about to brew my first AG today

[brewguy82]

couple questions before i begin. I will be making an English IPA. doing 2.5 gallons i have

3lbs of OM
6oz of munich
5 oz of crystal 90l
5oz crystal 60l


1st. What is a great temp for overall conversion of starches to sugars? 155-159?

2nd. is 1.5qt of water per a pound of grain a great way to dough in? and just sparge with a higher temp of water till i get my desired amount for my boil?

3rd. would it be best to go with 3gallons of water to start for the boil down?

:rockin: thanks for the input.

 

[BendBrewer]

Those numbers are high. I would do 151*

Great way? That's an opinion. Sure go ahead and use 1.5:1. I use 1:1. Others you different ratios. Yeah, and sparge until you have boil volume. I would shoot for 3.25 gallons to start.

 

[UnderDogs]

For an "average" for me I try to hit 154 degrees if I'm not sure unless the recipes tells me to go different. Someone else can correct me on this but I think if you go higher or lower it just make it a little more dryer or sweeter but I'm not positive which is which.

Like BendBrewer said people are going to have different ratio's but I always go right in the middle at 1.25 qt/lbs. Some will say 1.1 and 1.5 so this makes it safe for me without knowing which to do.

I don't know your equipment but when I do a 5 gallon batch I account for 0.10 gal/lbs of grain absorbtion so if I have a 10 lbs grain bill I'm going to loss 1.10 gallons there, around 1 gallon of dead space in my mash tun and 1 gallon/hrs of evaporation in the boil.

For collecting 5 Gallon of wort at the completion of the 60 min boil I trying shooting for 7.5 - 8.0 gallons of water for mashing, maybe even more when you're just starting out. Your wort may be a little more diluted but you won't be going through the whole brewing process for less beer.

Just my two cents.

 

[estoppel]

I would probably mash that towards thd mid-high point (154-). I almost always mash wth 1.25qts/lb. You'll likely need 3.5 Gallons to end up with 2.5 into the carboy.

My only other comment is that to hit the low end original gravity of your target style (1.050), you'll need to hit 81% efficiency which is pretty difficult. I'd add another .5lb of base malt and hope for mid seventies in the efficiency dept.

 

[brewguy82]

cool thanks guys brewin some now. goin with the 1.5 qt/lb of grain. Gonna reduce my crystal though guess i prob have too much in the bill. will shoot for around 3 to 3.5 gallons of wort to boil. wish me luck

 

[brewguy82]

so i just mashed in but looks like i only hit at 148

 

[BendBrewer]

Got any boiling water?

 

[brewguy82]

yeah boiling some right now gonna throw in more will that mess it up though?

 

[BendBrewer]

no it won't mess it up. In the future, it's better to miss high than low as most people have ice cubes laying around but not boiling water.

Take note of the temp drop. Next time you mash that amount of grains, you can expect a similar amount of drop so adjust accordingly.

Don't worry about it too much but if you can get it up to 150-152 that would be good but if not, you'll still have beer in the end.

 

[brewguy82]

Yeah I threw some in after 10mns of it sitting @148. Brought it right up to 152.5 Hopefully all goes well. This hobby is fun! DME was fun but doing AG is much better.

 

[jtakacs]

perfect adjustment... i personally like a thinner mash and do so at about 1.5 q / lb. just do yourself a favor and keep DME on hand. just in case.

 

[brewguy82]

Yeah, I didnt have any DME so cant do anything about that. My LHBS was closed today too I thought of that after the fact.

 

[brewguy82]

So how do we calculate our brew house efficiency?

 

[brewguy82]

Well just racked into the primary hopefully this turns out okay. My first Ag batch in the fermentor now.

 

[estoppel]

Congrats. You can calculate your brewhouse efficiency here:

http://www.tastybrew.com/calculators/gravity.html