AG beginner

[tommy24a]

Looking at this time screen in Beersmith trying to understand my first attempt at brewing. This will be for a 10gal batch. The mash screen is below. So the temp should be 148 for 75 mins? I guess I would need the strike water to be higher than 148? And what does 2 min rise mean? Then add 5.88 at 158.3..when does that get added? Plus the additional adds..I'm confused

min - Mash In (148.0 F for 75 min, 2 min rise)
Add 5.88 gal of water at 158.3 F
1:17 hours - Mash Out (168.0 F for 10 min, 2 min rise)
Add 3.50 gal of water at 206.1 F
1:29 hours - Mash Complete
Fly sparge with 5.56 gal water at 168.0 F

 

[brewdude88]

That is your mash schedule if all parameters are correctly set in beer Smith.

-mash in with 5.88 gallons of water at 158.3°F (2 minute rise is the allotted time for the 148° mash temp to be achieved before the actual mash clock starts)
-1 hour 15 minutes after the mash clock starts, you would add 3.5 gallons of water at 206.1°F to bring the entire mash to mash-out temp of 168° (2 minutes rise allotted for the time it takes to achieve target temperature)
-10 minutes after mash-out temp is achieved, you would start to collect wort in your boil kettle while running 5.56 gallons of sparge water at 168F on top of mash at a rate sufficient to maintain the water level just above the grain bed until you've collected your boil volume (aka, fly sparge)

Doing a 10 gallon batch with a mash-out and fly sparge for your first AG is going to be one heck of a learning curve... What equipment are you using?

 

[bracconiere]

doesn't sound right for a 10 gallon batch? i typicaly strike at 162f, with 7 gallons and sparge with 10....
(and you might want to mash out at 162f, for 30min. gives me a effec boost)

 

[McKnuckle]

I do pity the begineer trying to parse BeerSmith. There is nothing simple with that software! And the extra steps are maddening. This being said, without seeing and questioning your entire recipe, this is what it's telling you:

Your goal is to mash for 75 minutes at a temp. of 148F. To do this with the grain weight in your recipe and the total water required, you'll need 5.88 gallons of water at 158.3F. When the water mixes with the grain, 148F will be achieved. This will take 2 minutes (ignore this interval; it's irrelevant).

Hold the mash at 148F for 75 minutes.

Your next temperature target is 168F. To raise the mash to that temp, add 3.5 gallons of 206.1F degree water. When this hot water mixes with the mash, 168F will be achieved. Ignore the 2 minutes again.

Hold the mash at 168F for 10 minutes.

Finally, fly sparge with an additional 5.56 gallons of water at 168F. I assume you know what a fly sparge is.

Alternately, just batch sparge which is easier - vorlauf and drain the mash entirely into the kettle. Then add the additional 5.56 gallons of sparge water. Stir, vorlauf, and drain entirely again into the kettle.

 

[tommy24a]

That is your mash schedule if all parameters are correctly set in beer Smith.

-mash in with 5.88 gallons of water at 158.3°F (2 minute rise is the allotted time for the 148° mash temp to be achieved before the actual mash clock starts)
-1 hour 15 minutes after the mash clock starts, you would add 3.5 gallons of water at 206.1°F to bring the entire mash to mash-out temp of 168° (2 minutes rise allotted for the time it takes to achieve target temperature)
-10 minutes after mash-out temp is achieved, you would start to collect wort in your boil kettle while running 5.56 gallons of sparge water at 168F on top of mash at a rate sufficient to maintain the water level just above the grain bed until you've collected your boil volume (aka, fly sparge)

Doing a 10 gallon batch with a mash-out and fly sparge for your first AG is going to be one heck of a learning curve... What equipment are you using?

Well I am using a Brand new Spike Trio 20gal system including their conical with all the whistles and bells. Learning curve to say the least. Lol. But your reply did clear things up very much so. Thank you!

 

[Tom R]

Wow! That's quite the AG "starter set"!

