1st Brew, Tell me how I did

[jeder212]

With it being so late, I'm sorry if I leave anything out. I just brewed my first beer. It was an All Grain Dry Irish Stout:

7lbs Two Row
2lbs Flaked Barley
1lb Roasted Barley

1oz Target @60 min
.33 oz Chinook @20 min.

It was supposed to be .5 oz Northern Brewer instead of Chinook, but LHBS was out, so they said this would work.

Anyway, I mashed in with 12.5 qts of water. I was going for 156*, but ended up at 158*. After an hour, Sparged with 4 gallons (should have done 4.5 or 5 gallons). I did 2 batch sparges of 2 gallons each. I was trying to get a grain bed with a temp of 170*, but first batch only got it up to 162* and second batch got it to 169*.

Pre-boil, my gravity was 1.052, after the boil i was left with 4.5 gallons of wort, with a gravity of 1.059. I pitched Nottingham Dry at 71*. I tasted my sample and it tasted like beer. I was impressed with myself. I'm sorry if I left anything out, but its late, and I'm tired.

 

[BarleyWater]

First off I have to congratulate you on two things. 1. Having over 200 posts BEFORE making your first batch, you have obviously done some learning before jumping in. 2. Having the cojones to start off with all-grain.

Now for the beer, Chinook isn't ideal, but it will work. Next time, try a different European aroma hop instead of an American bittering hop to sub with.

The mash likely cooled a bit throughout the mash, and at that temp it will be fairly full bodied either way. The mash out is fine, some people don't even do it. The purpose is to stop enzymatic activity so the beer doesn't end up too dry, but even raising it above the mash temp will likely keep that from happening.

Everything sounds great, I missed my sparge volume the first couple times, so now I always have extra hot water on hand just in case. My calcs put you at 77% efficiency, so you did a great job. Congratulations on your first brew.

 

[BlindLemonLars]

I think you did great! That's a bold move, going all grain on your very first batch. Don't sweat the minor temperature differences, in general it sounds like you had a pretty good grip on things.

Chinook seems like an odd choice for the aroma addition, I must agree. Still, there are really no hard and fast rules for such things...who knows, it might be a great move.

I find using a lot of roasted barley can be rather harsh. In my stout I use a half pound along with a half pound of chocolate malt and crystal 120L. To me it strikes a good balance.

Anyhow, you have every right to be impressed with yourself. Let us know how the batch turns out!

 

[jagg]

Sounds like you did a very good job, and you now know you need to sparge with more water to hit your volume, nice job, brew on bro:rockin:

 

[BigKahuna]

I hope my 20th AG batch goes that good!

That's Awesome! You should definitely be proud of what you've done.

 

[TwoHeadsBrewing]

Nice work, and welcome to the AG club! Looks like you had a great brew day, and you're going to have some mighty tasty stout. I've got my first AG stout in the fermenter right now also.

 

[mmb]

That's almost exactly what I do with my dry stout except I only have a bittering addition. And it's an award wining recipe, isn't it?

 

[jeder212]

Thanks everyone....I was extremely happy with the way it all turned out. It's in the "swamp cooler" bubbling away right now. Now I can't wait to get back up to the LHBS to get more ingredients and do it all again. Now that I know how it all went, I'm going to go buy enough grain to do a couple different batches, keep me from having to go back all the time. Just going to have to drink more commercial brew, to get me more bottles, only have enough on hand for one batch.