Blonde Ale Centennial Blonde (Simple 4% All Grain, 5 & 10 Gall)

[idrinkstuffnthings]

Hi, I'm just getting together the final equipment for my first AG brew. I think this one will be it. Now if anyone can help me on this question I'd appreciate it. I've watched a handful of videos but still not quite sure. If I were to batch sparge this recipe, how much water would I mash for the first 60 mins. Then do I add the sparge water at same 60 mins and temp? Or does all the water mash at the same time? This sparge business has for the better of me.

 

[HBrew71]

Hi, I'm just getting together the final equipment for my first AG brew. I think this one will be it. Now if anyone can help me on this question I'd appreciate it. I've watched a handful of videos but still not quite sure. If I were to batch sparge this recipe, how much water would I mash for the first 60 mins. Then do I add the sparge water at same 60 mins and temp? Or does all the water mash at the same time? This sparge business has for the better of me.

Assuming 5 gal batch, about 11 quarts of water to mash with -- 1.25 quarts per pound of grain. Collect the wort after an hour of mashing. Depending on how much you collect (assume x gal), thinking you will need to have 6.5 gal of water to boil, add (6.5 - x) gal of water. Stir, wait about 15 minutes, collect. Makes sense?

 

[idrinkstuffnthings]

Ya that's just what I was lookin for. Thanks a bunch

 

[jflongo]

I'm doing this tomorrow. The only change I'm making is at the 20 min boil, i'm bumping up cascade to 0.5 oz, to add a little more IBU. This will be my FIRST All Grain with my new 5G mash tun.

Just made it today, gravity was a little higher, 1044 PB, 1052 starting gravity.

For my FIRST All Grain(did it once before biab), in my 5 Gallon mash tun, it went decent today. My mash in called for 2.8 gallon, batch sparge called for 4.2 gallons. I could only get about 3.8 gallons in my mash ton for sparge. Next time, I'm going to up the water to about 3.25 gallons, and then do about the same for batch sparge, see if that works better.

It seems my efficiency was 82.07 according to Brewtarget that I use. Not sure why it was so high. I'll check this in about 8 - 10 days to see how it looks, and then rack it to a carboy for another week.

 

[wizang]

Looking at the extract recipe at the beginning of this thread by OP, wouldn't a closer extract version have more similar specialty grains to the AG? Would it be bad to add the vienna and crystal malt and scale back the DME a bit?

 

[Clifton]

Vienna needs to be mashed.

 

[sloose]

Hi, I'm just getting together the final equipment for my first AG brew. I think this one will be it. Now if anyone can help me on this question I'd appreciate it. I've watched a handful of videos but still not quite sure. If I were to batch sparge this recipe, how much water would I mash for the first 60 mins. Then do I add the sparge water at same 60 mins and temp? Or does all the water mash at the same time? This sparge business has for the better of me.

I recommend getting beersmith...try the 2 week trial, it's an awesome program, does all the math for you. It's the best $20 I've spent yet, it does all my record keeping and my calculations. I think it's a must for any AG brewer.

 

[CoopersGoose]

I hate to pile onto this thread, but I just carbonated a 5 gallon batch in the keg Sunday night, and couldn't help but try it tonight. It's a very nice drinkable beer that should appeal to most. I was able to sneak a few sips while transferring to the secondary for crash cooling and it was nice then, but even better now. There is no way this will be around much past it's month birthday on Feb 8th.

For the record, brewed AG batch according to instructions, threw into primary for 15 days at 70F, transferred to secondary and crash cooled at 37F. After 3 days, added gelatin, continued in secondary for 4 more days. Transferred to keg, force carbonated at 30 psi for 24 hrs, purged and adjusted back to 12 psi. Ver impressed by the clarity, color, and taste of this simple brew. Thanks for the recipe, look forward to making again.

CG

 

[jflongo]

I recommend getting beersmith...try the 2 week trial, it's an awesome program, does all the math for you. It's the best $20 I've spent yet, it does all my record keeping and my calculations. I think it's a must for any AG brewer.

