First All Grain Day - Have Some Questions

[TonyR]

Completed my first all-grain yesterday. Had a few issues, and some questions on the results. Used a 10-Gallon Home Depot cooler with a BargainFittings SS braid.

Here's the ingredients:

Amount Item
4.00 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM)
0.50 lb Barley, Flaked (1.7 SRM)
0.50 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L (40.0 SRM)
0.50 lb Chocolate Malt (350.0 SRM)
0.50 lb Roasted Barley (300.0 SRM)
0.38 lb Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM)
0.35 oz Cluster [7.00%] (60 min)
0.50 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00%] (10 min)
0.13 oz Williamette [5.50%] (60 min)
1.00 ts Mint Extract (0 min)
4.00 oz Cocoa Powder (5 min)

I used 1.9 gallons of strike water, but had to add about 1 quart of hot water to bring it up to 152. First issue here was that the mash was very thin. Tons of water compared to many of the pics/videos I've seen online. Should I have used less strike water or is this right?

Let it sit for 100 minutes, used 1/2 gallon of boiling water to bring temp up to 170, left it for 10 minutes. Started to recirculate the wort, it was very clear with no grain after 5-10 minutes. I've seen some posts that this should take around 30 minutes to complete?

So after recirculating for a bit, I started draining the mash water and then the sparge water through the grain. Again quite a bit of water in the mash. After I got about 4.5 gallons of water collected, I took a gravity reading, was at 1.010, so I stopped collecting. I'm guessing I should have stopped when I was at 3.5 gallons? At this point, the sample had a very grainy taste to it. Is using too much water the cause?

Once the boil was complete, and the wort cooled, took a gravity reading. It was 1.050 for 3 gallons. My goal was 1.060 for 2.5 gallons. After playing around in BeerSmith, for 3 gallons @ 70% efficiency, I was about right on the estimated OG(1.051). Does that sound right?

The final sample left a slimy taste in my mouth, and a bit bitter from the cocoa powder. I know that the cocoa powder won't be as bitter after a few weeks in the primary, but is the slimyness a cause for concern? I've never experienced that with any extract brews.

I pitched at 70F a 1 qt starter of Safale S-04 that I made about 2 weeks ago and kept refrigerated.

Thanks for any input or suggestions!!

 

[devilishprune]

First of all, you had about 6.375 lbs of grain with about 8 qts of water which is less than 1.33qts/lb; perfectly acceptable. You can mash as thin as you want, but I would consider that to be pretty thick. I usually have a ratio of at least 2 qts/lb.

You don't have to mash for 100 minutes necessarily. I would go for 1 hour and check for conversion if you're really paranoid, but you should be fine (especially at 152). If your wort clears after 5-10 minutes of recirculating then just go ahead, no need to follow others' guidelines.

The amount of water that you collect (I assume that you're fly sparging since you stopped at a certain gravity) is dependent upon the initial volume of wort that you want in the boil, not some number that you may have read somewhere else. Runoff until you get your preboil volume and the gravity of 1.010 is a number that is when to stop (pretty much) absolutely, not a number that it is necessary that you reach. In your case, 4 gallons sounds about right because you appear to have boiled off 1.5 gallons during your boil. This would have left you with the 2.5 gallons that you needed.

I don't know about the slimy taste, I've never used chocolate. I do know that herbs/spices make the wort very bitter, and also that my worts are always way more bitter than the final beers that I get.

You don't need a starter with dry yeast.

 

[TonyR]

You don't have to mash for 100 minutes necessarily. I would go for 1 hour and check for conversion if you're really paranoid, but you should be fine (especially at 152). If your wort clears after 5-10 minutes of recirculating then just go ahead, no need to follow others' guidelines.

This is using the iodine drops in wort?

The amount of water that you collect (I assume that you're fly sparging since you stopped at a certain gravity) is dependent upon the initial volume of wort that you want in the boil, not some number that you may have read somewhere else. Runoff until you get your preboil volume and the gravity of 1.010 is a number that is when to stop (pretty much) absolutely, not a number that it is necessary that you reach. In your case, 4 gallons sounds about right because you appear to have boiled off 1.5 gallons during your boil. This would have left you with the 2.5 gallons that you needed.

I was following the instructions off the Northern Brewer AG DVD. Just continuously draining from the mash and pouring back in every 15-20seconds. Is this considered fly sparging?

I don't know about the slimy taste, I've never used chocolate. I do know that herbs/spices make the wort very bitter, and also that my worts are always way more bitter than the final beers that I get.

I've used the cocoa powder in a similar BIAB recently, so the bitter taste was expected. The sliminess not so much, I'm now thinking it may be the oils from the mint extract. I added it at end instead of with 2min left as I did previously.

 

[Warped04]

This is using the iodine drops in wort?

Take some wort out then use the iodine.