Brew day has begun..what a PITA!

[Willsellout]

So this is my first real partial mash and I have already had trouble...sheesh.
So I preheated my MT, tossed the grains in and tossed 1 gal of water@175 to bring me to a strike temp of 163. I tossed in a quart of water at around 50 degrees which brought me down to 133! So then I added another quart at 165 to bring me up to 135. then another at 192 to bring me up to 145 (5 min) then yet another quart at 200 to bring me to 149(5 min) then one more for good measure at 201 to bring me to a final mash of 151. So now I am waiting, cleaning my stuff and posting here as I progress. I plan on sparging at 170 with approx 3 gallons. Good thing is the pacman smack pack is swelling up nicely....


Dan

 

[Pumbaa]

an easy way to hit your temps every time is fill your mash tun with 200degree water to preheat it. Let it cool off to the temp you need so when you add your grains you are at your perfect strike temp

EXAMPLE

• I want to mash 10lbs of grain (lets say the grain is 68degrees)
• I preheat my mash tun with about 12.5 quarts of 200 degree water (about 1.25 quarts per pound) and let it cool off to 172(initial strike temp)
• add my grain and I'll end up with a mash temp of about 158

Promash dough in strike temp calculator is great for this

 

[Ivan Lendl]

So this is my first real partial mash and I have already had trouble...sheesh.
So I preheated my MT, tossed the grains in and tossed 1 gal of water@175 to bring me to a strike temp of 163. I tossed in a quart of water at around 50 degrees which brought me down to 133! So then I added another quart at 165 to bring me up to 135. then another at 192 to bring me up to 145 (5 min) then yet another quart at 200 to bring me to 149(5 min) then one more for good measure at 201 to bring me to a final mash of 151. So now I am waiting, cleaning my stuff and posting here as I progress. I plan on sparging at 170 with approx 3 gallons. Good thing is the pacman smack pack is swelling up nicely....
Dan

http://www.rackers.org/calcs.shtml

A good rule of thumb is if your at 130F, add half the amount of strike h20 at boiling temp to raise it to around 150. ex 1 gallon strike=130+.5 gallon 212=150
Something like that...

 

[Blender]

Just to conteract your day my brew is going great. Mash temp was right on at 153, its a beautiful afternoon to be brewing.

One thing I do is that if I need to cool the mash is to use ice cubes instead of cold water. You are not adding as much liquid and it cools well.

 

[Willsellout]

My brew is going great right now..about 15 minutes into boil and it's rolling along nicely. A little Widespread Panic, some Rogue and brewing! Very nice day!



Dan

 

[Brew-boy]

I hit my my mash temp perfect today 152 thanks to beer tools pro. Heated strike water to 167 and I hit it perfect. I am making small trial batch of Hoegaarden 2.5 gallons. Finally we hit 50 degrees here in Michigan and it was a perfect brew day out side.

 

[Willsellout]

Holy crap! So many firsts today I don't know where to start! I had my first hot break, my first cold break, first use of chiller ( 212-67 in under 5 minutes!), first use of aeration, first use of 10 gal kettle etc...

So I had so much material (hopes, hot and cold break etc) that I wound up with a buttload of it in my primary. I might actually have to transfer to a 3rd carboy to filter out everything...I mean just tons of stuff! I had a really difficult time transferring to my primary from the kettle, I think I am going to have to put a spigot in and a hopstopper because I lost about .5 gal's because of all the sediment at the bottom. I wound up with right around 5 gallons after an initial boil of 6.5 gal. My pre boil gravity was 1.054 and after boil was 1.066-1.067. I have pictures to document all this and will post them in a bit, right now I have to clean up. This brew was exciting...I am so stoked on how it came out, even though I had some issues in the beginning. Pitched the Pacman around 67 and it will ferment in the garage at around 60-65.
I did forget to add the aroma hops at flameout though (.50 ounces of summit) but I figure I will make up for it with dryhopping 2oz of cascade in my secondary.



Dan

 

[Willsellout]

Ok so I'm all done and sort of cleaned up. Turns out I probably have around 4 gallons as opposed to the 5.25 I was shooting for, which means during my 60 minute boil I went through 2.5 gallons as I started with 6.5. It could be a bit more, but it's low compared to what I've done in the past. The trub has settled to the bottom and I am waiting on fermentation to start. Here are some pics from my gallery of the day.
3.75 pounds of grains

Recirculating the wort

Pouring in the runnings

Dan

 

[Willsellout]

The boil, my first full boil!

This brew is called Plywood IPA because I had to put a piece up to fight off the wind that came out in the afternoon

My wort chiller in action: Boiling to 67 in just over 5 minutes!

Dan

 

[Willsellout]

The finished product!

That's it, it was really fun. A lot more work than I thought it would be but it should be worth it. What do you guys think?


Dan

 

[BierMuncher]

Nicely done. Don't worry about excessive cold break trub. I had the same thing (see my link below). When the yeast is done doing its magic, that trub will end up about 1/2 thick on the bottom. Mine turned out to be an extrmely clear beer.

Don't worry about a tertiary.

Welcome to the world of grain brewing. Great job on the pics.

Now...get planning your next batch....

 

[Ivan Lendl]

I think I have the same kettle. Is it from instawares? 10 gallon?
Theres a pic in my gallery.

 

[Willsellout]

Nicely done. Don't worry about excessive cold break trub. I had the same thing (see my link below). When the yeast is done doing its magic, that trub will end up about 1/2 thick on the bottom. Mine turned out to be an extrmely clear beer.

