Three crops

I brewed my first all grain brew on Monday with only a few hiccups. My
biggest problem was a pump issue. I have two march pumps and had trouble
getting a good prime. In hindsight I should have brewed my first ag on a
simple gravity feed setup instead of my newly built single tier two pump
system. There is a real learning curve to AG brewing and having to learn the
pump operation caused unnecessary stress. However, after a few dozen cuss
words and a beer break (in which I re-read the instructions) I managed to
get both pumps primed.



Time was my second problem. I choose BierMuncher's Three Crops (Cream Ale)
recipe that requires a three hour mash and a three hour boil. This made for
a very long brew day. I would have been better served cooking a more
traditional beer requiring only 1 hour mash and 70 minute boil.



My third and most frustrating problem happened at the end of the cook as I
attempted to pump my wort into the carboys. I primed and re-primed my pump
over and over again but could not get the pump to work. After an hour of
priming and re-priming it suddenly occurred to me that my wort chiller was
smashing my dip to the bottom of my keggle. Once I removed the wort chiller
my pumps works perfectly.



All and all I truly enjoyed my first ag cook. It ended up taking 11 hours.

Pre-boil gravity 1.035

Post-boil gravity 1.042

Not sure why my pre-boil gravity was off but pleased I hit my post boil
numbers.

Carboys are now tucked away in my 60 degree fermenting chamber with SAF ALE
US-05 American Ale (Chico Strain) yeast.



Btw please excuse any spelling and grammar mistakes. I have a hard time
typing paragraphs on a smart phone. If I get time, I will get on my computer
and clean it up.

 

I've never had much an issue getting a March to prime, the few times it did was operator error, stuck sparge or something like that. Rest assured your 11 hour brew days will get shorter.

 

I agree that the pumps worked great after I read the instructions.

 

Three hour mash & Three hour boil???? Think you may have misread the recipe on that one..... Sweet set up though!!

 

Recipe Type: All Grain
Yeast: Safale - 05
Yeast Starter: Prior Slurry
Batch Size (Gallons): 11.5
Original Gravity: 1.040
Final Gravity: 1.005
IBU: 14.3
Boiling Time (Minutes): 90
Color: 2.9
Primary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp): 14 Days at 68 Degrees
Additional Fermentation: Kegged and chilled for 10 days

Batch Size: 11.50 gal
Boil Size: 14.26 gal
Estimated OG: 1.040 SG
Estimated Color: 2.9 SRM
Estimated IBU: 14.3 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.0 %
Boil Time: 90 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
12.00 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM)
4.00 lb Corn, Flaked (1.3 SRM)
1.00 lb Minute Rice (1.0 SRM)

1.00 oz Williamette [5.20%] (60 min)
1.00 oz Crystal [3.50%] (60 min)

Link to recipe
http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f62/cream-three-crops-cream-ale-66503/

 

90 minutes is 1.5 hours

 

It says NO WHERE 3 hour mash or boil.

90 minutes is not the same as 3 hours. Also, he doesnt specify the mash time. I did this recipe with 60 minute mash and 60 minute boil and it was fine.

 

Yep, posted the the recipe to show my mistake. Somehow I entered 3 hrs into beersmith. I'm guessing I should through out the beer and start again.

 

Why throw it out?? That's alcohol abuse!!

 

Will it still turn out ok? What are the ramifications for meshing and boiling 3 hrs?

 

mashed overnight with no problems and a 3hr boil just means you condenced your wort and prolly slightly darkend it a little... you didnt boil the hops that long , did you?

 

I'll be finding out part of the answer soon. I made this recipe and had just mashed in when I got called into work. Not much I could do, just left it. Came back around 5 hours later, heated sparge water and continued on. I suspect this one will turn out very dry and crisp which is a good thing for this beer.

 

No I boiled the hops for 60 minutes.

 

you still get 5-5.5gal to the primary? boil off is around 1gal a hour..

 

I ended up with 11.5 gallons. I'll check my notes when I get home but I'm assuming beersmith calculated for the three hour boil.

 

my bad!! thinking in my scale

 

FYI,

Mash in with 5.5 gallon
Batch sparge with 2 steps (4 gallon, 8 gallon) of water.

 

The only thing I would be concerned with now is over sparging wich could give a little bit of a astringent bite from tannin extraction.. you won't tell until after fermentation is complete but I bet it's just fine!!!

 

Life is too short to drink bad beer or eat bad food.