All-Grain Tutorial/Nut Brown Ale

[Jaysus]

Nice reply - thanks Bobby!

 

[DubbelDach]

In summary you have two choices:
#1
mash
infuse an amount equal to your grain absorption (about .1 gallons per pound of grain) for your mash out (200F).
stir, vorlauf and drain.
Infuse single batch sparge volume @ 170F, stir, vorlauf and drain.

two runnings, both at elevated temps, relatively high efficiency

#2
mash
vorlauf and drain
add half sparge amount @ 185F, stir, vorlauf, drain
add second half sparge amount @ 185, stir, vorlauf, drain

3 runnings at progressively higher temps, very high efficiency

Awesome advice, Bobby... I will definitely try both of these, probably on my next two batches!

 

[flyangler18]

so, in this case each of the runnings would be sent straight to the flame as soon as collected?

That's exactly how I do it. I collect each of my runnings in a 5 gallon kettle and dump them into the brew kettle. Over 170, you are denaturing the enzymes. I do #2 of Bobby's method- works like a charm.

 

[buyaka]

Does your pvc manifold work well? What temperatures will it hold up to?

 

[DubbelDach]

Does your pvc manifold work well? What temperatures will it hold up to?

Pretty sure it works well... It is CPVC though, there's a difference. I guess things in there have been up to just shy of 170.

My cooler bottom is a little warpy though from adding the strike water, I'd imagine.

 

[Bobby_M]

so, in this case each of the runnings would be sent straight to the flame as soon as collected?

this thread is actually becoming very helpful. thanks to all!

It's not mandatory in that the overall temperature of the collected preboil wort is going to be in the area of 165F anyway so the enzymes are toast. Also, given that batch sparging, even with 3 runnings, only takes about 25 minutes to perform (assuming you didn't drop the ball on heating your sparge) you will soon be starting your boil process anyway.

If you have the means to start heating as soon as you pull first runnings, the biggest benefit is shaving time off your brew day. Some folks use their only kettle as their HLT though so they'd be collecting all runnings in buckets until the last sparge is infused into the MLT.

 

[DubbelDach]

Update.... About 72 hours out now, barely a bubble coming through the airlock. I took a sample with my thief, and:

Brown ale is brown? Check. How about the gravity?

1.008. This baby is fermented out! Must resist urge to bottle tomorrow night. Wondering if I should just leave it here in primary (the beer looks crystal clear) for 7-10 total days, or move to 2ndary tomorrow night. This might be a case where 2ndary only means I gotta clean more crap. Thoughts?

 

[calvey]

That's a great write-up! Looks like a wonderful beer.

I wanted to chime in on your mention of my Mash/Sparge water calculator. You can change your mash thickness by adjusting the Mash Thickness (qts/lb.) value (6th field down) to affect the mash & sparge volumes.

The choice of mash thickness will affect the ultimate fermentability (and conversely, body, mouthfeel and perceived sweetness) of your beer. For example, in the case of this beer, if you switched the sparge and batch volumes, you mashed thin and were able to produce a less-dextrinous wort in which the sugars were the right type for conversion to alcohol. This is one of the factors as to why you were able to get your beer well-attenuated. As a practical example, if you decided you wanted to make this same beer, but with more 'body', 'mouthfeel' or even perceived-sweetness, you could use the exact same procedures, but mash thicker to achieve the same result.

Man, I sure do love brewing

Great Job on this - I made the leap to all-grain after seeing something very similar to this and, as it turns out, there's nothing to it. I think this will give many people that little push to make the leap.

Chris Alvey
Brew365.com

 

[calvey]

Since you are asking for opinion on secondary, my $0.02 is a hearty NO.

If you're going to be packaging this beer within a couple of weeks, it'll be fine, just let it settle. Any mechanical advantage you have toward clarity will be offset (bigtime, in my opinion) by the chances of infection and oxidation that come with racking to another vessel.

