First AG IPA....few questions for ya.

[naderchaser]

Sooo, I brewed my first AG IPA yesterday. I have a 10 gal Gott cooler for my MLT, and one for my HLT.
Grain bill is as follows:
13.5 lbs 2 row
11oz Crystal 60L

I mashed 5.23 gallons at 151.5* for 70 mins, and fly sparged with 3.5 gal of 174* water, which took ~20 mins.

I added 14oz of corn sugar to the boil to bring the ABV 1%. Boiled for 65 mins.
Preboil gravity was 1.044. Target preboil was ~1.055. I figured the corn sugar would bring it up a bit, so wasn't too worried there. Target OG after boil (according to Beersmith) was 1.081. My OG prior to pitching was actually 1.072.
I ended up with 6.5 gal in my boil, and was actually shooting for 6-6.25. Could this extra half gallon have brought down my efficiency 10 points? Did I over sparge?

2nd question: I didn't use a starter, but double pitched 2 vials of White Labs WLP001. It has been ~16 hrs since pitching, and i'm getting about 1 bubble every 50 seconds or so, and not much krausen has formed yet. Does this sound about right, or do I need to rouse the yeast up a bit? I'm hoping to finish at ~1.017.

Thanks in advance. I'm hoping my Monday morning ramblings were coherent.

 

[JLW]

I do think the extra 1/2 gallon would effect the OG. I wouldn't say you over sparged but probably needed to boil a little longer next time.

2 vials with no starter was probably under pitched but should be fine. Don't rely on airlock bubbles. I would give it a few more days and take hydro reading

Personally I would let the beer sit in primary for several weeks before transferring to dry hop

 

[naderchaser]

I do think the extra 1/2 gallon would effect the OG. I wouldn't say you over sparged but probably needed to boil a little longer next time.

2 vials with no starter was probably under pitched but should be fine. Don't rely on airlock bubbles. I would give it a few more days and take hydro reading

Personally I would let the beer sit in primary for several weeks before transferring to dry hop

I planned on leaving this in primary for at least 3 weeks with no secondary, and was going to dry hop with a week or so left. Keg condition for 1-2 weeks after that. Will dry hopping in primary (and not doing a secondary) affect the profile of the beer?

 

[rp5brew]

When I was in my cooler days my mash thickness was 1.25. I would think your lower efficiency than target might have been from two things. With a greater strike volume you decreased your sparge volume, thus limiting your ability to "rinse" the grains fully- that could be it-
Also I calculated an OG of 1.077 if you had 100% efficiency grains only, putting you close to 60% so not too bad.

In the future I would mash thicker. When you do that the enzymes work better and you get a better sparge.

 

[JLW]

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I planned on leaving this in primary for at least 3 weeks with no secondary, and was going to dry hop with a week or so left. Keg condition for 1-2 weeks after that. Will dry hopping in primary (and not doing a secondary) affect the profile of the beer?

I haven't tried dry hopping in primary yet.

 

[Yooper]

It seems like fly sparging in 20 minutes is way too fast to get good efficiency. If you slow that down by at least another 20 minutes (45 minutes total is better), you can help rinse the grain bed better and maybe avoid channelling.

With that grainbill, I'd get about 1.069 at 72% efficiency on my system. Yours doesn't seem too bad.

Two packages of yeast may be underpitching a bit, but since you have activity I wouldn't worry about it!

 

[naderchaser]

Thanks for the responses. I calculated my mash water volume based on 1.5qt/lb as I wanted to go thinner, and have a drier, more fermentable wort. After hearing these responses....I think that
1) I mashed too thin
2) I oversparged

I probably should have stopped sparging when it was running very clear, and just added some water to the boil to bring up the volume a little, if necessary (really don't want to do that).

With the corn sugar factored into my target OG of 1.081....my actual OG of 1.072 isn't too bad for my first AG I figure, with all things considered.

 

[rp5brew]

I would say under sparged. Mash temp has greater effect than thickness. I mash my IPA's at 148-149. Really get the fermentables in there!

 

[naderchaser]

Quick update:
Got home last night after work, and wow......this thing was bubbling every second or less, and the krausen had risen to a few inches high!!! I guess that answers my questions about the lack of activity. Looks like WL001 just has a long lag time.
Cheers...more updates to follow.

 

[JLW]

Quick update:
Got home last night after work, and wow......this thing was bubbling every second or less, and the krausen had risen to a few inches high!!! I guess that answers my questions about the lack of activity. Looks like WL001 just has a long lag time.
Cheers...more updates to follow.

Good to hear it is kicking in for you. A few months ago I used WLP001 in a IIPA I pitched my 3L starter around 8 pm, and was woken up by the furious bubbling in the blow-off setup at 2 am.

 

[naderchaser]

Ya, next time i'm going to implement a starter rather than just pitching liquid yeast. I'm glad I decided to double pitch, however and now that it's fermenting.....it's going like crazy. Took about 14 hours to take off, but now there are chunks of yeast and trub spinning around in there making it look like a whirlpool of sorts.
Pretty neat to watch.

 

[naderchaser]

Ok, so when I got home from work yesterday, the krausen had risen up into the neck, and into the airlock. It was still airtight, but the krausen was coming out of the airlock. No prob, i'll just move it to the bathtub so it doesn't make a mess.
Well, last night at some point, the airlock decided to do it's best space shuttle impression and blasted the cap off. The airlock is still on the bung, but I didn't have time to sanitize it (and the airlock) to put it back on. So it's sitting at home in the bathtub spewing krausen.
So my question is.....am I am in serious trouble as far as infection goes? I'll clean the airlock and reinstall it at lunch, but the beer/carboy will have been exposed to air for ~6 hours by then.

Not much I could do, i'm just hoping for the best and no infection because up til this point, everything was going so smooth. :-(
Thanks in advance.

EDIT:
There is still ~6" or so of krausen between the beer and the top of the neck. and it is still activley spewing CO2.

 

[joey11bball]

The layer of krausen should keep an infection away. But just to be safe I would put that airlock back on ASAP.

 

[JLW]

I think you will be ok. I would suggest a blow off tube everytime to at least start your fermentation. Once it settles down you can always switch to a normal airlock.

The very last time I didn;t use a blow off setup I was sitting inmy house alone and I heard the sound of a high pitched whistle for a minute or so and BOOM. it made duck and at first I thought a gun had went off outside (I live in the country so it's common). Nope it was the lid of my fermentor blowing off again!

 

[rfavors]

You don't have to secondary to dry hop, just want to be sure the fermentation is not too active anymore.

I like to dry hop right into the keg. After I transfer the brew to the keg, I drop in a muslin bag of hops, seal and carbonate. No where for that beautiful aroma to escape!

 

[DanPoch]

+1

I would suggest a blow off tube everytime

And don't worry about problems from the missing airlock. The CO2 and krausen from the fermentation will protect the beer. Not likely that anything actually fell into the beer, it's a tiny hole that's exposed.

I recently got complacent about not using a blow-off tube and the Nut Brown that's fermenting blew the airlock off within the first 24 hours. Big mess in the bathroom. That's what I get for slacking off on the use of a blow-off tube

 

[beerkrump]

I calculated my mash water volume based on 1.5qt/lb as I wanted to go thinner, and have a drier, more fermentable wort.

+1 to Yooper
The key to fly sparging is to slow it down. 45-60 minutes is just right.

To get a drier beer and more fermentable wort, mash at a lower temperature, not higher water to grain ratio. Mashing around 148° will be about as low as you'd want to start. Any lower and your brew will be pretty bland and poorly balanced.