Short Version: Today I set out to brew my first AG batch of beer...and I did just that. I successfully mashed milled grain into sweet wort, and I successfully sparged said mash into more sweet wort. I collected all of this wort and managed to boil it with plenty of wonderfully smelling hops. The wort has made it into my carboy and is waiting for a pitch of healthy WLP001 from the starter I made two nights ago.
Whole Story: Today I set out to brew my frist AG batch of beer...and I barely did just that. I preheated my mash cooler with a kettle of hot water, but I still wound up 4 degrees short on my target mash temp (target=154, measured=150). I attempted to bring up the temperature with couple of kettles of hot water, but only managed another degree. I decided that there wasn't anything else to attempt right then, and that since I was still within conversion temp that I would just deal with it. After 45mins I added some 180 degree water to bring my temps up to mash out temperature of 165, and missed it by about 5 degrees. I vorlaufed and wound up with some nice clear wort, and started collecting it in my keggle. I wasn't keeping track of time during run off, but I know I didn't run off slow enough (having no frame of reference for how long it would take to run off). I then added my 175 degree sparge water in an attempt to do my final rest at 165, and again missed that. After my 15min rest, I vorlaufed and ran off (again, probably too fast but slower than before). I was aiming for 7.5 gallons of 1.050 wort, and some how ended up with 8.5 gallons of 1.043 wort. Needless to say I was very bummed.
Bummed, but not out, I decided to check with beersmith and saw that if I just boiled longer I could achieve my desired wort level and even get sort of close to my gravity. I decide to extend my boil out to 80mins. The boil went really well, nailed all of my hop additions (i had to find something positive to pat myself on the back for), threw my new IC into the kettle, and even allowed for a 10min 'whirlpool.' Now, my previous test boil on my new keggle showed me a 23% boil off rate. I decided that I could slow down the boil a little bit and account for a slower boil off rate, and I ended up with a 10% rate today...my boil yielded me 7.5(ish) gallons of 1.052 wort! FML! I was chilling the wort as I realized all of this, and I hastily tossed in a couple pounds of LDME in an attempt to bring up my gravity. I was able to get a 1.063 out of an expected 1.073. I was so relieved that I might have saved this brew, I started racking into my carboy...before I had let the trub settle. Now my carboy is filled with a ton of trub and some wort.
Not only did I get terrible efficiency, but I ran off too fast, horribly missed my numbers, didn't boil hard enough (at least to achieve my desired results, i had a good rolling boil going the whole time), probably oxidized my hot wort by stirring in DME, and then filled the carboy with trub.
To everyone who read through this, thank you...please leave some comments and advise below. To Mr. Tasty McDole, I'm so sorry I screwed up your wonderful Janet's Brown. I brewed this beer as an extract exactly one year ago (my second batch ever) and it blew up all over the ceiling during the first night of fermentation. The one thing I have going for me is the fact that I think I know where I went wrong with each step, so theoretically I should end up with a better experience next time. Live and learn.
Prost, to eventually becoming a great home brewer.
JER
Whole Story: Today I set out to brew my frist AG batch of beer...and I barely did just that. I preheated my mash cooler with a kettle of hot water, but I still wound up 4 degrees short on my target mash temp (target=154, measured=150). I attempted to bring up the temperature with couple of kettles of hot water, but only managed another degree. I decided that there wasn't anything else to attempt right then, and that since I was still within conversion temp that I would just deal with it. After 45mins I added some 180 degree water to bring my temps up to mash out temperature of 165, and missed it by about 5 degrees. I vorlaufed and wound up with some nice clear wort, and started collecting it in my keggle. I wasn't keeping track of time during run off, but I know I didn't run off slow enough (having no frame of reference for how long it would take to run off). I then added my 175 degree sparge water in an attempt to do my final rest at 165, and again missed that. After my 15min rest, I vorlaufed and ran off (again, probably too fast but slower than before). I was aiming for 7.5 gallons of 1.050 wort, and some how ended up with 8.5 gallons of 1.043 wort. Needless to say I was very bummed.
Bummed, but not out, I decided to check with beersmith and saw that if I just boiled longer I could achieve my desired wort level and even get sort of close to my gravity. I decide to extend my boil out to 80mins. The boil went really well, nailed all of my hop additions (i had to find something positive to pat myself on the back for), threw my new IC into the kettle, and even allowed for a 10min 'whirlpool.' Now, my previous test boil on my new keggle showed me a 23% boil off rate. I decided that I could slow down the boil a little bit and account for a slower boil off rate, and I ended up with a 10% rate today...my boil yielded me 7.5(ish) gallons of 1.052 wort! FML! I was chilling the wort as I realized all of this, and I hastily tossed in a couple pounds of LDME in an attempt to bring up my gravity. I was able to get a 1.063 out of an expected 1.073. I was so relieved that I might have saved this brew, I started racking into my carboy...before I had let the trub settle. Now my carboy is filled with a ton of trub and some wort.
Not only did I get terrible efficiency, but I ran off too fast, horribly missed my numbers, didn't boil hard enough (at least to achieve my desired results, i had a good rolling boil going the whole time), probably oxidized my hot wort by stirring in DME, and then filled the carboy with trub.
To everyone who read through this, thank you...please leave some comments and advise below. To Mr. Tasty McDole, I'm so sorry I screwed up your wonderful Janet's Brown. I brewed this beer as an extract exactly one year ago (my second batch ever) and it blew up all over the ceiling during the first night of fermentation. The one thing I have going for me is the fact that I think I know where I went wrong with each step, so theoretically I should end up with a better experience next time. Live and learn.
Prost, to eventually becoming a great home brewer.
JER