First AG Recipe and Brew - Input Please

[KWright_VT]

OK, so tomorrow I dive in to an AG batch. Today I checked my boil loss and figured my final batch size in a 5 gallon brew kettle will be about 2.7 gallons after starting with a 4 gallon boil. Even though it's a little smaller than I hoped, I'm going to use all the grain I have crushed since I figure my efficiency will be a little low the first time. I have a mash tun made from a 10 gallon Rubbermaid Cooler and plan to batch sparge, splitting the sparge water into 2 batches. I also want to try dry hopping, so I added that and adjusted the other hops.

So this is Biermuncher's Centennial Blonde recipe I adjusted a little, let me know your thoughts. Not that I thought I could improve, I'm just playing around, and thought this sounded good. Not quite as light as the original, but I think I'll like it. I also wanted a little extra hop aroma, without increasing the IBU's.

View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1421627152.624909.jpg

 

[brewkinger]

That looks just fine. I've made this about 5x and it's one of my go to beers.

Try adding the zest of a couple of navel oranges like a 10 day dry hop.... pure summer deliciousness.

 

[KWright_VT]

I had actually thought about adding the Orange. I knew I wanted a little hop aroma, so my lhbs talked me into adding the Galaxy as a dry hop. Do I just soak the navel orange zest in some vodka, and add it in the bag with the hops?

 

[JLeuck64]

I batch sparge also and have had really good success when I try to get 50/50 run off volumes. With your grain bill I would mash with 1.75 Qts. per lb/grain and expect a tad over 2 gallons from the first running. Then I would only have to sparge with another 2 gallons to get to the boil volume. That one little change could save you some time...

And +1 to dry hopping! Definitely do it ( ;

 

[KWright_VT]

All went well today, I got about 69% efficiency out of my mash/lauter, a little better than I projected. By the time I was done though, I had only lost one gallon during the boil, so I wound up with 3 gallons of wort. I did a boil test yesterday with water and lost more. Maybe the wort doesn't boil off as much as pure water. My OG was 1.053, so the better efficiency balanced the boil loss difference, so it worked out well.

I'm really pleased with my first run, next time I'll be even more relaxed and hopefully have my own homebrew to enjoy while doing it.