 

[tommy24a]

Yea a gift to my son. Lol...but much to learn. I think at the local brew place yesterday I purchased much more than was needed for the 10 gal batch. Its to make a pre-prohibition lager. Tried to scale it to 10gal as it was originally 5gal on the Brewsmith mobile app.

 

[Tom R]

Nothing wrong with having extra ingredients on hand. Vacuum bag and freeze the hops, buy unmilled grain and keep it cool in airtight buckets. You can go many months stored this way.
It's a 40 minute drive to my nearest LHBS, so I keep yeast on hand, too.

 

[brewdude88]

Talk about all-in on the equipment!

Have you done the Spike equipment add-on for beer Smith? There is an equipment profile specifically for the Spike trio 20gal that will give you a great starting point.

Using that profile will help get you close with hitting mash-in and mash-out temps as well as volumes and efficiency. If you are using a generic equipment profile, you would be lucky if anything goes right...

 

[tommy24a]

I have added the spike add ons. But not going to brew the 20gal so I thought I scaled it down to 10gals. Now I'm not sure..lol

 

[brewdude88]

To adjust the recipe volume, go into edit the recipe and open the equipment profile edit screen and set the batch size to 10.5

From there, if everything looks right as far as gravity and bitterness, brew it by the volumes and temperatures provided and take notes on the outcome of every step so you can make adjustments to the equipment profile based on your personal results.

On a side note, you may want to seriously consider a batch sparge or full volume mash instead of fly sparging, especially for your first AG batch. You would just need to lower the expected efficiency in the equipment profile to ~72-75% along with selecting the proper mash profile.

 

[jrgtr42]

Did you do a dry run with the rig to see how everything works and heats? It's not apples to apples as the grain would absorb water and heat, but it's a good way to make sure you know how all the bells and whistles work, and which valves to turn when.

 

[tommy24a]

Did you do a dry run with the rig to see how everything works and heats? It's not apples to apples as the grain would absorb water and heat, but it's a good way to make sure you know how all the bells and whistles work, and which valves to turn when.

That's a very good point. I will do that to get a feel for the system before going live. Thanks for the help!

 

[jrgtr42]

That's a very good point. I will do that to get a feel for the system before going live. Thanks for the help!

BTW, obviouslky |I don't mean DRY dry, but run water through, heat it to temps etc, just skip the grain and stuff. Pretty sure you get this, but just making sure...

 

[tommy24a]

BTW, obviouslky |I don't mean DRY dry, but run water through, heat it to temps etc, just skip the grain and stuff. Pretty sure you get this, but just making sure...

Yea I do know what u mean..but thanks for checking..one never knows how things get interpreted. Thanks again!

 

[rburrelli]

Yea I do know what u mean..but thanks for checking..one never knows how things get interpreted. Thanks again!

I would also suggest that you clean the units with a suitable solution like PBW or perhaps Barkeepers Friend before brewing.

 

[tommy24a]

I would also suggest that you clean the units with a suitable solution like PBW or perhaps Barkeepers Friend before brewing.

Yes we plan to. Thanks!

 

[madscientist451]

Perhaps start with a 5 gallon batch? Use a strike water calculator (online) and don't spend too much time worrying about everything, your brew will eventually be beer. Mix up a starter with dry extract and your yeast so you have a nice healthy amount of yeast to use. Skip the fly sparging and do a batch sparge.

 

[tommy24a]

Perhaps start with a 5 gallon batch? Use a strike water calculator (online) and don't spend too much time worrying about everything, your brew will eventually be beer. Mix up a starter with dry extract and your yeast so you have a nice healthy amount of yeast to use. Skip the fly sparging and do a batch sparge.

Well was going to do a 5 gallon but the 20gal system from spike min batch suggested was 6 gals. So I started to do the scale thing in Brewsmith and was not sure I was doing it right. So just went with a 10gal recipe to try and make it simple.