First All Grain Brew - Maris Otter/Cascade Smash

[porter1974]

We brewed our first batch of all grain beer yesterday. We were close on all of our temperature and volume targets. I have been combing the forums for months. Thank you to everybody for sharing. My goal when I first started was a Pale Ale. I think I ended up with a Pale Ale/Extra Special Bitter Mutt. I forgot to take a gravity reading!

Recipe:
OG 1.056
FG 1.010
ABV 6.13 %
IBU 42.76
SRM 6.31
12 Lbs Marris Otter
1.5 oz cascade hops at 60 minutes
1.5 oz cascade hops at 5 minutes
1.0 oz cascade hops at flameout
Safale English Ale Yeast US-05

Process:

Batch sparge
1.5 quarts per pound of grain
Heat 18 quarts/4.5 gallons water to 164 and dump it in (target mash temp is 151)
Stir (like you mean it) cover, wait 60 minutes
Recirculate until clear
Drain 1 quart per minute
Put 18 quarts/4.5 gallons of 180 degree water into mash tun (target is 170)
Final pre-boil amount of approximately 7 gallons
Stir (like you mean it) cover, wait 10 minutes
Recirculate until clear
Drain 1 quart per minute

How much total water

5.5 gallons = 22 quarts
Grain loses = 6 quarts (12 pounds x .5 quart/per lb)
Dead space = 2 quarts
Boil off = 6 quarts (1.5 gallons per hour)
Trub loss = .5 quarts
Shrinkage = .8 quarts
37.3 quarts or 9.325 gallons ( I rounded to 9)

 

[cubalz]

Sounds like a tasty recipe. The only thing I would recommend is to dry hop with 1 oz of Cascade for the last 3 days prior to bottling/kegging.

 

[porter1974]

Sounds like a tasty recipe. The only thing I would recommend is to dry hop with 1 oz of Cascade for the last 3 days prior to bottling/kegging.

I might try that. A friend has an endless supply of hops in his freezer. Do you just throw them in the secondary? Do you put them in a muslin bag or anything?

 

[chickypad]

Bummer about the gravity reading, that's much more important with all grain so you can calculate your efficiency and make sure you had good conversion. Next time. I agree with adding a dry hop - I just throw them in loose to the primary, some like to bag. No need for secondary. The only other thing I notice is you're batch sparging so you don't have to monitor the flow rate, just let it rip and drain as fast as it will go. You don't need to wait after stirring either.

 

[porter1974]

Thanks for the help. I wondered about the flow rate. There is a ton of info out there on sparging. I was originally going to fly sparge but got overwhelmed and thought batch seemed easier.

 

[cubalz]

Don't use a secondary! I have not used a secondary in over 24 years for any reason. Just pitch the pellets loose right into the primary 3 days before you are planning on kegging or bottling. I always filter my hops out as I am transferring to the keg. The dry hopping will make all of the difference in how good your PA will smell and taste.

 

[porter1974]

12 hours in.

 

[chickypad]

Beautiful! You're keeping those guys out of the light though, aren't you? Next step is fermentation temp control.

 

[porter1974]

Beautiful! You're keeping those guys out of the light though, aren't you? Next step is fermentation temp control.

It’s in a dark basement. Unfortunately this time of year it’s on the warm side in our house. That’s why I went with the safale yeast.

 

[mongoose33]

I do a SMASH with Maris Otter and Styrian Celeia hops. Yours should be terrific.

What temp are you fermenting at? This will work great if you can keep the temp in the mid-60s. And it's not ambient temp, it's the temp of the fermenter. Yeast are exothermic, meaning they produce heat, and that can raise the temp of the fermenter 5-10 degrees, taking a presumed good fermentation temp of 65 into the 70s. You don't want that.

 

[RM-MN]

When you start draining your mash tun, recirculate until you have few grain particles. It doesn't have to be clear. There is no relationship between clear wort and clear beer and a tiny amount of grain particles won't hurt the beer either.

Unless you really want to extend your brewing day don't bother with the fly sparge (IMHO) as there is little to be gained by fly sparging and plenty of chances to mess it up in ways that negate any possible gain.

 

[waldoar15]

Should be good. I like simple recipes.

 

[porter1974]

When you start draining your mash tun, recirculate until you have few grain particles. It doesn't have to be clear. There is no relationship between clear wort and clear beer and a tiny amount of grain particles won't hurt the beer either.

Unless you really want to extend your brewing day don't bother with the fly sparge (IMHO) as there is little to be gained by fly sparging and plenty of chances to mess it up in ways that negate any

I do a SMASH with Maris Otter and Styrian Celeia hops. Yours should be terrific.

What temp are you fermenting at? This will work great if you can keep the temp in the mid-60s. And it's not ambient temp, it's the temp of the fermenter. Yeast are exothermic, meaning they produce heat, and that can raise the temp of the fermenter 5-10 degrees, taking a presumed good fermentation temp of 65 into the 70s. You don't want that.

It's definetly been a bit warmer than I would like. The ambient temperature has been as high as 72. I will figure out something for my next brew.

 

[MaxStout]

Make a swamp cooler for the next one. Just a big tub with cool water. Set the fermenter in it and cover the fermenter with an old towel or t-shirt with the bottom in the water. The cloth will wick moisture upward and evaporation will cool the fermenter. If you need it colder, fill some plastic soda bottles with water and freeze. Toss a few in the tub as needed.

