Okay, folks, I'm sure a lot of you have already made a some of these mistakes or had similar issues, so this post isn't meant to insult anyone's intelligence. They are, however, some things I wish I would have researched a bit more or had considered before making the jump to all-grain. Anyway, I'm going to give a short narrative, then list out the issues I had followed by some recommendations/solutions to the issues I had. I'm going to make a separate post about my stuck fermentation in the proper forum, but I'll summarize here.
For my first batch, I brewed the following recipe, 5 gal:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=139078
1) I heated my strike water too high. I lost track of my temp for just a hair while I was waiting for my water to hit the right temp, and ended up about 10 degrees higher than my target strike temp (172 vs 162). I went ahead ahead and mashed in. I use an insulator for my pot, and the temp stabilized at 156 within the first 1/2 hour, and held it there for the rest of the duration.
Solutions/Recommendations: Cut the heat, and wait for the temp to drop to the proper strike temperature...Do what you have to, but strike at the right temp, mash at the right temp! I could have saved myself a lot of headaches this way.
2) I didn't drain my grains long/well enough. I have a Brew Bag (brewinabag.com) that I use, and I didn't really have a system prepared to strain/drain. I ended up sanitizing a milk crate, and suspending that over the kettle to let it drain, and I was also able to use the crate to squeeze the grains in. I was being impatient, so I didn't really give the grains time to drain out all the way, and wasn't very thorough with squeezing the bag out. I ended up with a grain absorption rate of .08 gal/lb.
Solutions/Recommendations: My next BIAB, which was a week later, I was able to get my grain absorption rate down to .0556 gal/lb by letting them drain longer, and being much more thorough about squeezing the bag.
3) I did a full volume boil, starting with around 6 gallons, and boiled too vigorously. I ended up with a fermentor volume of 4 1/4 gal. I let my Bayou Classic Outdoor Patio Burner run full-bore for the whole boil, and ended up boiling off way more than I intended. The intended OG was supposed to be 1.086, and I ended up with 1.104.
Solutions/Recommendations: On the second BIAB previously mentioned, I tuned my burner down wayyy low after I hit the hot break, and maintained a nice lazy boil and only boiled off about a gallon (nailed my fermentor volume). Also, I could have topped up on water, but the idea didn't occur to me at the time. I now have campden tablets on hand just for that purpose.
4) Stuck fermentation. I pitched this batch with 2 packets of Safale S-04, and ended up with a really mild, uneventful fermentation. All my other batches had some pretty insane fermentations (one actually blew off about 1 gallon, another exploded in my closet). After about a week, it got stuck at a SG of 1.053. After about a week and a half of messing around with different solutions, pitching extra yeast (Safbrew S-33), I ended up making a trip to my local HBS, and purchased some Amylase. Amylase did the trick, and it finished at 1.025 just today.
Solutions/Recommendations: Keep thorough brewing notes, and review them when you have issues to help you isolate the problem. I have a tendency to wing it, now that I have a hang of the overall beer making process, and it really bit me in the ass this time. I tried multiple solutions to unstick this batch and I ended up about 2 1/2 weeks off-schedule. What it really was just a result of striking at too high of a temp, killing the conversion process and I ended up with a ton of unfermentables.
Anyway, just wanted to share what I learned this time with y'all, and I hope this helps some folks looking in to making the jump to All Grain/BIAB.
For my first batch, I brewed the following recipe, 5 gal:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=139078
1) I heated my strike water too high. I lost track of my temp for just a hair while I was waiting for my water to hit the right temp, and ended up about 10 degrees higher than my target strike temp (172 vs 162). I went ahead ahead and mashed in. I use an insulator for my pot, and the temp stabilized at 156 within the first 1/2 hour, and held it there for the rest of the duration.
Solutions/Recommendations: Cut the heat, and wait for the temp to drop to the proper strike temperature...Do what you have to, but strike at the right temp, mash at the right temp! I could have saved myself a lot of headaches this way.
2) I didn't drain my grains long/well enough. I have a Brew Bag (brewinabag.com) that I use, and I didn't really have a system prepared to strain/drain. I ended up sanitizing a milk crate, and suspending that over the kettle to let it drain, and I was also able to use the crate to squeeze the grains in. I was being impatient, so I didn't really give the grains time to drain out all the way, and wasn't very thorough with squeezing the bag out. I ended up with a grain absorption rate of .08 gal/lb.
Solutions/Recommendations: My next BIAB, which was a week later, I was able to get my grain absorption rate down to .0556 gal/lb by letting them drain longer, and being much more thorough about squeezing the bag.
3) I did a full volume boil, starting with around 6 gallons, and boiled too vigorously. I ended up with a fermentor volume of 4 1/4 gal. I let my Bayou Classic Outdoor Patio Burner run full-bore for the whole boil, and ended up boiling off way more than I intended. The intended OG was supposed to be 1.086, and I ended up with 1.104.
Solutions/Recommendations: On the second BIAB previously mentioned, I tuned my burner down wayyy low after I hit the hot break, and maintained a nice lazy boil and only boiled off about a gallon (nailed my fermentor volume). Also, I could have topped up on water, but the idea didn't occur to me at the time. I now have campden tablets on hand just for that purpose.
4) Stuck fermentation. I pitched this batch with 2 packets of Safale S-04, and ended up with a really mild, uneventful fermentation. All my other batches had some pretty insane fermentations (one actually blew off about 1 gallon, another exploded in my closet). After about a week, it got stuck at a SG of 1.053. After about a week and a half of messing around with different solutions, pitching extra yeast (Safbrew S-33), I ended up making a trip to my local HBS, and purchased some Amylase. Amylase did the trick, and it finished at 1.025 just today.
Solutions/Recommendations: Keep thorough brewing notes, and review them when you have issues to help you isolate the problem. I have a tendency to wing it, now that I have a hang of the overall beer making process, and it really bit me in the ass this time. I tried multiple solutions to unstick this batch and I ended up about 2 1/2 weeks off-schedule. What it really was just a result of striking at too high of a temp, killing the conversion process and I ended up with a ton of unfermentables.
Anyway, just wanted to share what I learned this time with y'all, and I hope this helps some folks looking in to making the jump to All Grain/BIAB.
