Doing my first all grain this weekend

[GreenEnvy22]

Hi all,
I've done a few extract kits over the years but going to do my first all grain, 5 gallon batch. I bought a 48qt cooler and built a manifold with CPVC. I don't have a kettle yet, but do have some large stainless pots my wife and I use for canning. The larger 35+ liters, other is around 25. I don't have a propane burner yet, but my gas stove has 5 burners, I think I can get 2-3 of them under the pot.
I grew my own Chinook and cascade hops which I just harvested and dried this week. I'll use those for my first brew. Going to try to make a red IPA. Recipe is 10lbs Pale malt, 1lb red-x, 1lb victory. Recipe calls for Cascade and Centennial. I'd substitute the centennial for my Chinook, will be interesting to see what that does.
For cooling I'll just be putting the big stainless pot into a large laundry sink. I'll get a immersion cooler down the road. I have a nice bluetooth digital thermometer with 4 probes for monitoring temps.

I've been making wine from fresh grapes for years so hopefully some of that translates over.
Anyway, just wanted to say Hi. If anyone has any tips, I'm all ears.

 

[kingmatt]

Good luck! What does your hop schedule look like? Any idea on the alpha % on those homegrown hops?

 

[GreenEnvy22]

Good luck! What does your hop schedule look like? Any idea on the alpha % on those homegrown hops?

I have no idea on the alpha, since I grew these myself. I suppose I would have to send them off to a lab to be tested if I really wanted to know?
Here is a copy of the recipe I'm going to follow, just substituting my own hops for what's called for here.

 

[kingmatt]

You may want to do your bittering charge with a neutral hop like magnum and use your homegrown hops for your later additions since you don't know what your alphas are. I'd also assume the hops listed in that recipe are pellet so you will want to compensate accordingly...

 

[GreenEnvy22]

I decided to buy a kettle afterall, and borrowed a propane burner. Did a trial run today and everything seems to work well. Cooler held 163 for an hour. Was at 117 after 6 hours.
Tomorrow is the real thing.

 

[Jag75]

Good luck man and have fun . Keep us posted .

 

[wilserbrewer]

Who crushed your grain?

All grain brewing with poorly crushed grain can give poor conversion and extraction of sugar and result in low gravity.

Nice job on building the manifold...and that’s coming from a guy who doesn’t like manifolds lol.

I suspect flow will stop when the liquid level gets to the highest level of the manifold...I also suspect the cooler will slowly drip considerable runnings beyond that.
I would put a bucket under the output to see what continues for 30-40 minutes and add that to the boil as needed / wanted...

I’m a braid fan for coolers, but that’s more personal preference than anything.

Are you batch sparging? Fly sparging with your set up may be difficult.

I’d suggest a full volume mash or a batch sparge.

 

[GreenEnvy22]

The lhbs where I bought them here in town. Having never done an all grain before I don't know what to look for, but he ran it through an electric mill and it looks ground up nicely. Sure smelled good in my car

 

[wilserbrewer]

Ok...inspect the grain closely....do you see many uncrushed unbroken kernels of grain?

Or post a close up pic of the grain if you like...

Sorry not trying to be a Debbie downer, just poor crush is a common obstacle for first timers, that’s all.

 

[GreenEnvy22]

 

[IslandLizard]

I echo what @wilserbrewer said about the crush. There should be no whole kernels or any grain bits larger than 3/32-1/8". Most should be around 1/16" and some powder. Run your hand through it and check.

Judging from those 2 pictures, that looks fairly coarse... a typical LHBS crush.

Some observations and ideas:
1) What's your water like?
Is it chlorinated? If so, the chlorine/chloramine needs to be neutralized with a good pinch of Campden/K-Meta before mashing/brewing.

2) Definitely batch sparge, using about half your water for the mash. Calculate for a water (quarts) to grain (pounds) ratio of 1.5 : 1. Then split the leftover (about half) equally for 2 sparges.

3) Looking at the height of placement of the valve in the cooler, there may be a significant amount of wort left behind. You can test it with some water and see how much is left after draining (flat as is), and how much more you can drain by tipping a few inches toward the valve at the end. Whatever is felt is considered deadspace. You want that to be as close to 0 as possible, as that's wort you can't get out, and will be lost, cutting down on your efficiency.

I have a similar cooler, but my drain is placed much lower, it's in that divot. I also cut a slit in the little 1/2" connection CPVC pipe that actually fits inside the valve bulkhead. It pretty much drains/drips dry over 30-40 minutes.

4) Looking at the recipe, I don't see any dry hops. It ain't an IPA without them, you need that in your face aroma and flavor only dry hops can give you. Count on using 2-4 oz in a 5 gallon batch after fermentation, 3-5 days before packaging.

