First All Grain Batch

[psotos]

Hello there!

So now that we have 3 extract brews under our belt we are ready to move to All Grain.

The problem is that the recipe that I found on this amazing forum is written for people familiar with AGB techniques. Would anyone mind translating this into a step-by-step for beginners recipe?

So I recently fell in love with Bear Republic Racer 5 and I want to try and copy it with this recipe.
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f69/speedy-bear-republic-racer-5-clone-sorta-192970/

Your help is greatly appreciated!!

 

[frazier]

What equipment do you have?

It's a 10 gallon recipe, so start by dividing everything in half.

How To Brew by John Palmer gives a pretty good step by step. It's available online. I'd rather answer specific questions if you have one or two.

 

[surffisher2a]

I second the motion for getting Palmers book.

Here is the short answer, With all grain you need to extract the sugars / flavors from the grain and create the wort. You do this by mashing crushed grains and water at a very specific temp for a set amount of time (usually 60 min). Then you drain your mash tun into the boil kettle. Then you need to rinse (sparge) the grain to get all the remaining sugar from them. You drain your sparge water through the grain and into the boil kettle to get the correct amount of wort you need.

From here on out its pretty much exactly like extract brewing.

There are a couple details you will need to figure out to get the mash correct for your equipment. I would do a lot of reading on batch sparging so you can get your water volumes and temp's correct. If you hit those two things you should be good to go.

 

[SudsyPaul]

I'll echo what others say. You don't need to worry about all the details, but get a book or read the online books and figure out the basics for yourself.

The recipe is very detailed with mash-in and sparge temps... so you're pretty much set. Just follow the instructions and you're good to go.

 

[surffisher2a]

Basic steps -- after cleaning and sanitizing everything and using water that is dechlorinated

#1 Heat mash in water (strike water) to temp that you need to raise the grain temp to the mash temp (1.25 Quarts per Lb of grain) Usually the temp is in the high 160's, since you need to mash at somewhere around 148 - 156 depending on the recipe. Remember when you add water to cold grain, the water temp is going to drop, so you need to use hotter water than you target mash temp to balance it out.

#2 Mix your grain and heated strike water together in your mash tun and mix very thoroughly. Take temp and add cold or hot water to get your desired mash temp and then let sit the recommended amount of time in the recipe.

#3 While your grains are mashing heat the amount of sparge water you are going to need.

#4 Vourlauf the wort that is now in your mashtun. Vourlauf basiclly means to drain some wort into a sanatized pitcher and add it back on top of the mash tun. Do this until the wort stops having a lot of grains run out and it becomes a tad clearer.

#5 drain as much of the wort from the mashtun into a boil kettle and then close the drain.

#6 add 1/2 your sparge water to the mash tun and stir it up real good and wait a 2 or 3 minutes.

#7 Perform another vourlauf and then empty then drain the wort into the boil kettle.

#8 Repeat steps 6 and 7 with the other 1/2 of your sparge water.

#9 gently stir the contents in the boil kettle and take a reading with your hydrometer and record what temp it was at. This reading will be your pre-boil OG.

#10 Bring the wort up to a boil

#11 Add your hops and other things at the recommended times as outlined in the recipe.

#12 Chill the wort down to your yeast pitching temps (usually between 60 and 70 F)

#13 Take a hydrometer reading of your wort and record it. This will be your OG

#14 transfer to primary fermenter / aerate and add your yeast.

#15 Follow fermentation as outline in the recipe or just leave it in the primary for about 25 -30 days.

#16 Before you bottle or keg take another hydrometer reading and record it. This will be your FG. You might want a reading a day for 3 days to make sure the beer is done fermenting. The same reading for 3 days in a row will tell you its done fermenting.


Those are the very basic steps to get you started. you are going to have to figure out how much strike / sparge water you need to get the batch size you are looking for.There are variations on how to do somethings, and everyone does somethings a little different. Once you get going you will find your own style and learn from your mistakes.


PS -- these steps are for Batch sparging.

 

[psotos]

Wow thanks guys! This is incredibly helpful. I will let you know how our first All Grain turns out.

 

[andy6026]

surrfisher, I notice that you sparge in two steps. Is that common? I've been only doing a one step sparge (cycling my sparge water through all at once, rather than dividing it in half). How does your method affect the final product compared to doing it in one step? Anyone?

Thanks!

 

[jfk69]

I use a two step sparge, splitting my mash water in half for each. I run the first sparge through at about 180 degrees, the second closer to 168-170. I think (can't prove) that it does a better job rinsing the grains this way, and it only takes a few minutes longer so I roll with it.

 

[rattyboh]

Surffisher already gave pretty good detailed instructions. All I would add is that if you have been doing partial boils you may need a larger kettle, you will probably need a 8-10 gallon kettle (bigger is better). Also will need to make sure you cool your sample for the pre-boil gravity or the reading will be off. The instructions are best for if you are using a mash tun but if you were looking to do biab, there are some pretty good instructions here:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/easy-stovetop-all-grain-brewing-pics-90132/

You will also want to make sure to control the fermentation temperature in some way. It was also my understanding that you don't need to sanitize anything pre-boil (kettle, mash tun, vorlauf pitcher) and that just cleaning will be enough since the boil will sanitize later. Just like extract, anything touching the wort after the boil will need to be sanitized.

 

[surffisher2a]

surrfisher, I notice that you sparge in two steps. Is that common? I've been only doing a one step sparge (cycling my sparge water through all at once, rather than dividing it in half). How does your method affect the final product compared to doing it in one step? Anyone?

Thanks!

That is just the way I learned and never really had a reason to change. I think you get a better rinse of the grain with 2 doses of water instead of 1 big dose. I am sure either way will make great beer. There is probably a thread somewhere on these boards arguing which way is better. Maybe i'll look it up and change the way I do my next brew.

Like I said everyone has there way of doing things and slight variations on methods.

 

[SudsyPaul]

You'll get slightly better extraction/efficiency with more sparges, but you run the risk of getting some tannins/astringency if you rinse too much.

I'm super lazy, so I only do 1 batch sparge. I can usually hit mid 80s for mash efficiency, so I'm pleased with that. And there's no risk of extracting unwanted flavors. That being said, I've done 2 sparges in the past, and never had unwanted flavors

 

[Takuie]

That is just the way I learned and never really had a reason to change. I think you get a better rinse of the grain with 2 doses of water instead of 1 big dose. I am sure either way will make great beer. There is probably a thread somewhere on these boards arguing which way is better. Maybe i'll look it up and change the way I do my next brew.

Like I said everyone has there way of doing things and slight variations on methods.

I am by far no expert with only a handful of all grain boils under my belt, but using the same exact recipe 3 times in a row and nailing my temperatures perfectly I found that I get a much higher efficiency when I double my batch sarge. My first shot at fly sparging got me about 72%. Wasn't impressed with that since I added 1 more pound of base grain than need. Second time around, I did a single rinse batch sparge, using same exact recipe including the extra pound of base grain. That got me 76%. Not bad I thought. Third time around, again duplicating the exact 2 previous recipes. I double rinsed sparged. Astounding results! I hit 90% efficiency!!!!! Well actualy it was 89.744%

All 3 batches were mashed for 90 minutes and the sparge process were right at 45 minutes, yes very very slow drainage.