 

[mongoose33]

Make a swamp cooler for the next one. Just a big tub with cool water. Set the fermenter in it and cover the fermenter with an old towel or t-shirt with the bottom in the water. The cloth will wick moisture upward and evaporation will cool the fermenter. If you need it colder, fill some plastic soda bottles with water and freeze. Toss a few in the tub as needed.

Here's an example; I used to sometimes put ice cubes between the old t-shirt and the fermenter, such that as the ice cubes melted they'd make the shirt wet.

 

[RM-MN]

Here's an example; I used to sometimes put ice cubes between the old t-shirt and the fermenter, such that as the ice cubes melted they'd make the shirt wet.

View attachment 558120

If you use a bigger tub such that the fermenter is in much deeper water the water will help moderate the temperature rise. The activity of the yeast will cause the beer to get warmer but the larger quantity of the water will absorb a lot of it and keep the yeast from running away with the temperature.

 

[MaxStout]

Like this one, found in stores.

 

[mongoose33]

The reason I didn't use a deeper pan/tub is that I have spigots on the bottom of all my fermenters. I wasn't comfortable submerging the spigot because I didn't know what would be growing in there, and the ability to clean it wasn't certain.

If you have no spigot, it's not an issue, and deeper allows for more thermal mass to moderate temperature swings.

 

[porter1974]

Here's an example; I used to sometimes put ice cubes between the old t-shirt and the fermenter, such that as the ice cubes melted they'd make the shirt wet.

View attachment 558120

Thank you for the help. I will do something like this next time. How many degrees do you think it reduces the wort?

 

[mongoose33]

Thank you for the help. I will do something like this next time. How many degrees do you think it reduces the wort?

I found it would reduce the temp about 5 degrees. How much depends on how warm you are keeping the fermenter; the warmer, the more the yeast is active, and the more heat they'll produce.

I had this on my basement floor, where the temp was about 65 degrees. I found that even at high krausen and lots of activity, the swamp cooler would hold that temp for me. That was a combination of the evaporation and the fermenter sitting in water.

 

[porter1974]

I racked the beer into a secondary after 8 days. The plan is to condition for 2 weeks, bottle for 3 weeks and then enjoy (hopefully!). The carboy was pretty full when we started. I did have some wort that I didn't use too. Next time I might ferment a greater about of wort in a 6/6.5 gallon carboy. I racked because I plan to bottle and there was a lot of sediment in the carboy.

 

[chickypad]

The only thing is you've got a lot of headspace in that secondary vessel. With no fermentation going on you're exposing the beer to oxygen and risking infection. In the future I would skip the secondary. That sediment will all compact in the primary and you can rack off of that directly to the bottling bucket on bottling day. If you insist on a secondary then I agree using a smaller vessel than your primary so you can fill it to the top would be best.

 

[porter1974]

The only thing is you've got a lot of headspace in that secondary vessel. With no fermentation going on you're exposing the beer to oxygen and risking infection. In the future I would skip the secondary. That sediment will all compact in the primary and you can rack off of that directly to the bottling bucket on bottling day. If you insist on a secondary then I agree using a smaller vessel than your primary so you can fill it to the top would be best.

I am concerned about the headspace too. I disenfrcted really well. Had some sanitizing foam in the secondary when I filled it.

 

[porter1974]

Maybe I will give up on the secondary. I have been making cider for years and it’s just what I am used to. Do you just let it sit in the primary fermenter for about 3 weeks then bottle?

 

[vgmohag]

I always leave mine in the primary for at least 3 weeks, sometimes 4-5 weeks depending on what else is going on. I should add I don't brew a lot of IPA's.

 

[chickypad]

Maybe I will give up on the secondary. I have been making cider for years and it’s just what I am used to. Do you just let it sit in the primary fermenter for about 3 weeks then bottle?

I mostly keg, but to answer the question it depends on the beer. IPA's I tend to package by 2 wks or less, for other beers I might let them sit 3-4 wks or when I get around to it.

 

[porter1974]

Three weeks out and I bottled today. I should have listened to the dry hop suggestions. There is not much of a hop flavor at all that I can detect. It’s kind of sweet and nutty. It’s decent but I hope it improves.

 

[Lefou]

Three weeks out and I bottled today. I should have listened to the dry hop suggestions. There is not much of a hop flavor at all that I can detect. It’s kind of sweet and nutty. It’s decent but I hope it improves.

Did you take a gravity check before bottling?
It's a good idea to do so before capping your first beer.

As it carbs up, hopefully you will get more of a bitter hop perception when it's time for that first taste. Maris Otter has less diastatic potential than some other base malts so the "sweet" perception is normal, but you should definitely taste or smell the Cascade hops - one, because it's a pale ale, and two, because Cascade has the potential for more alpha acid than a Saaz hop might.

 

[porter1974]

Thanks for the input. The final gravity was 1.010.

 

[mattdee1]

A big part of hops perception is the aroma, so if you're tasting a warm and flat sample from the bottling bucket then you're not going to get the true experience. The carbonation/head on the final beer plays a role in expressing those aromas for you to enjoy, so you don't really know where you stand on the hops until you pour a properly "ready to drink" sample.

 

[porter1974]

Still about 4 days from 3 weeks in the bottle. It’s very drinkable for an almost 7% beer. Kind of one dimensional though. Needed more hops and would probably benefit from a more diverse grain bill. It’s good though.