Another 1st AG

[illin8]

Took almost 6 hours...hopefully I can speed things up going forward. I brewed an AHS Oktoberfest today...did OK. I preheated my 70 qt Coleman Xtreme with 174 degree water, stirred and waited to mash in at 169...mashed in and was good but when I went back 40 mins after initial stirring/mash in, temps were down somewhere between 145 and 150. I wasn't sure if it was my thermometer (had a digi and glass, had about 3 degree spread between them) and opted not to do anything about it given how long into it I was already.

I made my copper manifold using a metal cut-off disk on my roto-zip, I'm not sure if the blade is too wide but I couldn't filter out the smaller particles/husks with moderate-slow flow. To make a long story short I missed my sparge temp initially. Instead of a double batch sparge, I heated the second sparge water to 200 and dumped it into the first, stirred, waited 10 mins then ran it
off.

Ah well, what can you do...as prepared as I was I still missed a few things. I collected a 1st runnings hydro reading (1.072), and a 2nd runnings (1.023) but not a pre-boil reading. I combined the two and got 1.051 (all hydro samples were at 68-70 degrees). I boiled off a gallon and ended up leaving another 1/2 gallon in the trub which I thought I'd get more out of, but I'm used to extract and not some of the extra stuff in the boiler from AG. Oddly enough, and I'm not sure why...but my post-boil gravity turned out to be the same as my pre-boil...

Hopefully it all works out in the end...it was a good learning experience!

 

[blackwaterbrewer]

sounds like a success! i calibrated my thermometers after my first 2 AG's were too dry due to low mash temp. haven't had a problem since. nice job, dude, no disasters!

 

[BlindLemonLars]

Good for you man, congrats on making the jump to AG! Sounds like it went OK for a first time, with each subsequent batch the process will smooth out a little until it's all second nature.

 

[anderj]

6 hours is pretty standard, that is what I plan on when I brew
-Ander

 

[illin8]

Any idea on why my pre-boil and post-boil would both be at 1.051? For my pre-boil reading I just combined a sample from the 1st and 2nd runnings...I have a feeling this is where the issue is.

Also, in BeerSmith, which efficiency is the one we should be most concerned with?

 

[Bobby_M]

There's no way of knowing if your runnings samples were of equal volume and fully mixed. You should wait until everything is in the kettle and stir it up, then draw the preboil sample.

 

[GunnerMan]

Your pre boil was probably lower, I am not sure you can just combine 2 gravitys and expect it to be accurate.

What efficiency did you plan for?

Your brew house efficiency is more important because that is the final deal into the fermenter. Make sure you set Beersmith to calculate for loss of 1/2 gallon to boil trub/chiller and calculate your evap rate. All of this effects how your BH efficiency is calculated.

 

[illin8]

2 1/2 hours after pitching and the airlock is bubbling already. I used WLP820 and a 1 liter starter on stirplate, stepped up another liter, decanted, aerated with 02 and pitched slurry. Nice to see things work as planned....

 

[Mike M]

Cheers to a successful brew day. There are worse ways to spend your day.



And now the waiting.