First All-Grain Brew

[Dilligaf76]

I made a checklist to help with my first all-grain batch. I'm a little nervous and don't want to screw anything up so hopefully the checklist will cut down on the foul-ups. Does it look like I've got the process down on the list? I'm planning on brewing tomorrow morning.
Thanks in advance!

Brew Checklist:

Pre-heat mash tun with sparge water @ 170*. (5.25 gallons 11.25”)

Once mash tun has pre-heated, pour sparge water back into large brew kettle. Heat strike water (3.75 gallons 8”)to 170*+

Fill mash tun with strike water and wait for temp to reach 168*.

Dough-in and stir grains very well.
Once the mash temp reaches 154* place probe in mash tun and close lid.

Cover mash tun lid with sleeping bag or blankets.

Mash for 60 minutes. Note temp at the end of the mash.

Begin vorlauf by cracking mash tun valve and catching wort in a clear pitcher. Continue vorluaf until wort is clear and add the collected wort to the mash slowly.

Drain 1rst runnings into the small kettle slowly. It should take up to 20 minutes to drain the mash.

While first runnings are draining, begin heating 5.75 gallons to 170* for sparge.

Once the mash has been drained, close valve and pour in 5.75 gallons @ 170*. Stir mash very well again and allow grain bed to settle for 10-15 minutes.

Pour first runnings into the large kettle and place on burner.

After 10-15 minutes, begin 2nd vorlauf and light the burner under 1rst runnings. Once the runnings are clear, pour collected wort back onto the grain bed slowly.

Drain 2nd runnings into the large kettle. Add hops. The wort height should be at 13.85”. This is 6.5 gallons.

Collect a sample of wort for a gravity check. @ 65% efficiency, it should read 1.048.

Bring wort to a boil and pay careful attention for hot break. Have a spray bottle and/or some cold water on hand to prevent boil over.

At 50 minutes from the end of the boil, add 1oz. hops.

At 15 minutes from the end of boil, place wort chiller into boil.

At 5 minutes from the end of the boil, add 1oz. hops, 1oz orange zest, and 1oz crushed coriander seeds.

At flame-out, add 1oz. hops.

Connect water to the chiller. Leave the lid off until wort is below 170*.

Get the pond pump ready by placing it and ice into the cooler.

Once wort has been cooled sufficiently, connect wort chiller to pond pump and place the outlet of chiller hose into ice bath.

Once wort is to 70*-60*, remove chiller and start a whirlpool with a sanitized spoon.

Wait 10-20 minutes for trub to form a cone.

Rack cooled wort into a sanitized fermentation bucket.

Pitch yeast, add airlock and put the bucket into bath tub filled with 60* water.

 

[ProfessorBrew]

What are the inch marks by your water volumes? Is that how you measure volume in your pot?

 

[Netflyer]

Wow, that is a ton of stuff, good thing you made a list ;p On the 'add hops' before you boil, is that in your recipe? Hop the preboil wort? It can be, just wondering What kind of beer are you makin' with orange zest and coriander?
Don't panic, it is easier than you think and pretty hard to screw it up too bad. I didn't mean to but I had to laugh at the spray bottle and or some cold water to prevent boil over ... again depending upon what kind of beer you are making and how aggressive your boil is this can be prevented by simply lowering the flame... I wouldn't try to spray or throw water on the boils I get... as soon as it starts looking like Old Faithful in the center of the kettle, kill the heat a bit... After the initial break you can turn the heat back up and depending upon how much hops and when you add the first amount the kettle will probably be down from evaporation so the hot break won't matter as much.
Try to watch the cold break when you chill it, it's a really cool thing to see! Don't worry so much about the whirlpool and a bit of trub in the fermenters... some of my best brewing friends just toss the whole shebang in the fermenter, hops and all... it all gets left behind when you rack to 2ndary, keg, or bottle anyhow... I personally swirl but not to excess, and then I just use an auto siphon slightly above a bottom corner of the kettle...
Good luck, you will do fine!

 

[Dilligaf76]

Netflyer. My kettle is a a 7.5 gallon pot so a boil-over is pretty easy. The recipe is: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f66/cascades-orange-pale-ale-84558/.
Everything went very well considering that this was my first all-grain batch. I hit all my gravity readings exactly. I set the recipe up for 65% efficiency and nailed that. Once I was done and started cleaning the mash tun I noticed quite a few grains that had not been cracked. Im sure that had something to do with the low effciency. I also missed my sparge temp by 6* degrees and hope that doesnt matter too much. Im very pleased with how things went. I knew it would be easier than I thought but I always over-think stuff.
I did catch something that I had wrong on my checklist. Instead of trying to nail my sparge volume I just subtracted my first runnings from my pre-boil volume and sparged accordingly. It came out perfect. once again: overthinking.

BTW the cold break was cool!

 

[Dilligaf76]

Grains after mash.

 

[Netflyer]

Congrats, sounds like you made beer!
Did you grind your own grain?
For a very low amount of money, considering all we spend on equipment and materials a program like Beersmith or Promash take all the fuss out of calculating strike temps and such.. I can spend more time on recipes and less worried about my calculations...

 

[Dilligaf76]

I had the LHBS crush the grains. They have a pretty nice machine so next time I'll see if they can adjust it to see if my efficiency goes up.
I have Beer Alchemy on my iPhone and it's pretty awesome but unfortunately it doesn't calculate mash volumes. I don't mind busting out the calculator. I pound on one all day at my job anyways. I have a programmable HP35s and now that I know my dead space, grain absorption, ect I'll have to make a program for my equipment. I'm sure one day I'll buy better software but Beer Alchemy is only $5.