I used the beersmith trial and it was good. Currently I'm using brewtarget, since it's free.

Mine called for 2.831 gallons of strike/mash water, then 4.189 gallons to batch sparge with. Next time I'm going to do 3.5 gallons and 3.5 gallons and see if that works better. The 4.189 gallons didn't all fit into my mash ton to batch sparge with.

 

[carlk47]

I'm moving over to Partial mash from being an extract brewer and I think I may give this a shot as my first 2.5 gal AG batch(have a 2.5 gal keg that's just sitting there empty and needs to be filled!). Can't wait to get everything ordered and get this one brewing!

 

[he-brews]

I've made this brew 4 times now once like the recipe and 3 times with a pound of rice DME and its way better IMO with the pound of rice. Just my 2

 

[mjap52]

I'm thinking of making this again, but I thinking about adding some honey, but I'm afraid it'll dry it out a bit. Anyone have any thoughts about dropping the pale malt by 2 pounds, and adding a pound of honey and maybe a half pound of carapils to bring the body back to how it is currently? This would be for a 10 gallon batch.

 

[LAbrewer]

I've made this brew 4 times now once like the recipe and 3 times with a pound of rice DME and its way better IMO with the pound of rice. Just my 2

I'm going to make this one with dextrose next time to bump abv. Did you swap the rice for 2 row or just add it extra?

 

[jflongo]

Just made it today, gravity was a little higher, 1044 PB, 1052 starting gravity.

For my FIRST All Grain(did it once before biab), in my 5 Gallon mash tun, it went decent today. My mash in called for 2.8 gallon, batch sparge called for 4.2 gallons. I could only get about 3.8 gallons in my mash ton for sparge. Next time, I'm going to up the water to about 3.25 gallons, and then do about the same for batch sparge, see if that works better.

It seems my efficiency was 82.07 according to Brewtarget that I use. Not sure why it was so high. I'll check this in about 8 - 10 days to see how it looks, and then rack it to a carboy for another week.

This is bubbling away for me in my fermenter now. Can't wait to taste test this when I rack it in 4 or 5 days.

 

[woknblues]

I hit the OG just fine (1.038), and life got in the way, a month later I pull a gravity and get 1.017 (sa-04 at 68 degrees). What do???

 

[jflongo]

Bottle it How did it taste when you took a reading?

 

[Mojzis]

I hit the OG just fine (1.038), and life got in the way, a month later I pull a gravity and get 1.017 (sa-04 at 68 degrees). What do???

Bottle it How did it taste when you took a reading?

1.017 is high, especially when you started at 038. Try warming things up and swirling it around to rouse the yeast to drop a few more points.

Take a reading a few days later to see if its dropping. If it doesn't then you can bottle or add more yeast to dry it up.

 

[CoopersGoose]

Need Help!

Beer tastes great, but it's flat! Flavor is great, but carbonation level is lacking. C
Background - crashed cooled at 38-40F for week, before transferring to keg and carbonating. Carbonated at 30 psi for 24 hrs, then reduced to around 10-12 psi. Been on gas for 4 days and is still flat! I am currently using a 10ft 3/16" vinyl hose, which results is a decent head, but little carbonation. Any recommendations?

Need this ready for SuperBowl, so I'm open to all suggestions. Thanks!

 

[brettwasbtd]

Need Help!

Beer tastes great, but it's flat! Flavor is great, but carbonation level is lacking. C
Background - crashed cooled at 38-40F for week, before transferring to keg and carbonating. Carbonated at 30 psi for 24 hrs, then reduced to around 10-12 psi. Been on gas for 4 days and is still flat! I am currently using a 10ft 3/16" vinyl hose, which results is a decent head, but little carbonation. Any recommendations?

Need this ready for SuperBowl, so I'm open to all suggestions. Thanks!

Hmmm... sounds like a leak of some sort. You talking like 0 co2 or just not in the 2.x range? You can always hit at 30 for burst of 4-6 hours to check it.

