First all Grain Brew

[mapex]

Hey everyone,

This will be my first All grain brew. I've been doing extract brews just to try and get the hang of things and experimenting with addition of hops and other flavoring things. However, I want to do an all-grain pepper cream ale.

I've read on this site about keeping the mash at roughly 150'-160' F...but does this take place instead of the boil, or do I do this mash then remove the grains and then do the hr boil as normal? I'm just confused as to if this changes my steps all together or if this is just a substituted step. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks guys!!!

Mike

 

[paulster2626]

You heat water for the mash and add it to your mash tun with the grains and let it sit for an hour. Then drain it out in to a pot. Then you heat water for sparging, and let that run through the grains to rinse them and drain that in to the pot. Your pot will then have 6+ gallons in it, and you'll be boiling that for an hour while you add hops and whatnot, leaving you with 5-ish gallons when you're done.

 

[rjsnau]

You will do the mash for 60 minutes and then do the boil just like an extract batch.

Try checking out How to Brew - By John Palmer or even picking up a copy of the book as it is more recent. You will want to be 100% confident in how to do the process because things always seem to come up on brew day so you want to know every step so you are prepared. Also, brewing software like brewsmith is very helpful because you enter your recipe and then can print out a step by step instructions so you don't forget something.

 

[modernlifeisANDY]

STEPS:

1. Heat your mash water to desired strike temperature - this depends on the style of beer.
2. Pour strike water into mash tun.
3. Add grain and stir; check temperature. Add boiling water to bring temperature up or stir rapidly to bring temperature down. Once you hit your temp, hold mash temp for an hour.
4. While mashing, heat your sparge water. I use two equal volumes, the first at 180 degrees and the second at 168.
5. Vorlauf your wort (drain a bit and pour it back into your MT to help clear the first runnings)
6. Drain your mash tun into your kettle.
7. Pour your sparge water in and let it sit for a few minutes.
8. Drain again.
9. Repeat.
10. Bring this final volume of collected wort to a boil and add your hops.

 

[gregpio85]

Watch out for water loss. I did my first AG this weekend and I ended up with not enough water because the grains had soaked up more water than I expected.

Try to keep small bag of DME as well in case you miss your OG. It can help salvage your recipe if your efficiency is too low.

 

[Skyforger]

Unless you plan to do brew in a bag, in which case you don't rinse the grains and it all happens in the kettle. Unless you have a Mash/lauter tun already, this is the easiest way to do it. Basically you put the grain into a mesh bag, then dunk it in the pot of preheated water (keeping in mind the grain will cool the water down somewhat), and keep the whole thing at 150-155* for an hour. Then pull up the grain bag, let it drain out well, and proceed with the boil. It's a bit less efficient, but it works and doesn't take a dedicated MLT.

 

[mapex]

Awesome, I was expecting such a quick response but am not complaining!!! :rockin:

I'm planning on doing a Jalapeno Cream Ale recipe that I saw in another topic. For my first AG I am kinda planning on keeping it simple, but I don't have a grain bag so I'm just going to do the manual straining of the Mash.

The recipe is calling for a 60 min Mash...is that normal? Then as I think I am understanding from all of you is that once I get my Mash strained I continue with a boil as normal...?

 

[paulster2626]

Just read How to Brew - By John Palmer, specifically the chapter on your first all-grain batch.

It's got everything you need to know, and then some.

 

[RM-MN]

I've read on this site about keeping the mash at roughly 150'-160' F.

You'll soon learn that you don't want your temperature "roughly 150 to 160" as there is a huge difference in the outcome between 150 and 160. You'll want to have it between 152 and 153 perhaps or maybe 148 to 149 depending on what your intended beer to be like. The kind of sugars produced are very different depending on the temperature and a little variation creates a very different mix. I've been mashing at 152 and would like a different outcome so I will mash my next batch at 154.