First All Grain Attempt

[rodwha]

Like on Monopoly there has been an error made in my favor, and so I have 5 lbs of 2-row in excess. I've decided to try my hand at an all grain beer and having looked at my water report and looking over the scale on How To Brew I'm guessing I can make an oatmeal coffee stout without tampering with my water or using any RO water for balance, which is what I typically do with my partial mashes, though my water was a bit harder in San Antonio.

According to the scale the more important factors are alkalinity, calcium, and magnesium. My alk is 157, my cal is 38, and my mag is 21, which seems to give me a rough estimate of 5.88 pH, which is good for darker beers, but will it handle a dark stout?

I've tried making a stout twice with 2 failures. The first having used hops that clashed with the roasty flavors, and the other in which I think I may have used too much oatmeal, but also had poor attenuation which left me with a very sweet beer.

Here is the recipe for my 6 gal partial boil attempt:

5 lbs 2-row
2 lbs light DME
1 lb crystal 80
1 lb crystal 120
1 lb oatmeal
3/4 lb dark chocolate
3/4 lb coffee malt
1/2 lb soft white wheat berries
1/2 lb carapils
3/4 lb rice hulls

1 oz Warrior @ 60 mins
1 oz Santiam @ 20 mins

US-05

1.061/1.012
6.4% ABV
54 IBU's
34 SRM

 

[rodwha]

Here's my water report:

http://www.lakewaymud.org/annual-metals-and-minerals-report/

 

[ncbrewer]

Since I'm pretty new to all-grain, I won't try to give you technical advice, but from everything I've read, a spreadsheet like Bru'n Water is probably a better way to figure out water chemistry. Good luck.

 

[rodwha]

The water chemistry hurts my head, which is why I've just stuck with partial mashes and using 1 gal of RO for a dark beer and 2 gals for lighter beers.

 

[william_shakes_beer]

Brew what you like to drink. There are some people that get into the science of brewing trying to recreate the water profiles of traditional brews. There are others like me that pop the burner , throw in some grains and hoist a cold one. I'm the latter. Never brewed anything I refused to drink. I have never personally even looked at water amendments.

 

[rodwha]

Couldn't improper water (opposing) hurt the taste of your beer?

I'm not trying to replicate anything, but certainly wouldn't want to have a strange flavor. I've been more than happy with using a little RO water just to mellow my old water out.

 

[rodwha]

I think I was misreading the scale. From the alkalinity, calcium, and magnesium levels my RA would dictate (instead of reading at the angle provided, vertically) an amber would be more inline with what my water provides.

I've reread the all-grain section several times now, and each time I read it I feel I understand a little more, but I must admit I feel I'm in DEEP waters and cannot see the bottom. And it's for this reason I feel I will change the beer I will brew as it seems to align better with a first attempt and not changing the water chemistry.

 

[cease]

Buy another 5-6 lbs of malt and make this your true all grain beer and not a partial mash.

Water chemistry is important but it should be the last thing you get down after your process is down. A perfect water profile will still make crap beer without good temp control.




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[pricelessbrewing]

Agreed with above. Either use brun water, or leave it for now. Drop that extract, go Biab with sparge and you probably will be fine with your current equipment plus a bag.

 

[rodwha]

I have been doing BIAB, and I'm planning on going by Lowe's for a large plastic pot with expanding foam to create a thermal jacket for my 5 gal pot. It's a great idea a fellow here on HBT passed on.

This is my new 5 gal all-grain partial boil recipe:

5 lbs 2-row
1 lb honey (FO)
1 lb victory
3/4 lb crystal 40
3/4 lb crystal 75
1/2 lb soft white wheat berries
1/2 lb carapils

0.75 oz Perle @ 60/20 mins
0.5 oz Perle @ 5 mins
US-05

1.052/1.010
5.5%
31 IBU's
13 SRM

Every time I've used honey or sugar I've had a lower FG so I expect it again.

I obviously quit reading the mashing section of How To Brew as I don't recall having read nearer the end, which made a fair amount of sense to me. Guess I need to read it all a couple more times… Getting there.

I've only done a single infusion (if I'm stating this correctly) by using ~165* strike water and targeting 153* for an hour or more, and it's usually much more than an hour as I've typically had problems keeping my temp stable, and so I'll add time while I'm getting the temp back up. But I've done no rests, which I'm wondering about now. Is it ideal to reheat (stove top) and bring to ~170* after I'm done with my mash?

 

[william_shakes_beer]

If you want to understand how much water affects taste, try doing the same batch twice. One with tap water, once with you preferred water ammendments. If you lived out in the sticks with an untreated well, ammendments may make a differnce. Here in suburban USA, I suspect most municiple water surces are treated to acheive similar products.

 

[rekoob]

I'm on the same line of thinking as william_shakes_beer.
I have never brewed a beer I didn't drink and seeing as everyone that stops over also drinks it I'm not going to worry about what my water profile is. I brewed the same thing with RO water and with tap water and there wasn't any big difference between the two that I could attribute to the water so I just don't worry about it.
Maybe down the road when I have a few more batches under my belt I will, I've only been brewing for 16 years so I'm still trying to figure things out.
Seriously, so much more to worry about and figure out before you get that far.
RDWHAHB!