5) Are you still planning on chilling your wort in the laundry sink? That may take a while. Definitely keep stirring, gently, don't whip air into it, but constantly, and refreshing the chilling water as it heats up to get the wort down to 140F as quickly as possible. You may need to adjust your late hop additions to counteract the longer time it takes to chill. Hops keep bittering above 140F, significantly at 200-170F, slower at lower temps. In that light, you may want to do a flameout, then a hopstand/whirlpool with your late hops instead of 10' and flameout.

6) What yeast are you using?

 

[jrgtr42]

That crush looks decent enough for a first shot. Just don't be discouraged if your gravity is lower than expected per the recipe (I've rarely got it spot on...)
My other comments are about not complicating things overly for a first round as all-grain. Just as your first extract brew was likely something simple, same here.
If you haven't yet worried about your water composition, don't start now, same with dry hopping (apologies to those that mentioned it...)
There's enough to be going on with to keep things going with this. Worry about water later, maybe send it out for testing, and adjust from there. Same with any other additions or complications.

 

[GoeHaarden]

Not sure if you've started your brew day, but the hose on your manifold looks like standard vinyl tubing. I would recommend different tubing there or use some hose clamps as that type of tubing gets rather soft and pliable at mash temps. I would hate for it to come off while you have it full of grain.

Cheers!

 

[IslandLizard]

That crush looks decent enough for a first shot.

Yes, but he may not get his pre-boil OG due to lower efficiency.

Because the crush is coarse I'd mash 90' at 152F instead of 60'. And stir really well after adding the grain, and again 15-20' later. Won't hurt to start mashing at 154F, so there are 2 degrees to lose while stirring the 2nd time. Then let it ride. Stir again well before vorlauf/lautering. And with each sparge.

 

[GreenEnvy22]

I was planning on using reverse osmosis water from the local water shop. And yes that regular vinyl hose was just there when I did my test run because that's what I had on hand, I have some high heat vinyl tubing on now.

 

[IslandLizard]

I was planning on using reverse osmosis water from the local water shop

Not a bad idea. If your tap water is soft (has low alkalinity) you could use that. Adding some gypsum (Calcium Sulfate) and Calcium Chloride helps with flavor perception, but it'll be OK as is.

I have some high heat vinyl tubing on now

For now, that's OK too. For the future, look into using thick walled silicone tubing for anything on the hot side. 1/2" ID / 3/4" OD is the most commonly used there. It runs about $2-2.50 a foot and should be nice and clear not (mostly) opaque.

 

[jrgtr42]

Yes, but he may not get his pre-boil OG due to lower efficiency.

True that. I did mention that his gravity may be lower.
And while we all want to always hit our numbers, for a first time, I personally wouldn't stress about it - just get the motions down, and it he's 5 or 10 points lower, he'll still end up with beer.

Because the crush is coarse I'd mash 90' at 152F instead of 60'. And stir really well after adding the grain, and again 15-20' later. Won't hurt to start mashing at 154F, so there are 2 degrees to lose while stirring the 2nd time. Then let it ride. Stir again well before vorlauf/lautering. And with each sparge.

Agreed there - adding some time to the mash is easy enough to do - Even if he's gotten every dot out, it doesn't hurt anything to stay longer (for a 60 - 90 minute change, anyways - several hours difference could have repercussions later.)

 

[GreenEnvy22]

Thanks for all the input guys, very helpful

 

[tellyho]

It's probably too late, but I've brewed a bunch with my homegrown hops and have generally found that they are very low in AA. I generally triple amounts of I'm counting on my hops for bitterness.

Recently, I've mostly made one beer a year with all of my hops in the whirlpool: garbage pail ale. I gave up trying to brew to style with them.

Good luck with your first AG day!

 

[GreenEnvy22]

So as I am doing the boil, a couple lessons learned already.
1-be more careful leaning over the kettle to check the temperature, I ruined up nice T-shirt with a big burn hole in the front.

2-as an IT guy, it pains me to say this, but simpler is better. I was using my fancy digital thermometer with 4 probes 2 monitor my strike, and found all three probes were giving me different temperatures. One said the water was up at 190 and other one said 160 and another one was somewhere in the middle. I thought I figured out which one was accurate, but I'm not sure so my mash may have been over 170 initially. I eventually got a couple cooking analog thermometers and got the temperature to the right area, but I've had too much heat for at least the first seven or eight minutes. Hoping I didn't get too much off flavour from that. I don't know why those thermometers acted up, I use them all the time with barbecuing and smoking meat and it never had a problem.

3-my wort never got as clear as I've seen in some videos online. There were no chunks in it after I did a couple pitchers worth, but it definitely wasn't transparent like I've seen some people have. After everything was in the boil I double-checked the mash tun in the manifold was still all in one piece. So not sure why mine still looked cloudy.

4-wow the pot can boil over fast. I had a little under 6 gallons in an 8 gallon pot but I turned my back for 10 seconds and it spilled over the top and I lost about 1/8 of a gallon.

