First All Grain Batch

[RRBrewer]

I just brewed my first All Grain batch this past weekend. It was a Pale Ale kit from Midwest Supplies. I pretty much followed the instructions that came with the kit but I have a few questions.

1. When the 60 minutes of the mash was up, should I have drained all the liquid from the mash tun and sparged it back over the grain bed before adding any of the 170 degree sparge water?
2. I started with 4 gal in the mash. I sparged with 5.5 gal. Once I had collected my 7 gallons in the boil kettle, there was still some liquid left in the lauter tun. Was that supposed to happen?
3. My OG was in the range I was told to expect but the wort after the boil had a "grainy" smell to it. Is that indication of some screw-up?

 

[Malticulous]

First you want to vorlouf. Then drain all the first runnings you can into the kettle. Add the sparge and stir it well, vorlauf and then drain it as well as you can again. Grain absorption and dead space will stay in the tun.

Wort has what I can a "worty" smell.

 

[RRBrewer]

Let's see if I grasp it. Vorlauf the liquid in the mash tun until it runs relatively clear. Then begin catching what liquid is left in the mash tun in the boil kettle. Drain all that liquid then begin to sparge? Vorlauf the sparge water too?

 

[Malticulous]

Yes, for every runoff. Just catch it until it runs fairly clear and add it back to the MLT as the rest runs into the kettle.

You want to drain all that you can to get as much of the extract possible out of each running. It will lower the gravity of the sparge, and therefor leave less extract absorbed in the gran and dead space.

 

[NorsemenRugby58]

If you're serious about home brewing (which I am assuming you are because you've stepped up to All-Grain) begin reading this.

http://www.howtobrew.com/section3/index.html

Read everything that has to do with All-Grain brewing. Implement things slowly, all at once, one at a time, however you want, but it'll answer a lot of questions you have.

 

[Malticulous]

How to brew is not very good at explaining batch sparging.