Once it 'looks' done, give the yeast a couple more days at fermentation temperature to do some clean up of esters and turn some fusel/high alcohols into less nasty ones. Bless those yeasts, they think of everything if we just let 'em go.

Then, if you can, cool the thing for a couple of days and carefully rack and package.

 

[DubbelDach]

Thanks for the input, Chris! So let me get this straight... By switching the volumes, my beer probably fermented out more? Add to that the fact that I mashed at 1.33q/lb as against a thicker 1.25/qt, and I got 1.008 as against maybe 1.012?

My Scottish ale that I did before this fermented out to 1.010 and I thought, "man, isn't this supposed to have residual sweetness? Maybe not ferment out so much?"

So now, these two beers will be dryer and less sweet because I reversed the volumes produced by your calculator? (again, wonderful tool, thank you! I just have to listen to it now!)

 

[Bobby_M]

The mash thickness does affect ferementability but it's also highly coupled to temperature. I'd stick with 1.25qt/lb mash thickness and double check your thermometer's accuracy. It seems to me that you're temp is dropping a couple degrees or your thermo is reading a little high. Make sure it reads 212 in boiling water. I also suspect you could be losing temp by opening your cooler to stir. Once you're fully doughed in and confirm temp, don't open the cooler again until it's time to vorlauf.

 

[givemaboot]

Thanks for the info and progress report. Let us know how it turns out.

 

[monty3777]

I'm not sure if I'm using the right lingo - kinda new to this stuff, but I think this thread should be a sticky - I'd hate to loose track of it and it's a great tutorial for newbies like me. It would be great if there were an entire forum filled with these step by step threads. I tell ya - I'm damn near ready to pay for a subscription to this forum!!! Great stuff.

 

[DubbelDach]

I tell ya - I'm damn near ready to pay for a subscription to this forum!!!

My name is DD and I approve this message. Some of the best money I have spent yet on homebrewing!

I'm glad that this is appreciated. I am going to continue to post every step until I take my first sip of the stuff when it's ready.

 

[Ryan]

I pitched my yeast later in the evening - my hose water could only get the wort down to 85 degrees - when the beer was cooler. The only pic I forgot to take all day was me hitting the wort with oxygen right before pitching the yeast.

I will continue to give fermentation through bottling updates as they become available. I do want to send a special thank you to Edwort for his Haus Pale Ale recipe. It's in my keg right now and fueled this brew day for me!

Again, The entire gallery of pics can be seen here.

Where did you get that glass with your logo etched into it? It looks awesome!!!

 

[DubbelDach]

Where did you get that glass with your logo etched into it? It looks awesome!!!

Thanks! Got them here: Esigns4u.com - Etched Glassware - Etched Stainless Cups - Great Gift Ideas!

I got 4 of them and I think they were $8 or $10 each. Did the logo in Illustrator and they reproduced it perfectly. I was worried about the small letters at the bottom of the logo, but they are crystal clear.

No pun.

 

[Kulprit]

Just wanted to post and say thank you very much.

As an extract brewer it's hard for me to wrap my head around exactly what the difference is between AG and extract.

Seeing a well explained tutorial helps to clarify it and understand it more.

 

[Jaysus]

O
I always use this Mash Calculator for my strike and sparge water. Now, call me crazy, but it always gives a larger volume of water for the sparge, not the strike, so I always reverse them. Makes sense to me to add the larger volume first, where grain absorbtion is higher.

I don't know why I always think that I am smarter than the calculator.... but that just is not the case. Maybe next time, I actually listen to it.

 

[newbrewr4fun]

how do you decide how much wort to transfer for the first runnings?

 

[RC0032]

Update.... About 72 hours out now, barely a bubble coming through the airlock. I took a sample with my thief, and:

Where did you get your thief? This is the first I saw that looks like a graduated cylinder

 

[DeadDoc]

Ooo I love text with pictures makes things sometimes just a little bit easier to understand than just reading it out of a book. I am a very hands on/visual learner.

