First AG tomorrow, a few questions

[Wingy]

I'm planning on my first AG batch tomorrow (hefeweizen) and felt the need to make the prerequiste "Am I doing this right?" thread.

Technical Stuff
11 pounds grain (half wheat, half pilsner)
Desired mash temp: 152 deg F
Mash H2O:grain ratio: 1.25 qt/lb
MLT: 10 gallon rubbermaid

My plan: Preheat cooler with 1 gallon boiling water. Drain this, add 13.75 qt H2O at 170 deg F and slowly stir in grain. Mash one hour. Sparge with 5 gallons of 175 deg F H2O. Collect 7 gallons total runnings. From here on out everything seems pretty straightforward.

Major question: How to sparge? Should I just dump in the sparge water at the end of the mash (what I understand "batch sparging" to be) or should I drain the wort from the mash, leaving an inch of water on the grain bed, and THEN add all the sparge water, stir, recirculate, and add that to the first runnings?

Fly sparging is not going to happen, I don't have the equipment for it and am trying to keep the first time as simple as possible.

Thanks for your help!

 

[Wolfhound180]

Good luck I'm sure that you will do fine. Drain the mash tun, and then add sparge water. Stir really well again. I let mine sit for 10 mins and the vourlaf and drain again.

 

[poislb]

You can fly sparge with just a spaggetti colander and 180-190 degree water from your stove top. Just have to monitor it so the water level dont get beneith the grain bed. Sorry if my spelling is bad, had a few already...lol

Place the colander over your tun and pour water in as needed so the grain bed has at least an inch of water on top..


Fly sparging is easier than batch in my opinon, and will be more efficeiant....plus ya only vourlouf once instead of 2 or 3 times.

 

[Wingy]

Thanks for the replies! When sparging, should I just run off sparged wort until I have the volume in the kettle that I want, or should I drain ALL the sparge water into the kettle? I was planning to add 5 gallons of sparge H2O. Is that enough?

 

[bullinachinashop]

Couple of things....

170 seemes to hot for your strike water, are you using a stike water calc?

I preheat my tun with the strike water, added a few degrees hotter than my strike temp, close the lid and let it set for a few minutes, then stir down to temp, or replace some of the water with some hotter water.

First time through, I'd double batch sparge. Plenty of info on here about that. Basically, you vorlauf and drain the strike addition, add 1/2 of then water needed to get to your preboil voulume, vorlauf and drain, and then repeate that again.

Good luck

Bull

 

[Wingy]

Couple of things....

170 seemes to hot for your strike water, are you using a stike water calc?

I preheat my tun with the strike water, added a few degrees hotter than my strike temp, close the lid and let it set for a few minutes, then stir down to temp, or replace some of the water with some hotter water.

First time through, I'd double batch sparge. Plenty of info on here about that. Basically, you vorlauf and drain the strike addition, add 1/2 of then water needed to get to your preboil voulume, vorlauf and drain, and then repeate that again.

Good luck

Bull

Yeah, 170 was from a strike water calculator - using another one online gives me 164 (the latter takes the temp of the grain into account so I'll probably go with that one...). I'll try the double batch sparge. Should I start heating the first runnings as soon as they are collected to kick it above 170 and kill enzymes or is this generally not super necessary?

 

[mike20793]

I don't preheat my rubbermaid mash tun and I heat my strike water to 170 to mash at 153. I double batch sparge with water at 184. I can get my grain bed to 169 during the sparge this way. I get a little over 80% efficiency every time. Hope this helps. Cheers and good luck.

Edit: Yes start to heat up first runnings as soon as they are collected. This will save you significant time bringing your wort up to boil.

 

[bullinachinashop]

Yeah, 170 was from a strike water calculator - using another one online gives me 164 (the latter takes the temp of the grain into account so I'll probably go with that one...). I'll try the double batch sparge. Should I start heating the first runnings as soon as they are collected to kick it above 170 and kill enzymes or is this generally not super necessary?

