First AG 80% efficiency!?

[sw341034]

So I brewed my first all grain yesterday/lastnight/this morning. All in all things went well I belive. Went for a nice amber ale used 10.5 pounds of grains (belgium 2 row pale, Vienna, aromatic, biscuit, special b, and munich.

My first real delhimma came during the mash. I was looking to mash at 137ish for about 20 min and the 157 for 40min. I mashed stiff to start knowing that I was going to need to add water to bring the temps up. Nailed the first temps on the money. Seconed temps not so much. I struggled getting the temps up (tried a little decoction) and ended up mashing for around 75 minutes at about 150.

The sparge went well. I fly sparged with 6.25 gallons or water and had no issues the sparge took me about 45 min. I collected 7.5 gallons of wort and started the boil.

My next issue came in boiling the wort. I boiled for about 1 hour. By now the sun had set and my better half was giving me pressure to hurry because we had an engagment. I know i know, I shouldnt brew when I have other things to do but i can't help it. anyway i get about 1 hour deep into the boil and i have to go, i have pressed my time as much as I could. Since I still had a good hour left in my boil i decided to throw the pot on the kitchen stove with a low heat and finish the boil when I returned a few hours later. So I did. When I returned home my wort was steaming but not boiling (took a temp and it was right around 160). After taking care of a few pressing issue *wink wink nudge nudge* I resumed my boil at about 4 am. I added my hops and followed my hops schedule for the next hour.

Finally around 5 oclock I finished my boil, moved the wort over to the primary, cooled her down to around 95, and pitched. It took my a good while to cool the wort, which worries me and my pitching temp was a bit high which also worries me.

just checked my gravity about 30 min ago and got a reading of about 1.059. since I am just a tad over 5 gallons that gives me an efficiency of about 80% according to promash. I don't know how the hell I managed to get 80% on my first ag attempt but ill take it. I hope my yeast (belgium siason) can handle it. We shall see.

Nothing like putting an airlock into place right as the sun is coming up.

 

[Blender]

You learn something each time you brew. You are a brave man to leave the stove going while away. I have gotten a nice routine down and I am done in about 5 hours. You cooling the wort down? 95 degrees is high to pitch.

 

[CheaperPlease]

95 is real high bro, In the last issue of BYO they had some big belgian brewerys talking about their ferments and oddly enough, unlike what I have seen with ales, starting a little high and lowering the temp when ferment starts, they started at around 65 and let it rise as the ferment when on, sometimes reaching 85 or higher. Ofcourse they where talking Tripels and Wits, Saison dosnt mind the heat as much.

 

[clayof2day]

anyway i get about 1 hour deep into the boil and i have to go, i have pressed my time as much as I could. Since I still had a good hour left in my boil

A 2 hour boil? Thats a pretty long boil man. Most of us only collect enough runnings so that we are down to volume after 1 hour. How much wort did you collect? Just above 5 gallons following a 2 hour boil seems like you must have had a LOT of wort. Also, did you monitor pH and gravity of your runnings? If your gravity drops too low or your pH gets too high you can leech tannins.

80% is great!! Now the challenge is going to be hitting it consistently!!

Great job, keep it up, hope my suggestions give you food for thought.

 

[sw341034]

yea 95 is high I concur, I pitched 95 before and it just meant a longer lag time (which in turn I know means more chance for spoil) but still turned out alright. I know I won’t be so lucky every time and I am building a wort chiller this weekend to amend this problem.

As for the long boil times I thought it seemed a bit high at first as well, but I collected just over 7.5 gallons and with a no so conservative evaporation rate of 15% per hour that puts me at 6.375 gallons after one hour and at two hours that puts me at just under 5.5 which is still over my 5 gallons target. So with those numbers a two hour boil doesn’t seem so outrageous.

As far as ph and gravity goes I didn’t monitor so much. In fact I didn’t monitor the pH at all and only took one gravity reading from the running and actually cant remember what it was exactly however it defiantly was not crazy low.

 

[david_42]

Doing a decoction of any sort will raise efficiency a surprising amount.

 

[Steve973]

Yes, farmhouse brewers typically let the fermentation temperatures of saisons reach the neighborhood of 85-90 degrees F. I'm not sure what the effects of starting it at that temperature would be, but I'm sure you'll find out!

My question for you is: "are you hoping to make a saison?" I'm curious about your motivation to use that particular yeast strain with your particular recipe.

 

[jcarson83]

I collected about 7.5 on my first AG and it took me 2hrs to boil down as well. I don't see what the problem is with a long boil to concentrate except that it just takes longer. My whole process took 7hrs total. I'd like to be able to get it down to 5 but I don't see how.

Mash 1.5hr, sparge 30min, boil 2hrs, cool 30min, cleanup 30min. I guess its possible.