I'm about halfway through the boil now getting ready to do the second hop addition. From this point on most of my equipment will be my wine making equipment. I've got lots of primary fermenting buckets, hoses, and starsan as my sanitizer. I do have PBW as well.
I'll record the OG once everything is cool down, before I add the yeast. The yeast is US 05.

 

[GreenEnvy22]

Ended up with 16 Liters. OG is 1.052, so didn't get as much sugar out as I could have. Took about 30 minutes on the ice bath to get to 21C.
Tastes ok now, but I've learned in wine making that doesn't mean much.
Yeast is pitched.

 

[blubrewbbq]

Shooting a 1.052 on 12# and for your first all grain brew is not bad by any means. That should be a dang good beer.

I actually shoot for that OG in a lot of my beers. That is roughly the OG I saw back when I was mashing with a cooler.

 

[GreenEnvy22]

Fermentation is doing its thing.
I made a couple loaves of bread from the spent grains, pretty good.

 

[tellyho]

I think your OG is probably explained by the coarse crush.

 

[dwhite60]

Sounds like you had a good day for a first time all grain.

Beer should be awesome.

All the Best,
D. White

 

[wilserbrewer]

Well glad you only burned your t shirt and not your belly

Yes, welcome to the boilover club...it is a right of passage that only reading about can’t cure.

Lastly imo best to forget your IT technological genius and keep it dead simple lol welcome

 

[GreenEnvy22]

So my fermentation seems to be stuck. SG dropped to 1.03 within a day or two, but has been stuck around 1.028 for several days now. Thats only going to give me a 3% beer. Should I just try pitching another yeast packet? In winemaking I use yeast energizer and nutrient to help prevent/fix this, can I do the same?

 

[ProblemChild]

I think your OG is probably explained by the coarse crush.

yup - asking the LHBS to double-crush may well help. Did that until I got my own mill

 

[RM-MN]

So my fermentation seems to be stuck. SG dropped to 1.03 within a day or two, but has been stuck around 1.028 for several days now. Thats only going to give me a 3% beer. Should I just try pitching another yeast packet? In winemaking I use yeast energizer and nutrient to help prevent/fix this, can I do the same?

If you have used a refractometer for the FG reading that's about the proper FG after you apply the correction factor for the difference in refraction due to alcohol in the system.

 

[GreenEnvy22]

If you have used a refractometer for the FG reading that's about the proper FG after you apply the correction factor for the difference in refraction due to alcohol in the system.

This was with a hydrometer. I only use refractometer before fermentation.

 

[blizz81]

Seems like a pretty good start! Did you use dried yeast? You could try pitching a(nother) packet of US-05 or something of that sort. If your mash was actually significantly on the hot side, there's a chance the wort may be more on the unfermentable side, but where it's sitting now, it'd have to have been and remained pretty hot to stay at that gravity.

Lastly imo best to forget your IT technological genius and keep it dead simple lol welcome

Bah, where's your sense of adventure?? I like to use my IT brain to needlessly overcomplicate and over-$$$ everything in my brewery!

 

[GreenEnvy22]

I didn't like how the SG wasn't dropping, so boiled a bit of RO water with some orange juice, and rehydrated another SU05 yeast packet in it once it had cooled down. Added to must on 9/24. Now on 9/28 it's down to 1.024, so it's slowly moving.

 

[GreenEnvy22]

As a followup, this beer turned out really nice. It certainly wasn't an IPA, barely any hops flavour, but it was a very good red. Friends have loved it.
It's mostly gone so I made a red rye ale today. Went much more smoothly this time. I actually did it inside on our gas stove, which certainly did take more time to get it boiling, but didn't slow me down at all.
Once I had the mash going, I heated up the 6 gallons for sparging and it was upto temp just as the 60 minutes was up for mashing.
Nice big analog temp gauge was very nice for the water temp in pot. A small instant read thermometer worked great for confirming mash temp. Recipe called for 152.6 mash and after I poured in the grains and stirred it it up, it was exactly 152.6.
i did forget to pour back in the first couple liters when sparging, so I ran it all through a fairly fine SS mesh sieve before boiling.
Use my copper coil for cooling which did pretty well but next time I'll ice bath and use the immersion cooler. Got an SG of 1.05 this time, which was right on recipe target.

All in all, Much quicker this time, no shirts with holes burned in them either. If I run out of the first red before this is done, still have the stout on tap too.

My garage is booze heaven right now. 60+ Liters of Dornfelder red wine in secondary, 45 Liters of Riesling in secondary, 80 Liters of Syrah in primary, 20 Liters of apple cider in primary, and now this 21 Liters of beer. Then there is the 120L or so of stuff down in the cellar in secondary still.

 

[GreenEnvy22]

This was how the first one turned out.