 

[rodwha]

The water in San Antonio tastes like it came from a pool. The water here is actually not bad straight from the tap, though I still filter it for most things.

 

[BrewerBrad82]

Here's my water report:

http://www.lakewaymud.org/annual-metals-and-minerals-report/

WATER!!! WOOHOO!! I love it. Ok, based on your water report, you have pretty decent brewing water, albeit a bit shy on calcium. If you are looking at brewing all grain with your water, you will want to get more calcium in there for any style. I always shoot for 80ppm or more of Ca to encourage enzymatic activity in the mash, and it also helps out really well with yeast flocculation in the fermenter. Without going into too much detail, this water (with some calcium supplements) is great water for amber to brown ales. If you are looking to brew a stout, it will require a little tweaking to get a proper calcium level and residual alkalinity. Currently your water comes in at an RA (residual alkalinity) of 119 ppm, but the calcium is low at 38 ppm. For a stout, we are targeting an RA of about 130 to 150 ppm, and we are looking for 80ppm or more of calcium (the Ca level goes for nearly all beers). To get there, you will have to treat the water with pickling lime (careful, this stuff can burn you) to increase the RA and Ca. For simplicity, I would recommend adding 0.15 grams/gallon of pickling lime, 0.2 g/gal gypsum, and 0.2 g/gal calcium chloride to brew this stout. Use all three additions in your mash water, but do not add the lime to your sparge water. For the sparge, keep the calcium salt additions the same. Using this water profile, your RA will be 139ppm while Ca is at 86ppm. This should nail your mash pH between 5.2 and 5.6. Sorry for the complex post, but water is my thing!

 

[rodwha]

I'm finally getting a basic understanding of the water. Still not crystal clear, but it's not so daunting now.

Thanks for the reply! This is the kind of thing I was hoping to find. Maybe I can pick your brain when it comes time to try an IPA or otherwise hoppy lighter beer (one of my favorites), or even a wheat (SWMBO's favorite). I'd like to work on what I'm learning and then run it by to see if I'm truly understanding.

I'll likely be rereading this today as I'm hoping to brew soon (still need to go by LHBS for the remainder os supplies).

 

[rodwha]

I checked and gypsum is out of stock in any quantity at austin Homebrew Supply.

I'm unfamiliar with pickling lime. Where does one find this?

I'm stuck on brewing this amber for a few reasons. It seems to fit my water profile as is, but it's also cheaper. I'm well beyond my monthly budget without this brew too, but since I now have a 5 lb bag of crushed 2-row sitting in my lap I figure I should make the best of it.

 

[KeninMN]

I'm unfamiliar with pickling lime. Where does one find this?

Walmart has it: http://www.walmart.com/ip/Mrs.-Wages-Pickling-Lime-16-oz-Pack-of-6/17339182

 

[rodwha]

Reading a bit about Burton's water salts I'll just buy 2 oz as AHS has it in stock, and I'll boil up a few gals for my brew day to dilute my filtered tap water.

After boiling water you'll notice the white sediment, which should be the calcium, magnesium, and lime, right? If I keep that then in essence I've kept those levels the same but rid myself of the bicarbonate?

 

[Paradigm]

The best advice for new AG brewers is to stir the CRAP out of your mash while reading the temperatures, and not to stress. It's barely more difficult than extract brewing and a lot more fun.

 

[BrewerBrad82]

Thanks for the reply! This is the kind of thing I was hoping to find. Maybe I can pick your brain when it comes time to try an IPA or otherwise hoppy lighter beer (one of my favorites), or even a wheat (SWMBO's favorite). I'd like to work on what I'm learning and then run it by to see if I'm truly understanding.

Anytime! Id be glad to check out any water profiles you come up with.

 

[cease]

Anytime! Id be glad to check out any water profiles you come up with.

Wanna chime in on mine?

http://srcity.org/doclib/Documents/SRU14_waterreport_ONLINEFINAL.pdf

My house only gets municipal water and not from the Santa Rosa wells.




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[rodwha]

Well, I finally brewed my all-grain amber, and half way through the mash I found that my temp had dropped from 152* to 150*, and so I changed my efficiency numbers assuming I'd end up with a slightly higher ABV.

But I wanted this to come out around the mid 5% range as I also intended on adding honey, which always seems to ferment out further than the calculator registers, and so I'd likely end up in the high 5% range.

So I added a little extra top of water (1/2 gal), but when I stirred it all well and took a gravity reading I found my OG to be quite low at 1.038, and I add ~2/3 of the chilled top off first and pour my wort on top so as to help mix it well from the git go, but then still stir well.

I ended up pouring 2 lbs of light DME and adding an extra 1/2 lb of honey to hopefully bring the ABV back up.

I tried handling a bit too much grain I think, and so I'm assuming that I didn't sparge well enough, though I first dunked the grain bag in my calculated brew water first, and then poured 1 gal of sparge water through my grain bag (BIAB) that sat in a large colander. But my grain bag (8.75 lbs) was so large it raised up maybe 2" out of this ~5 qt colander making it difficult to get the upper portions around the edges.

I guess I'll see what my honey biscuit amber is like in 2 months...