I typically put the first runnings on the burner right away. The mash out step really has to do with the style of beer and if you're trying to dry out the beer or not.
I wouldn't stress about it for now.
Make beer, drink it and learn.
Bull

 

[day_trippr]

Doing a "half wheat, half pilsner" for a first AG brew? Good luck!

Cheers!

 

[Wingy]

Doing a "half wheat, half pilsner" for a first AG brew? Good luck!

Cheers!

Is this not the best idea? Halfway through the mash now, so too late to change it... If the sparge gets stuck I'll just RDWHAHB.

 

[Wingy]

Survived! Homebrewing being what it is, there were a few minor and major snags, but the brew came through and I'm sure it will be drinkable in a few weeks. Hopefully others can learn from my errors.

Always check supplies/have a backup! The burner I planned on using died on me as I was lighting it (leaky hose that I couldn't fix), so I ended up going double burner on the stove. Boil was not great (less than vigorous) but it worked. Wort chiller was also a fail, the hose I was supposed to use had broken the night before. Fixed by putting it in a bathtub full of ice/cold water, took some time to come down but it did - after about 50 minutes pitched at 70.

Thanks everyone for their help/advice! Couldn't have done it without reading the forums.

 

[Yooper]

That's awesome! It gets easier each time, and you'll feel more comfortable with every mash.

 

[duboman]

Since you are already mashing this won't matter now but for the type of grain being used a 2 step mash would have yielded better conversion. Mash in a little thick, about .75/lb and hold at 135-140 for 30 minutes, then raise to 156 and hold for 30 minutes and then mash out. I've got the same type of recipe planning to go soon with all Hallertauer hops and a step batch sparge. Good luck and cheers!

 

[Mindhop]

Survived! Homebrewing being what it is, there were a few minor and major snags, but the brew came through and I'm sure it will be drinkable in a few weeks. Hopefully others can learn from my errors.

Always check supplies/have a backup! The burner I planned on using died on me as I was lighting it (leaky hose that I couldn't fix), so I ended up going double burner on the stove. Boil was not great (less than vigorous) but it worked. Wort chiller was also a fail, the hose I was supposed to use had broken the night before. Fixed by putting it in a bathtub full of ice/cold water, took some time to come down but it did - after about 50 minutes pitched at 70.

Thanks everyone for their help/advice! Couldn't have done it without reading the forums.

Even when you plan ahead s@$t happens. I brewed a citra hopped pale ale yesterday. Everything was great. I put my wort chiller in with 15 mins left. Turned my pump on to run water through the chiller and water squirted everywhere. I burnt a hole in the inlet tube. I quickly fixed that. Turned the pump on again and blew a hole in the other tube. Clogged hose with ice. It was cold! My moral of the story is that we never know what will happen and something WILL happen. Sure beats knitting though!

 

[tre9er]

I would have possibly upped the strike volume due to the wheat (was it flaked?) and definitely done a rest in the 130's, then add the rest of strike volume. It's gummy stuff that wheat.

 

[Wingy]

Since you are already mashing this won't matter now but for the type of grain being used a 2 step mash would have yielded better conversion. Mash in a little thick, about .75/lb and hold at 135-140 for 30 minutes, then raise to 156 and hold for 30 minutes and then mash out. I've got the same type of recipe planning to go soon with all Hallertauer hops and a step batch sparge. Good luck and cheers!

Thanks for the advice! I'll keep it mind for next time. What other grains benefit most from a two-step mash? Should I raise to 156 by adding hot water to reach 1.25/lb?

 

[duboman]

Thanks for the advice! I'll keep it mind for next time. What other grains benefit most from a two-step mash? Should I raise to 156 by adding hot water to reach 1.25/lb?

Rye and Barley are two others that would benefit from a step mash as well. In general I'm learning that many beers will benefit from step mashes to add to the complexity of the beer's overall balance. And yes, on the 1.25/lb, you want things to be a little more liquid as you go up so everything mashes out nicely. I've also found and am experimenting with not mashing the darker grains as there is little conversion anyway, mostly just to add color. These can either just be steeped separately and then added or just added at vorleuf as part of the mash out.