Finished my first all grain batch, looking for some suggestions.

[Lulzman]

Yesterday I brewed my first batch of all grain. It was the speckled hefer (spotted cow clone) from northern brewery.

Most of it went according to plan unfortunately I missed my target gravity by quite a bit. Target was 1.042 and I hit 1.032. Pretty sure this is because I over estimated the grain absorption and ended up with just under 6 gallons after my boil and it was supposed to be a 5 gallon batch. I've already pitched the yeast, but I was wondering if it would be reasonable to siphon off a gallon and boil it down to a quart to get the target gravity up? I'm okay with waiting for awhile longer for it to fully ferment, or I could pitch more yeast? What would you gentlemen and gentlewomen recommend? I just don't want to end up with a watered down tasting beer. After all, that's why I decided to home brew lol.

Also, I woke up this morning and the airlock had shot off. I resanitized it and shoved it back in. I have no idea how long it was out so should I be worried about bacterial contamination or wild yeast? It was less than five hours I'm sure, if it matters.

Thanks for any help you can provide a newbie.
-Lulzman

 

[Lulzman]

Sorry for the double post. I did this from my phone and can't find how to delete it.

 

[Lulzman]

Any suggestions?

 

[phenry]

6 gallons vs. 5 is going to throw your gravity way off, so getting 10 points lower isn't surprising at all. Did you batch sparge? The grain will only soak up water initially, so during sparging you really don't need to pay attention to any differences in volume between the sparge water prior to dumping it on the wetted grain bed and after draining. I really wouldn't bother trying to fix the gravity by boiling off water, if you do want to bump it up by boiling some DME in water and adding that in, that's a very viable course of action.

 

[StoneHands]

Let this one ride and use your experience on this all grain batch to correct your volumes on the next. I wouldn't recommend pulling any wort out and boiling. A quick fix after the boil is done and you've checked the gravity (and it's low) would be adding some extract, but since you've pitched yeast and it's kicking along fine (what temp is it fermenting at btw? maybe too hot?), I'd let it go.
It took me a few batches to get my gear and process dialed in, your next batch will be really close.

 

[cmybeer]

1.042 isn't too low IMO. I'd ride it out but if you really want there is always DME.

 

[Darwin18]

If you're new to All Grain I recommend picking up a brew software such as BeerSmith. These programs will calculate your water volumes based on your equipment profiles and get you very close to where you need to be. I believe you can try BeerSmith for free for a period of time.

 

[Lulzman]

I used an app for iPhone called sparge pal. It told me to use 2.7 in the mash and 5 in the sparge and that's what I did... I think. It was a bit hectic outside with trying to figure out my equipment for the first time so I don't know exactly.When the air lock blew it was at 70-72 but I moved it to the basement where the temp is consistently about 65.

What DME would you recommend? I've never done extract... Maybe I should have started with that. Previously I have done cider and a batch of wine which is much less involved.

Thanks for the help. Anything else you guys could provide would be great.

 

[phenry]

Well if I'm doing the math in my head right and assuming your grain bill was ~8 lbs, that amount of water should've left you with about ~6.5ish gallons pre-boil, which sounds about right for an AG batch, though I'm not sure as to what volume NB calculates the OG for their batches post boil. How strong was your boil?

 

[Lulzman]

The boil was pretty weak. NB advertised the KAB4 burner I got from them as able to boil 10 gallons of 100F water in 45 minutes.

My mash water took about an hour to get up to boil. Maybe even longer. Think I'm going to have to modify it so I can get the burner closer to the bottom of the kettle.

 

[Phyrst]

I used an app for iPhone called sparge pal. It told me to use 2.7 in the mash and 5 in the sparge and that's what I did... I think. It was a bit hectic outside with trying to figure out my equipment for the first time so I don't know exactly.When the air lock blew it was at 70-72 but I moved it to the basement where the temp is consistently about 65.

What DME would you recommend? I've never done extract... Maybe I should have started with that. Previously I have done cider and a batch of wine which is much less involved.

Thanks for the help. Anything else you guys could provide would be great.

There are kinds of DME out there. Light, dark, amber, wheat. You could try to use a DME similar to your style. Since you're making a Hef, you could use wheat. Or you could just use light Pilsner for everything. Won't really give you much flavor. Just fermentables.

Like someone said, just boil some in a cup or two of water. Just make sure you cool it before you dump it in. The general rule is one pound of DME in one gallon of water will give you 40 gravity points. So, if you want to go from 1.032 to 1.042 you are looking for 10 gravity points in a five gallon batch, or 50 points total (5 gal x 10 points/gal).

50 points / (40 points/lb DME) = 1.25 lbs DME

 

[iskuse]

I wouldn't worry about the airlock blowing off. I have had a lid blow off and have had no issues.. Try using a blowoff tube instead until fermentation calms down a bit

 

[chuckstout]

Sounds like a good start, youll be ok with the airlock off for a little bit during active fermentation, as long as there are no fruit flys or ants etc..

It would help to invest in some tubing and proper attachment for a blow off tube

For increasing the Alc. or your gravity i would use corn sugar for that beer and add it about day 3 of fermentation, you can boil it and chill it then add it, or just sanitize your measuring cup and add the suger directly to your fermenter

 

[Jakeintoledo]

As morpheus from the Matrix said in the training Dojo to Neo...

AGAIN.

as in just don't sweat it and get it right the next time. Some brewers I know stumble upon their best recipes by screwing up. throw caution to the wind. if you're that concerned about it, it means you haven't had enough to drink.

My $0.02, feel free to disregard.

 

[chessking]

I agree with riding it out and do better next time. The bigger the mistakes you make in the early stages the more certain you are to not repeat them.

Also, if you are batch sparging, try to split your strike water (minus grain absorption) more 50 50. So if you figure a gallon lost in the grain, a 4.5 gal strike, and a 3.5 gal sparge will give you a 7 gal pre boil volume.

http://hbd.org/cascade/dennybrew/