1st AG attempt.. feedback please

[azdavid]

Getting ready to jump from extract to AG. I am feeling brave enough to give it a go. I would like some feedback on my recipe if anyone is so inclined.

I will be using a blue 5 gallon igloo cooler with a stainless braided drain tube for my mash tun

5 gallon single infusion batch sparge, 60 min boil

Numbers work out as follows:
OG 10.042, FG 1.007, ABV 4.59, IBU 19.21

8 lb American - Pale 2-Row
1 lb Canadian - Honey Malt
0.5 lb Belgian - Biscuit 35
9.5 lb Total

0.65 oz Cluster Hops at 60 minutes (not to keen on super hopped brews which is why I kept the hops down a bit)

Mash- Strike water @ 150 F 60 min
Sparge- Water @ 180 F 10 min

US-05 dry yeast

Since this will be my 1st attempt I figured my efficiency fairly low at 60%
If I understand this correctly the only thing this would do is up my ABV ( correct ?)

Any feedback is welcome

 

[Stillraining]

Your strike water looks low..you probably will need more like 165 . And your sparge water is to high if you are batch sparging....make it about 168.

A low efficiency will lower your ABV not increase it. And I bet you will get way better then 60% with your rig.

I think where a lot of brewers loose efficiency is in Laddering and kettle losses...drain every oz of wort you can from those two and upper 80's is easy.

I would also plan on doing 2 batch sparges...It helps wash the sugars out of the grain..and keep sparging till you have 100% of your boil volume...DON'T...just add water.

 

[azdavid]

Thanks for the quick reply.

Yeah I didn't type that very clearly did I. The 150 degrees is the target temp of the mash not the strike water. My calculations show 165 also.

I also went back and changed the efficiency to 75% and I see my error there too.

Just to make sure I understand I should take my sparge water divide it in half and double sparge instead of a single sparge and if my final volume is not there add more sparge water and do not add just water to the kettle ?

Apologize for the newbie questions but I want to eliminate as many miscalculations as possible.

Does the grain billl look ok to you ?

 

[Stillraining]

Yep that's what I do..I'm always at around 90%

 

[wilserbrewer]

Jmo, first time out I would just do a single batch sparge and forfeit the slight gain. Either way should get you there.

Pound of honey malt sounds like a lot to me, for my taste perhaps....but I'm no recipe guru. Cheers good luck.

Also wise to measure runnings in the kettle prior to your last sparge, and sparge an amount required to reach preboil volume, regardless of what your calculator tells you to sparge.

Sparge an amount to reach pre boil volume is the concept.

 

[Stillraining]

Rather you decide on one or two sparges, make sure you drain your tun completely each running's by tipping your cooler, and sir well after adding your sparges. Its not necessary to let them sit for any specific length of time, or at all for that matter..Your just washing the grains at this point. I wait about 2 or 3 min to settle the grains is all just because I like too. Be sure to vorluf every running's a 1/2 quart of so pretty slowly and add that back into your tun almost equally as slowly..After that you can open full throttle and let her rip. Never had a stuck sparge by doing this.
All my running go into buckets on the ground waiting for an empty boil kettle until my last sparge Free's that kettle up..then I pour them in the kettle for accurate pre-boil volume needed on that last sparge. Beer calculators are surprisingly accurate. I seldom need any extra water ran through the grains..if I do I dont bother heating it just use cold tap water.

 

[doug293cz]

I'm not a recipe expert, but I've heard that a little honey malt goes a long way. You might want to research a little more on honey malt amounts in recipes before you commit to this.

Batch sparging is a good choice for beginning (and also advanced) AG brewers because of its simplicity. To get the best results you want to use the following process:

1. Dough in thoroughly, stirring until there are no grain clumps left.
2. Close up the cooler and let the mash sit for the allotted mash time.
3. Open the cooler and stir well to get the concentration of the wort uniform throughout the mash.
4. Vorlauf until no grain bits are present in the run off.
5. Drain the mash as fast as your system will allow, and tilt the MLT at end of the drain to leave as little wort behind as possible.
6. Add sparge water and stir well to mix residual wort uniformly into sparge water.
7. Vorlauf again.
8. Run off wort as for initial run off.
9. Repeat sparge steps if desired.

