First AG batch today!

[cobalt60]

Well... sorta my first. My true first attempt--an american wheat--didn't go so well (complex mash schedule, bad temperature control, ending with breaking my hydrometer in my bucket and having to toss the batch), so I've wrote it off and started again.

This time, I tried making BierMuncher's OktoberFAST Ale. I replaced the pilsner malt in the original with American two-row to give me a little enzyme boost, and I also cut it down into a five gallon recipe.

Hit my mash temperature pretty easily this time, and I've decided to not do step mashing for as long as I can avoid it!

I did a batch sparge to collect runoff. Here's where it got weird: I ended up getting nearly nine gallons of runoff when I expected seven! I must have screwed up my water calculations somewhere, but it seems bizarre to me. Is less water used in a batch sparge? I didn't wait for long between adding the water and opening the valve on my mash tun... should I have?

In the end I had an OG of around 1.048 (vs. 1.051 for the recipe), which I feel pretty good about. I'm guessing my last few gravity points went to the other two gallons, but either way the sample I had tasted great going into the fermenter!

Anyway, had a great brew day and I'm looking forward to my next AG. Maybe a porter... mmm...

 

[masonsjax]

Congrats on your first AG. It's all downhill from here.

 

[kyleobie]

Congrats! I'm still on partial mashes, but hope to be in your shoes someday soon

 

[Joos]

As far as the sparge water.estimate about 1G loss per 10 pounds of grain in the Mash,not the sparge.

 

[cobalt60]

Ah... I think that's where I messed up.

Misoverestimated the amount of mash water... I used 2.5 gallons absorption for 11.75lb of grain. I also did a pretty wet mash (1.33 quarts/lb grain), and used 1 gallon for equipment loss. Cutting my absorption calculation to one gallon per 10 lb and my equipment loss to 0.5 gallons should get me pretty close.

Ah well, live and learn--either way, it was a lot of fun. Thanks for the feedback!