jonny24
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- Dec 3, 2015
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So, I'm only three batches in but decided to give all grain a try. My first batch was an extract pale ale loosely based on a recipe in How to Brew that turned out okay, then I did a little one gallon batch with some leftovers that didn't turn out (9 bottles carbonating to see what happens). And my second 5gal batch is a Irish Red with specialty grains that's carbonating as well.
I had an extra cooler lying around to use for a mash tun, it didn't have a drain so I drilled a hole and added a ball valve with a "bazooka" type stainless strainer. I also added foam weather stripping around the top after a test showed a loss of 10 degrees over an hour. I also put a weight on the lid as it didn't stay down by itself.
I bought a turkey deep fryer set at Canadian Tire that came with a 9gal pot. I drilled a hole and added a ball valve and a stainless hose filter inside it. I ended up using it on the stove since it was snowing and windy outside.
I also built a dual coil wort chiller to use in our big laundry sink. The first coil is in one sink in an ice water bath, the next goes in the kettle which is in an ice bath in the next sink, and then out into the sump pit.
I found a good LHBS in a nearby city, and they helped me put together a recipe for a simple pale ale. I scaled down the 2 row because I make 4.5 gal batches to fit into my 5gal buckets.
7.5 lb 2 row barley
1.1 lb Carahelles 15L
1.2 lb Carafoam 9.8lb total grain
25g (.88oz) Cascade pellets @ 60
15g (.53oz) same @ 10 minutes
1 tsp Irish moss @ 10
11g Nottingham ale yeast, rehydrated for a couple hours.
First the mash. I settled on 1.5 qt/lb after reading a lot of numbers. This worked out to 3.675 gal Heated water to about 175 (calculator gave 167 as strike temp) poured in cooler, waited for it to cool to 167 and added my grains. Closed the cooler when it read 155. Wrapped in a sleeping bag to help keep heat in.
After an hour I opened it, my temp was 151, so I lost 4 degrees. I later noticed that my thermometer was reading about 2 degrees high, so actual mash temp was 153-149. I read about people only losing 1 degree or none. Will this drop cause me any problems? I forgot to get iodine to check conversion.
I calculated about 7.6 gallons total, so I heated up 4 gallons to 185, and split it into two sparges. Drained the mash water, added first sparge and stirred, let it sit for 10 minutes, drained. Added second sparge, stirred, let it sit 5, drained.
I ended up with less absorption than anticipated, 6.8 gallon in the brew kettle at 1.037 SG. I calculated my efficiency to be ~63 %
(1.037*7.5)+(1.034*1.1)+(1.033*1.2)=11.15
(1.037*6.8)=7.05
7.05/11.15 = %63.255
Does that look like the right way to do that?
After that was pretty straight forward. I had done a test with the stove and estimated .5 gal/hour of boil, so I boiled for 90 minutes before starting my hop additions. This ended up being off as at the end of 2.5 hours I had 4gal go into my fermenter. I topped it back up to 4.5 gallons. OG after top up and cooling was 1.047.
The stainless hose filter sucked, it hardly let anything through. I had to constantly move it with my spoon to get anything. I ended up pouring the last gallon or so through my hop bag.
The cooler worked really well, I was under 70 in about 5 minutes (didn't actually time it).
That was Sunday night, when I got home from work last night it was bubbling away in the bucket
I just thought I'd share my process and problems and see what kind of feedback I get. Thoughts?
I had an extra cooler lying around to use for a mash tun, it didn't have a drain so I drilled a hole and added a ball valve with a "bazooka" type stainless strainer. I also added foam weather stripping around the top after a test showed a loss of 10 degrees over an hour. I also put a weight on the lid as it didn't stay down by itself.
I bought a turkey deep fryer set at Canadian Tire that came with a 9gal pot. I drilled a hole and added a ball valve and a stainless hose filter inside it. I ended up using it on the stove since it was snowing and windy outside.
I also built a dual coil wort chiller to use in our big laundry sink. The first coil is in one sink in an ice water bath, the next goes in the kettle which is in an ice bath in the next sink, and then out into the sump pit.
I found a good LHBS in a nearby city, and they helped me put together a recipe for a simple pale ale. I scaled down the 2 row because I make 4.5 gal batches to fit into my 5gal buckets.
7.5 lb 2 row barley
1.1 lb Carahelles 15L
1.2 lb Carafoam 9.8lb total grain
25g (.88oz) Cascade pellets @ 60
15g (.53oz) same @ 10 minutes
1 tsp Irish moss @ 10
11g Nottingham ale yeast, rehydrated for a couple hours.
First the mash. I settled on 1.5 qt/lb after reading a lot of numbers. This worked out to 3.675 gal Heated water to about 175 (calculator gave 167 as strike temp) poured in cooler, waited for it to cool to 167 and added my grains. Closed the cooler when it read 155. Wrapped in a sleeping bag to help keep heat in.
After an hour I opened it, my temp was 151, so I lost 4 degrees. I later noticed that my thermometer was reading about 2 degrees high, so actual mash temp was 153-149. I read about people only losing 1 degree or none. Will this drop cause me any problems? I forgot to get iodine to check conversion.
I calculated about 7.6 gallons total, so I heated up 4 gallons to 185, and split it into two sparges. Drained the mash water, added first sparge and stirred, let it sit for 10 minutes, drained. Added second sparge, stirred, let it sit 5, drained.
I ended up with less absorption than anticipated, 6.8 gallon in the brew kettle at 1.037 SG. I calculated my efficiency to be ~63 %
(1.037*7.5)+(1.034*1.1)+(1.033*1.2)=11.15
(1.037*6.8)=7.05
7.05/11.15 = %63.255
Does that look like the right way to do that?
After that was pretty straight forward. I had done a test with the stove and estimated .5 gal/hour of boil, so I boiled for 90 minutes before starting my hop additions. This ended up being off as at the end of 2.5 hours I had 4gal go into my fermenter. I topped it back up to 4.5 gallons. OG after top up and cooling was 1.047.
The stainless hose filter sucked, it hardly let anything through. I had to constantly move it with my spoon to get anything. I ended up pouring the last gallon or so through my hop bag.
The cooler worked really well, I was under 70 in about 5 minutes (didn't actually time it).
That was Sunday night, when I got home from work last night it was bubbling away in the bucket
I just thought I'd share my process and problems and see what kind of feedback I get. Thoughts?