 

[DubbelDach]

Some respondings...

how do you decide how much wort to transfer for the first runnings?

Huh? I think you're asking how you determine how much water to add? I use the mash calculator. You tell it how much grain you have and how much wort you want to boil, and it tells you how much water to use. I then drain every last drop that I can get out of my tun and it's usually dead-on accurate.

Where did you get your thief? This is the first I saw that looks like a graduated cylinder

Funny thing is, I bought a plastic hydrometer after my 4th broken glass one. My original cylinder was too small. Fortunately, my LHBS had this big one. (I needed two hands to thief and dump into the cylinder... so no pic!)

Ooo I love text with pictures makes things sometimes just a little bit easier to understand than just reading it out of a book. I am a very hands on/visual learner.

As am I... I feel your pain and wanted to help!

Next update will be tonight! I am bottling the brown ale with the wife's help. Pics to come...

 

[DeadDoc]

First running is just the mashed water not sparge water if I'm not mistaken... TO calculate you can use a nifty program or a calculator, as shown in an above reply, or do 1-2qts per pound of grain (1.25-1.5 is the usual unless you know what you are doing by going higher or lower). Different temps of the mash result in different things being done, some of which are not necessary. Sparge water is generally double the amount.

You don't have to do any of the above methods... if u have a method you are using and it is working for you and you are hitting the results you want and the beer is coming out how you like then you don't neeed to change. unless you see room for improvement or just don't care about trying a different way.. haha. It's all about the fun and doing something you enjoy

Edit.
HAHA I love your "brewed in a garage" on your logo.

 

[DubbelDach]

Bottling time!

Last night I sanitized 48 bottles in my dishwasher. No soap, no sanitizer, just the 190 degree heat. I have had 0 problems with this method ever since I got the dishwasher a year and a half ago.

 

[DubbelDach]

Soon as my wife is done eating dinner, I am going to boil 3/4 cup of priming sugar for 10 minutes then chill in an ice bath in the sink.

Here I am filling my bottling bucket with sanitizer and soaking my auto siphon and bottling wand. I will fill the container of caps and my spray bottle with the solution in the bucket when I drain.

I prime the siphon with the sanitizer to let it soak. More pics later after we fill 'em up!!!

 

[DubbelDach]

OK, so I usually empty my sanitizer in the sink. Then I can lay my siphon and stuff in there while I move other things down ot the garage.

I boil the 3/4 cup priming sugar with a pint of water for 5 mins.

Then cool it just until it's cool enough to touch the bottom of the pan.

 

[DubbelDach]

My bottling line... L to R: Sanitized bottles, beer, bottling bucket, priming sugar, siphon and bottling wand, capper, rinse bucket, and empty cases.

Priming sugar is already dumped into the bucket, so my lovely wife is racking onto it. She supports beer.

I then fill the bottles...

 

[DubbelDach]

... and she caps them. Note the Troeg's Brewfest shirt because she rocks!!!

Everything is capped and then gets a quick dip in a bucket of warm water. I like to rinse the beer off of them.

And they are cased up and ready to store in the basement at 65-70 degrees for 2-3 weeks.

I got 44 bottles this time... I was a little under 5 gallons, so I got more than I thought, actually. I am going to rig up a dip tube for the back of my bottling bucket valve asap. I leave too much in the bucket.

I have a label design in the works, but I am going to alter it a bit before posting. I used blue caps this time, and the graphic artist in me needs to match. More soon!

 

[portlandbeergeek]

It's been about four hours.....have you tasted one yet?!???

Or are you more patient than I?

 

[DubbelDach]

I drank the last bit in the bottling bucket and it was real good. I am very excited for this one! My Scottish ale was 2 weeks in the bottle last night, so I chilled and cracked one of those. Still needs another week for a little more carb and ot work out some taste kinks.