 

[Clifton]

Cut your line down to 5 feet. I carb mine @ 13 psi and use 5 ft of 3/16 hose.

 

[ButcherBrew]

24 hours at 30 is not enough to get you into the 2. range. I do 30 for 48 hours, 20 for 24 and then to serving pressure. Even following this technique, I find that the beer is not perfectly carbed until a week after sitting on serving pressure. To be ready for tomorrow's game, I would put it back to 30 until right before kickoff. Bleed and move back to serving pressure. Might not be perfect... But should be much closer and acceptable to your crowd of thirsty party goers. Good luck.

 

[CoopersGoose]

Running down to up the pressure now. Also going to work on balancing my lines a bit. My pour only takes 4-5 seconds at 12 psi with a 10 ft hose 3/16" ID. Let you know how it goes. Who you rooting for anyway? I'm going 49ers even though they've beaten my Bengals in previous SBs.

 

[nasty_rabbit]

I made two batches one week apart as to harvest yeast from the first. I transferred the first one to a 5 gallon secondary when it was about 90% complete (don’t beat me up about using a secondary, it was the easiest way to get to the yeast in the primary) in the future I will make a larger starter and split it before pitching. I know that, with variables, they are not exactly identical. My intent is to have 10 gallons of the same beer so I split the beer from the secondary to 2 kegs, purged the head space and placed them in the fridge. The appearance of the first batch is almost mead like as that it is crystal clear. In the carboy I could clearly see the hauler straps and in the sample I know that I could read a news paper through it. The samples from both batches tasted fantastic although the second batch was slightly sweet and yeasty. I am now warming it up a bit to give it time to clean up.
When the second batch is done I was going to also split that one and top off both kegs then carbonate. Looking back I see most of the should have, could have and would have but what I am looking for is confirmation that this will work.

 

[sr20steve]

FWIW I brewed a split batch of this beer with half WLP001 and half Notty (like the original recipe calls for) and the 001 was MUCH better according to me and all others who tasted this brew.

 

[jflongo]

This is bubbling away for me in my fermenter now. Can't wait to taste test this when I rack it in 4 or 5 days.

Going on 6 days for me, and still bubbling away Also just broke my 3rd hydrometer yesterday, and get a new one in 2 days. So I'll let this go 8 days, and then test the gravity.

 

[llama_boy]

Brewed another 10 gallon batch this time using Great Western 2-row and wyeast 1728. Fermented cold at 60*. It's been 10 days since brewing and the terminal gravity was hit in 3 day. I'll try to keg it tomorrow and get it carbed for next weekend. I'll report the results and contrast it to my previous batch using Marris Otter which netted a score of 40.

 

[orion7144]

So when I bought my sack of grain I asked for 2-row. they got me the Briess 2-row. Now I am confused since I thought all 2-row was a pale malt but the Briess does not say it is pale. So what is the difference

 

[HBrew71]

So when I bought my sack of grain I asked for 2-row. they got me the Briess 2-row. Now I am confused since I thought all 2-row was a pale malt but the Briess does not say it is pale. So what is the difference

all 2-rows are pale malts including Briess'.

 

[orion7144]

all 2-rows are pale malts including Briess'.

thanks

 

[BierMuncher]

So when I bought my sack of grain I asked for 2-row. they got me the Briess 2-row. Now I am confused since I thought all 2-row was a pale malt but the Briess does not say it is pale. So what is the difference

Base malts:

2 row pale malt - AKA Klages. A grain that has 2 rows along the seed head. 2 row malt has more starch per unit of weight than 6 row. 2L

6 row - A grain that has 6 rows along the seed head. There is more husk weight in 6 row than in 2 row. 2L

Pilsner - A pale malt with a sweeter flavor than 2 row malt. It produces a smoother and less grainy flavored beer. 1L

Wheat - The malt used for many wheat beers. Can be added to non wheat beers in small quantities to add to the head retention properties. 1.8-2.8L

Briess is simply a brand name.