First all grain brew day

[stromberg]

This is more of a bragging post but also hopefully helpful to calm some nerves for those looking into making the crossover. I don't know if I did all steps correctly, or who knows if this turns out well, but bottom line after researching for the better part of the last month or two I went for the brew day today.

Made my mash tun out of a cooler from Walmart I believe and built my manifold.

Here was my recipe

11lb 4oz briess pale ale malt
14.1 oz 40l crystal malt

Mashed in at 149 degrees for 75 minutes
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Batched sparge
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Someone was checking out the good smell
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Started boil with 6.5 gallons of wort

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1.06 oz Williamette 60 minute
.53 oz Williamette 10 minutes
.53 oz Williamette flame out

Immersion chiller to get it around 70 degrees, transferred over to primary and pitched white lab London ale yeast.

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Target OG: 1.053
Actual OG: 1.053

Guess we'll find out in a few weeks..

Bottom line is before today I was freaked out to start all grain, but after this brew day I'm excited to see what's next and what else I can tweak to make things my own. My advice is start simple, minimizing variables and go from there.

 

[turkeygecko]

Congrats on your first AG batch! Seems like things went quite smoothly. What's the deal with the piece of foil in the MT? Once again, congrats!

 

[BierGut]

Congrats on your first AG batch! Seems like things went quite smoothly. What's the deal with the piece of foil in the MT? Once again, congrats!

See the holes poked in it. I think it was a fly sparge technique (even though he did say batch sparge)

 

[stromberg]

I did batch sparge, however I used the tin foil when adding the additional water. In retrospect I probably should've just poured the water in and stirred around, let settle for 10-15, then drain. Is that correct?

Thanks though

 

[day_trippr]

I did batch sparge, however I used the tin foil when adding the additional water. In retrospect I probably should've just poured the water in and stirred around, let settle for 10-15, then drain. Is that correct?

Yes. Think of batch sparging as dilute and drain, while fly sparging is more displace and drain. For the former you want to stir the heck out of the mash after adding your sparge water; for the latter, definitely don't want to stir through the whole fly sparge...

Cheers!

 

[Sammy86]

Congrats on the first all grain! I found the process very rewarding and really more simple than scary.

Hope it turns out well for you and keep us updated!

 

[stromberg]

Yes. Think of batch sparging as dilute and drain, while fly sparging is more displace and drain. For the former you want to stir the heck out of the mash after adding your sparge water; for the latter, definitely don't want to stir through the whole fly sparge...

Cheers!

Thanks that makes sense..next time around I'll keep that in mind, but at least it came out somewhat as planned.

Come Wednesday I'm transferring to secondary and dry hopping for about 10 days then bottling. So far out of all my batches I feel the most confident about this one, and luckily that was on my first all grain. Only up from here

 

[rcornell]

Congrats. Everything looks like you did great!

 

[stromberg]

So I transferred from primary to secondary the other night and checked the fermenter today and saw this

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When I transferred to secondary I added dry hops

It seems like there's a layer of liquid on top of the hops. Is this normal or is there probably a problem?

 

[inhousebrew]

The only problem is that your not relaxing and drinking a beer. It's all good!

 

[stromberg]

Haha alright it's just that's the first time I've seen a separation that much in the fermenter..thanks I'll relax and grab a brew