Don't worry about a tertiary.

Welcome to the world of grain brewing. Great job on the pics.

Now...get planning your next batch....

Thanks, it went a lot smoother than I thought it would. Minus the strike temp, everything went really well. I have a good feeling about this brew. I am hoping the beer will be clear as well, up until this point I've always had a chill haze in my beers. I'm definitely going to go with a ball valve hopstopper assembly though, siphoning was just too rough. I'm also going to build a workbench to make things a little more organized.
I was going to rig a blowoff hose, but since I ended up with only 4-4.5 gallons I figure it'll be allright.

As far as the next batch, it's going to be AG and I am planning it as we speak! I can't wait!


Dan

 

[Willsellout]

I think I have the same kettle. Is it from instawares? 10 gallon?
Theres a pic in my gallery.

Not sure, I got mine from morebeer.com, and yeah it's a 10 gallon.



Dan

 

[EdWort]

My wort chiller in action: Boiling to 67 in just over 5 minutes!

Dan

Very nice chiller. Did you make it youself or buy it?

 

[Dude]

Sounds and looks great! Good job--next time will only be easier. Make sure to keep good notes for everything that happened--you can quickly dial in a strike temp for every batch from here on out and make life MUCH easier!

 

[Kayos]

Thanks, it went a lot smoother than I thought it would. Minus the strike temp, everything went really well. I have a good feeling about this brew. I am hoping the beer will be clear as well, up until this point I've always had a chill haze in my beers. I'm definitely going to go with a ball valve hopstopper assembly though, siphoning was just too rough. I'm also going to build a workbench to make things a little more organized.
I was going to rig a blowoff hose, but since I ended up with only 4-4.5 gallons I figure it'll be allright.

As far as the next batch, it's going to be AG and I am planning it as we speak! I can't wait!


Dan

Ever try a siphontap from morebeer to get wort into primary? I use one and it is great!

http://morebeer.com/product.html?product_id=15778

and the cheap-o aerator that comes, too

http://morebeer.com/product.html?product_id=15779

 

[Willsellout]

Very nice chiller. Did you make it youself or buy it?

I made it myself thanks to Bobby M. who provided the 1/2" tubing. I had a tubing bender which helped a lot, and to my surprise, absolutely no leaks! I had the same luck with my MT; no leaks at all, I was really happy about how my equipment performed.


Dan

 

[Willsellout]

Ever try a siphontap from morebeer to get wort into primary? I use one and it is great!

http://morebeer.com/product.html?product_id=15778

and the cheap-o aerator that comes, too

http://morebeer.com/product.html?product_id=15779

Well I have an autosiphon that I use now, but that seems like it's a very cool product! No need for the aerater though as i bought one from Williams brewing, the one with the SS wand...it worked amazing today! 1 minute and it was foaming out of the top of my 6.5 gal carboy. So the siphontap, you just attach it to some tubing and shove it in and it starts siphoning out? How well does it filter some of the stuff out?


Thanks

Dan

 

[Willsellout]

Sounds and looks great! Good job--next time will only be easier. Make sure to keep good notes for everything that happened--you can quickly dial in a strike temp for every batch from here on out and make life MUCH easier!

Yeah my big mistake was adding a quart of cold water...it just killed me, I mean originally I was only a few degrees off from what I was aiming for, if I would have added a little and took a reading I would have had much better luck. I did make sure and keep good notes on this one though...better than I normally do



Dan

 

[Orfy]

Well done, it looks tasty.

 

[Kayos]

Well I have an autosiphon that I use now, but that seems like it's a very cool product! No need for the aerater though as i bought one from Williams brewing, the one with the SS wand...it worked amazing today! 1 minute and it was foaming out of the top of my 6.5 gal carboy. So the siphontap, you just attach it to some tubing and shove it in and it starts siphoning out? How well does it filter some of the stuff out?


Thanks

Dan

Works great for siphoning and super easy. Comes with about 18" of hard tubing and the white plastic end. Just attach your racking 3/8 tubing to it, push down and it siphons from your pot to carboy. It filters the big stuff (hops), but the small pieces (steeping grains that got through bag) still get into the primary. Just use a bag over the tip when siphoning to pri or secondary. I am a gadget guy, so I got this and have had more luck with it than the autosiphon I bought. It even has a bevel at the top to fill the hydrometer when you finish siphoning.

 

[Willsellout]

Well just an update to my brew:
Within 10 hours the Pacman kicked in and started fermenting. Had about 3 inches of kreusen on top. temp for the past couple days has been 65 but today the temp is around 62 and fermentation has picked up noticeably. For the first time I can see all the break material and yeast swirling around inside and working...crazy! I have high hopes for this brew!


Dan

 

[Willsellout]

I just grabbed a bit of this brew to take a reading as action has finally slowed down. OG was 1.067 and this reading was 1.019. The taste is phenominal, pure and simple. I think I will wait for this weekend to throw it into secondary and toss a new batch on this yeast cake. It has a nice smooth bitterness with a caramel sweetness, although there isn't much aroma as I forgot to add the aroma hops in at flameout. I will be dryhopping it with 2 oz of cascade which should take care of that! I can't wait to try this one in a few weeks!


Dan

 

[BierMuncher]

...I had a tubing bender which helped a lot...


Dan

Oh c'mon WSo...who has a tube bender...