First All-Grain Brew - Saturday

[juke]

I am stoked to be doing my first brew this coming Saturday!! I have been taking my time in researching and seeing what others are doing andhope to find a good result the first time out. Regardless I plan on doing this often so the initial plunge is a little mystifying!!

I am brewing a recipe from my LHBS that is a take off an American Pale Ale.

60min single infusion mash, batch sparge, 60min boil, 8 days Primary, 6 days secondary -> bottles

Here is the ingredient list:

Malt:
10# American 2-Row Malt
.5# Crystal 120L
.5# Special B
1 # Dark Candi Syrup D2

Hops:
.5oz Cascade -First Wort Hopping
2oz Liberty - Bittering (60 mins)
1oz Mt. Hood - Aroma (Last 15mins)
.5oz Cascade - Dry Hopping (Secondary - 6days)

I have a couple questions about this recipe:

First - When should I add the Dark Candi? Should I add this at the last 15 of the boil? During high krausen? or during racking? I think that I may need to go get some corn sugar for the priming and add the dark candi to the boil?... I don't think this should be used for priming...

Second question is how would you use the hops? I have listed above what I was planning on doing, but would anyone suggest a better plan to add these?

Thanks for any assistance provided! I am jazzed to get started!

 

[Hammy71]

Add the Candi sugar with 15 min. left in the boil. The hops are totally up to you and really depends on the AA% of the hops on what they'll offer to the brew. If the LHBS' recipe called for that schedule I wouldn't mess with it. Since you'll be bottling you will need to buy some corn sugar to prime your bottles. Check out Revvy's link if you haven't already.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f35/bottling-tips-homebrewer-94812/

Oh...and welcome to HBT!!!

 

[jaja]

Have a look online and print out a brew day sheet. Write down all target temps and volumes on and and keep track of what you do. Stops mistakes with hop amounts and times too etc etc. Records are invaluable to see where you went right and wrong when things don't turn out.

Its just like riding a bike, the first time is scary but when you get going you don't look back.

Good luck, have fun and welcome to the world of all grain and the rewards and satisfaction it gives :-D

 

[Docjowles]

Have a look online and print out a brew day sheet. Write down all target temps and volumes on and and keep track of what you do. Stops mistakes with hop amounts and times too etc etc. Records are invaluable to see where you went right and wrong when things don't turn out.

This is awesome advice. It doesn't matter AS much when you're doing extract cause there are fewer variables. But for all-grain, write down everything you can think of to measure/taste/time. Strike water temp, mash temp at the beginning and end, volume of first runnings, sparge water temp, pre-boil gravity, pre-boil volume, post boil volume... the list goes on lol.

It sounds like a lot of work but when you have a problem and go looking for help, that is the kind of info people need to figure out what went wrong It also helps when you crack your first beer and think "I love/hate X". Next time you want to shoot for/avoid X in your beer you can look at your records of what you did.

 

[Homercidal]

This is awesome advice. It doesn't matter AS much when you're doing extract cause there are fewer variables. But for all-grain, write down everything you can think of to measure/taste/time. Strike water temp, mash temp at the beginning and end, volume of first runnings, sparge water temp, pre-boil gravity, pre-boil volume, post boil volume... the list goes on lol.

It sounds like a lot of work but when you have a problem and go looking for help, that is the kind of info people need to figure out what went wrong It also helps when you crack your first beer and think "I love/hate X". Next time you want to shoot for/avoid X in your beer you can look at your records of what you did.

+1.

And it's easier than you think...

 

[skyebrewing]

I just did my first ag last weekend and had a blast even with a stuck mash, just like you will. Take notes and make changes for batch 2 (and 3, 4, 5.....) My only concern is with d2 and special b, you will be a long way from an american pale ale..

 

[juke]

great advice!

I will definitely use the brew day sheets to track the entire process. I will post the results after brew day.

Also, the American Pale Ale was a loose categorization. I am still new to the differences of brew styles. Any thoughts on what style this recipe resembles more?

 

[skyebrewing]

Malts look like a dubbel but very american hop schedule. Guess it would come down to yeast. Also, you could skip secondary and let it sit in primary for at least 3 weeks. Looks interesting. Cant wait to hear what you end up with and if you like it

 

[juke]

I am using White labs California Ale WLP001 for yeast. starting a culture tonight for Saturday pitch

 

[juke]

The brew day went well. I had a problem with my wort chiller spraying water on the kettle lid right when it started. I don't think any water hit the wort, but if it did the water was still at boil temp.

This is a lot darker than I expected. A good krausen is going in the fermenter now.

 

[Golddiggie]

The brew day went well. I had a problem with my wort chiller spraying water on the kettle lid right when it started. I don't think any water hit the wort, but if it did the water was still at boil temp.

This is a lot darker than I expected. A good krausen is going in the fermenter now.

Wort is typically much darker than the final brew will be.

For the IC, I would just make sure everything is nice and tight (for the fittings/clamps) before you brew again. I tested my home-made IC before using it in a brew to make sure I wouldn't leak tap water into the wort (I use filtered water to brew with)...

I would also not take the time tables, for fermenting, as written in stone from the LHBS. You can also not bother with using a secondary, unless you plan on harvesting the yeast and don't want to deal with more trub from the additional hops you add. I would also plan on at least 2 weeks in primary/fermenting (if not 3-4) to let the yeast clean up after itself. This appears to be the way a lot of people here are brewing these days. Long primaries, no secondaries, and getting solid (and really good) results. I've adjusted my own brewing method to match... The only time I would use a secondary, now, is for adding flavor elements that benefit from getting off of the yeast cake. Even then, it's after it's been in primary for 4+ weeks.

 

[juke]

update: the fermentation for the first 3 days was pretty vigorous now the last 3 days it has slowed down to minimum bubbles, the temp was running around 72-74 degrees. The temp here has dropped now and the carboy is 64-66 deg. I am assuming this is the beginning of the attenuation phase?? I will take a gravity reading tomorrow.

I am going to leave this in the primary for 3 weeks and then move it to the secondary tank for dry hopping for 3-5 days.

 

[juke]

i have had my beer bottled for 11 days and I chilled one bottle yesterday and tried it tonight.

Really good, not enough carbo yet, the rest of the bottles are still conditioning and will be for another week +. I am very surprised. I don't know why I was expecting the worst...

I am hooked! I think that I will keep and perfect this recipe!

Things that I believe that I can do better:

Setup a better manifold for lautering
Greater yeast pitch from starter
Temp control during fermentation
More hops for dry hopping in secondary
Better temp control during bottle conditioning

RJDK

 

[Hammy71]

congrats