First AG

[DarthCaitSith]

Jan 6, 2008 Oceanside, CA

Brewer: Joseph Broderick
Assistiant: Scott Dossey

Recipe:
Batch Size: 5.5 gal

Grain:
12 lbs Pale malt (2 row)
2 lbs Crystal 20

Hops:
.5oz Magnum First wort
1oz Magnum@75
1 tablespoon irish moss@15
1oz Cascade@0
1oz Cascade Dry

Equipment:
8gal Stainless HLT
10Gal rectangular Cooler with copper tube with slots cut in in manifold Mash/LauterTun
15gal Stainless Kettle
56,000btu turkey fryer


Procedure:
Drink: Port Brewing Shark Bite Red
added 4.75 gal 167F h20 to the grain,and stired. mash temp measured at 154. let sit for 60 mins. temp at end of mash was 150. I tried to mash out with a 2 gallon boiling water infusion but the temp only went up to 161, and through poor planning I didn't have the sparge water hot so it sat at 160 for around 30 mins.

Drink: Stone 11th Annv Black IPA

I recirculated until it seemed sort of clear. Not sure how clear it is supposed to get. also there may be too many slots cut in my manifold, the wort came out very quickly.

I then drained the mash tun into the kettle and then aded 4.75gal h20 at 175f to the mash tun. the temp again was only around 160. Does the sparge temperature matter that much? Waited 20 mins, then reciculated again and drained into the kettle. volume was about 9.5 gal.

I took a small sample for hydrometer test and got 1.035(adj for temp). promash predicted 1.053 at this point so this was my first sign of low eff. I added the first wort hops and started the burner.

Drink: Stone Levitation

After it came to a boil I started the timer. added the hops at 75, added the irish moss and put the wort chiller in the kettle at 15. Turned off the fire and added the cascade when the timer went off.

Cooled the wort, then whilpooled and waited 30 mins for trub to settle. (put lid on kettle durning this time) Final volume in kettle around 7-7.5 hydro reading 1.055(adj for temp)

racked the wort into the 6.5gal glass carboy, put a aquarium pump into the carboy and turned it on for 20 mins (lots of foam came out the top, is this bad?)

Pitched the starter of WL002 English ale yeast. Lag time about 20 hours.

So I am not sure how to calculate eff, i just played with the number in promash until it matched my stats and got 60% eff. Thats not too bad for a first time i guess, but I am not sure what I did wrong to fix it for next time. any comments would be appreciated.

---
DarthCaitSith

Primary: Cyser (Apple Mead)
Primary: IPA
Up next: ???

 

[malkore]

looks like you used too much water for a 5.5 gallon batch. Ideally you'd start with 7 gallons and boil it down to 5.5gallons or so.

you could have boiled longer to get a higher gravity starting wort. Considering you got about 60% efficiency, you really just need to use less water next time.

 

[DarthCaitSith]

I finished with about 5 left in the fermentor, had quite a bit of trub in the bottom of the fermenter. I used the amounts of water promash recomended, after fiddling around with stuff.


DCS

 

[Yooper]

I mash with 1.25 quarts of water to 1 pound grain. So, that's about right for the mash. Then, when I do the sparge, I want the grain bed to stay in the 168 range, so I use 168 degree water after the mash out. I just sparge until I have enough runnings- usually just about 3 gallons depending on the size grain bill I have. When you use brewing software, you can play with it to give you the right amounts of water for your system. You'll have some trub losses, but I think I lose about 1/2 gallon or less. I never measured, that's just a guess I made.

Overall, it sounds like it went well for you! So, your efficicieny is a little low- that doesnt' reallly matter. Sounds like a good brew regardless!

 

[BrianP]

Congrats on your first AG.

My first two AGs were 60% also. It didn't go up much until I crushed my own malt (got my BC this Christmas). Now at 78% eff.

That recipe looks great too. I think I'll need to stop by for a sample.

 

[covered95]

you mentioned that your sparging might have been fast from your mash. That might be a culprit as well. I have read and experienced that the process should take some time in order to get all that sweet sticky goodness out of the grains and into your pot. Maybe try slowing that end of it down.

 

[WBC]

you mentioned that your sparging might have been fast from your mash. That might be a culprit as well. I have read and experienced that the process should take some time in order to get all that sweet sticky goodness out of the grains and into your pot. Maybe try slowing that end of it down.

+1 and do 2 equal sparges and stir, wait 5 minutes and stir then vorlauf for both sparges. You can also throttle the sparge speed at the outlet ball valve on the mash tun. If your slots are to big on your manifold you may have trouble getting a good filter on the grain bed. You should not see much grain particulates if any in the runoff.