting the krausen. The reason your bubble rate is so low so quickly is that the bucket lids leak a little around the rim. Don't worry about bubble rates, I have one bucket that never bubbles and it still makes beer just like the rest of them.

 

[Dadux]

With good temperature control during the ferment I don't get much krausen either as the bubbles have time to break limiting the krausen. The reason your bubble rate is so low so quickly is that the bucket lids leak a little around the rim. Don't worry about bubble rates, I have one bucket that never bubbles and it still makes beer just like the rest of them.

Ok. Thanks for that. I know its probably ok but im a worrier so...
I pitched the yeast at 30 some degrees celsius, but after 4h or so it was at room temp (20-21). Im just more worried this time because i dont have the hydrometer but oh well...as long as it ends up good its fine.

 

[JONNYROTTEN]

10 bucks and 2 days and you could know whats happening. Not worth worrying..
FWIW I never check gravity till at least day 5...and most will say that's to soon.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B008S0KNZG/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

 

[RM-MN]

10 bucks and 2 days and you could know whats happening. Not worth worrying..
FWIW I never check gravity till at least day 5...and most will say that's to soon.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B008S0KNZG/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

I'm a little more patient than you. I might check at day 9 or 10 or I might wait until day 21 to day 28. Most ale yeasts work quickly and will have the beer at final gravity within 3-4 days but by being more patient I'll be more confident with the reading. I've had one beer that stalled and was too high for FG when I sampled it at 2 weeks thinking I would bottle it then but the jostling it got setting up for bottling restarted it and it was done a week later.

 

[Dadux]

Just a quick update.
All the beer has been bottled. Batch 2 on 20/09 with 80g of sugar and batch 1 on 26/09 with 95g

Batch 2 is really nice. Not super incredible but better than i expected. When it warms up slightly you can taste the hop variety quice nicely. I expected the malt to be more prominent but its good enough. Bitterness levels are spot on for my liking.

I still have to try batch 1.

I am definitely gonna make some more beer. I will buy a decent bag for biab and a 15-20l pot so i dont need to juggle that many pots. Also i expect the temp to be more stable in one big pot because it was annoying when i had to use several.

So thank you guys for the advice, it was a big help, and i think you will see more of me around annoying you with a few nore questions i have.