The best lauter efficiency is achieved when your initial run off and sparge run off(s) are approximately equal volume. An easy way to achieve this is to divide your target pre-boil volume by the number of run offs (number of sparge steps + 1). Then, add 1 gal to the result, and use that for your strike volume. Measure your initial run off volume, and then your total sparge volume will be the difference between target pre-boil volume and your initial runnings volume. Divide the total sparge volume by the number of sparge steps you plan, and that is the volume for each sparge.

A single batch sparge will get you about 8.4 percentage points of efficiency vs. no sparge. A double batch sparge will get you about 3 percentage points additional efficiency vs. a single batch sparge (ref: http://braukaiser.com/wiki/index.php?title=Batch_Sparging_Analysis.) It's up to you to decide how much time you want to spend sparging to gain additional efficiency.

Welcome to the world of all grain.

Brew on

 

[azdavid]

I'm not a recipe expert, but I've heard that a little honey malt goes a long way. You might want to research a little more on honey malt amounts in recipes before you commit to this.

Batch sparging is a good choice for beginning (and also advanced) AG brewers because of its simplicity. To get the best results you want to use the following process:

1. Dough in thoroughly, stirring until there are no grain clumps left.
2. Close up the cooler and let the mash sit for the allotted mash time.
3. Open the cooler and stir well to get the concentration of the wort uniform throughout the mash.
4. Vorlauf until no grain bits are present in the run off.
5. Drain the mash as fast as your system will allow, and tilt the MLT at end of the drain to leave as little wort behind as possible.
6. Add sparge water and stir well to mix residual wort uniformly into sparge water.
7. Vorlauf again.
8. Run off wort as for initial run off.
9. Repeat sparge steps if desired.

The best lauter efficiency is achieved when your initial run off and sparge run off(s) are approximately equal volume. An easy way to achieve this is to divide your target pre-boil volume by the number of run offs (number of sparge steps + 1). Then, add 1 gal to the result, and use that for your strike volume. Measure your initial run off volume, and then your total sparge volume will be the difference between target pre-boil volume and your initial runnings volume. Divide the total sparge volume by the number of sparge steps you plan, and that is the volume for each sparge.

A single batch sparge will get you about 8.4 percentage points of efficiency vs. no sparge. A double batch sparge will get you about 3 percentage points additional efficiency vs. a single batch sparge (ref: http://braukaiser.com/wiki/index.php?title=Batch_Sparging_Analysis.) It's up to you to decide how much time you want to spend sparging to gain additional efficiency.

Welcome to the world of all grain.

Brew on

Thanks for the great info everyone.

After researching the honey malt a little better I have decided to reduce the qty down to .5 lb and increased the 2 row up to keep the OG about the same.

But just to make sure I understand:

My preboil volume is 6.38 gallons, using a single sparge, the math would look like this:

Initial strike volume would be 6.38/2 = 3.19 +1 = 4.19 gallons

Lets say I lose 1 gal to grain absorption
sparge volume would be: 6.38-3.19 = 3.19 gal.

3.19+3.19 = 6.38

I assume that the grain absorption would be significantly decreased during the sparge which is why the amounts are the same ?

My calculator says 2.73 gal strike volume @ 1.25qt/lb
and sparge volume of 4.98 gal

 

[wilserbrewer]

Yea the grain absorption for a sparge is zero, as it is already pre absorbed , or fully saturated.

 

[doug293cz]

Thanks for the great info everyone.

After researching the honey malt a little better I have decided to reduce the qty down to .5 lb and increased the 2 row up to keep the OG about the same.

But just to make sure I understand:

My preboil volume is 6.38 gallons, using a single sparge, the math would look like this:

Initial strike volume would be 6.38/2 = 3.19 +1 = 4.19 gallons

Lets say I lose 1 gal to grain absorption
sparge volume would be: 6.38-3.19 = 3.19 gal.

3.19+3.19 = 6.38

I assume that the grain absorption would be significantly decreased during the sparge which is why the amounts are the same ?

My calculator says 2.73 gal strike volume @ 1.25qt/lb
and sparge volume of 4.98 gal

There is no need to worry about specific water to grain ratios for batch sparging. They are more applicable to fly sparging. You just need to keep the ratio above about 1.0 qt/lb, or the mash get difficult to stir.

Brew on

 

[azdavid]

Thanks everyone I've gotten a wealth of knowledge in just a few hours.

I am sure I am just over complicating this way more than I need to. But the more prepared I get the smother my brew day will be.