First all grain! Lots of questions.

[hungryhippo]

OK...... After successfully brewing a number of kits, I decided to try my hand at AG brewing. I had know real idea of what to brew so I purchased a Brewferm German bock kit. 20 litre batch.

So, I crushed the grain, heated the mash water (18 litres), added the grain and waited.
I then poured the grains into the filter bucket. I got about 12 litres of actual wort. I then rinsed the grains with about another 12 litres of water until I had 24 litres of wort.

Time to boil. The boiling went according to plan. Kind of....... With about 15 minutes left I could feel something in the bottom of the wort. It turned out to be the light cover from the vent hood over the stove. It must had of fallen in when I was checking on something else. So I took it out and carried on.

I then cooled the wort and got it in a fermenter. Pitched the yeast and put the fermenter in the basement.

I have questions!

1. Is it normal to get about 50% of the total wort from the grains before filtering? I was kind of expecting more.

2. Did I use too much rinsing water?

3. Did I kill off the bacteria from the light cover during the boil?

4. The instructions said to ferment the beer at 15 degrees celcius. I checked the beer after 24 hours. There was a little activity in the air lock but no krausen or anything that indicated fermentation had begun. I couldn't even see any yeast. Is this because I used a lager yeast and fermenting at a cold temp? Does this take more time?

Thanks in advance for answering my amatuerish questions.

 

[onipar]

I've not done AG yet, but I think I can cover the last two questions.

3: Yeah, you killed the bacteria. It sounds like the cover was boiled for a while, so there's nothing to worry about on that count.

4: Lager yeast is bottom fermenting. I've also never used lager yeast, but I believe the active fermentation will be less "explosive" than an ale yeast. If I'm wrong about that (speaking to the pros) please correct me. Either way, you're still within the first 24 hours, so I wouldn't worry about lack of activity anyway. It'll get going.

 

[frazier]

1. Usually I get less - about 8 to 10 L. from the first runnings, and the rest from the sparge ("rinsing") water.

2. Sounds perfect - you ended up with about 4 liters to boil off.

3. No worries

4. Give it time.

 

[beowulf]

Welcome, hungryhippo! Glad to see a Norwegian homebrewer. I have friends in Asker, but they don't homebrew. They will be trying some, though, when they come to visit!

Anyway, I digress... As for questions 1 and 2:

1: Looks like you got about 67% wort out of your mash liquid, which is normal. I usually figure about 60% with my setup. Depending on your grain bill, 50% of TOTAL pre-boil wort from your first running might be rather high, but it might be normal. That may depend on your liquid/grain ratio. I usually mash at 1.25-1.5 quarts per pound of grain, so I usually get about 1/3 or my wort from the first running. I then do 2 batch sparges to get the last 2/3.

2: If you were able to boil the full (I assume) 60 minutes and arrive at your target volume, then your rinsing/sparge water volume is probably fine. I usually calculate 1-1.75gal for boiloff, depending on which kettle I'm using.

Best of luck, and welcome to AG brewing!

 

[ajf]

1. That depends on how thick your mash was. I do a thick mash, and if I batch sparged, I would get < 20% of the wort volume before adding the sparge water. You are obviously mashing thinner than I do, but 50% of the pre-boil volume indicates that your mash thickness is acceptable. (If you are making a lager, you wouldn't want to mash as thick as I do.)
2. If you wanted 24 L wort pre-boil, then you used exactly the right amount of sparge (rinsing) water.
3. Yes
4. Yes. Lagers take longer than ales in all stages. Even with an ale, I wouldn't be worried if there was no krausen after 24 hours.
No problem with amateurish questions, but how did you know how to spell amateurish

-a.

 

[hungryhippo]

Thanks everyone for the quick responses! Seems I don't have too much to worry about.

Welcome, hungryhippo! Glad to see a Norwegian homebrewer.

I'm not Norwegian . I'm from New Zealand. Just living here.

 

[hungryhippo]

No problem with amateurish questions, but how did you know how to spell amateurish

-a.

Thanks for pointing that out . Now I know.

 

[Stout-n-Braggot]

The light cover in the boiling wort might have introduced some oils if you do a lot of frying on your stovetop, so unless it was recently cleaned it might hurt head retention on the beer, but besides that you should be fine. no need to worry.
good luck with the brew