First all grain operation

[RishoBrew]

Can someone please help with deciphering the details of this recipe?

http://byo.com/hops/item/2123-california-common-style-profile

First here is my set up.

Large camping size rectangular cooler turned mash tun - no sparge system yet.

Seven gallon boil pot and all the other necessities from extra/partial brewing.

I have about 13 lb of grain as I've added torrified wheat for better head quality, 13 x 1.5 gal of water is already 4.75 gallon before sparging. We need preboil volume of 5.9 which I think I can manage in a 7 gal pot, which will leave 1.6 gallon for sparging. This will leave me with 6.35 gallon of preboil volume - cutting it real close. Can I 'safely' do it?

Recipe states: "Hold the mash at 150 °F (66 °C) until enzymatic conversion is complete." How long is that? I was going to assume 60 minutes.

Further it states: " Infuse the mash with near boiling water while stirring or with a recirculating mash system raise the temperature to mash out at 168 °F (76 °C)." Given the setup, I was going to do a batch sparging. Any thoughts on that?

What should I do as far as keeping themp at 62F? Basement is cooler but I don't think that cold. Thanks!

 

[chickypad]

I'm not following your volume calculations (are you targeting preboil of 5.9 or 6.35?) but you've forgotten to account for your losses. I would not try to boil 6.35 gal in a 7 gal pot, 5.9 will be close as it is. You may have to decrease your batch size a bit, or take the efficiency hit and top off with water. The simple calculation would go like this:

1) 1.5 qts x 13 lb = 4.875 gal strike water
2) 4.875 less 1/2 qt per lb grain absorption less deadspace (you don't mention but say it's 1 qt) = 3 gal first runnings
3) 5.9 - 3 = 2.9 gal batch sparge

You can skip the mashout with batch sparging. A 60 min mash should be plenty. For fermentation temp control look up swamp cooler (i.e. tub of water with frozen water bottles or ice).

Edit: Rather than measuring your deadspace ahead of time you can also just measure your first runnings and sparge with whatever you need to get to your boil volume.

 

[RishoBrew]

I'm not following your volume calculations (are you targeting preboil of 5.9 or 6.35?)

Thanks for your reply. The recipe is calling for 5.9 preboil volume. My calculations suggest 6.32 as I've added a pound of t. wheat.

Even with using this tool http://brewgr.com/calculators/mash-sparge-water-insusion I get the following numbers:

Brew Session Specific

Grain Weight 13 lb
Grain Temp 70 °F
Total Boil Time 90 minutes
Wort Into Fermenter 5.5 gallons
Target Mash Temp 150 °F
Mash Thickness 1.33 qt/lb

Equipment Profile

Brew Kettle Trub Loss 0.5 gallons
Wort Shrinkage 0.2 gallons
Mash Tun Loss 0.25 gallons
Boil Loss .5 gallons/hour
Grain Absorption 0.15 gallons/lb
Sparge Grain Absorption 0.01 gallons/lb

Calculated Totals

Runoff Volume 6.95 gallons
Total Water Needed 9.03 gallons
Mash/Strike Volume 4.57 gallons
1st Runnings 2.62 gallons
Sparge Volume 4.46 gallons
Strike Temperature 161.37 °F

 

[ScrapRoomBrewer]

Thanks for your reply. The recipe is calling for 5.9 preboil volume. My calculations suggest 6.32 as I've added a pound of t. wheat.

Adding the wheat will only affect your strike and sparge water calcs. The target pre-boil volume will stay the same. More grain will slightly raise the strike water amount, and thus lower the sparge water amount.

 

[ScrapRoomBrewer]

Thanks for your reply. The recipe is calling for 5.9 preboil volume. My calculations suggest 6.32 as I've added a pound of t. wheat.

Even with using this tool http://brewgr.com/calculators/mash-sparge-water-insusion I get the following numbers:

Brew Session Specific

Grain Weight 13 lb
Grain Temp 70 °F
Total Boil Time 90 minutes
Wort Into Fermenter 5.5 gallons
Target Mash Temp 150 °F
Mash Thickness 1.33 qt/lb

Equipment Profile

Brew Kettle Trub Loss 0.5 gallons
Wort Shrinkage 0.2 gallons
Mash Tun Loss 0.25 gallons
Boil Loss .5 gallons/hour
Grain Absorption 0.15 gallons/lb
Sparge Grain Absorption 0.01 gallons/lb

Calculated Totals

Runoff Volume 6.95 gallons
Total Water Needed 9.03 gallons
Mash/Strike Volume 4.57 gallons
1st Runnings 2.62 gallons
Sparge Volume 4.46 gallons
Strike Temperature 161.37 °F

Original recipe was for 5 gallons, not the 5.5 in the fermenter. Also, original recipe called for a 60min boil, not 90 minute. That accounts for one gallon right there.

 

[chickypad]

Thanks for your reply. The recipe is calling for 5.9 preboil volume. My calculations suggest 6.32 as I've added a pound of t. wheat.

When using someone else's recipe you always have to adjust for your own system and desired batch size. Your target boil volume to hit the same batch size may be very different from someone else's. As mentioned above you don't change the boil volume target based on how much grain you use (unless you are changing the target batch size). Software or calculators are good tools but you have to enter your own systems numbers - for example do you really only boil off 0.5 gal per hr? I also think that default .15 gal per lb absorption is a little high, IME it's more like .12 to .125 (for a mash tun, not BIAB). Not sure why they include a sparge absorption loss at all (edit - now I see that the default for that is a minimal number at least. It should be negligible).

 

[RishoBrew]

Well, that was exciting and long at the same time. Here is my play-by-play:
Doughed in the grain with about 4.5 g of filtered (from fridge) water at 160F. Let it sit for 60 minutes, checked on it twice to see if temp held.

After that I recirculated the worth until it was clear - it wasn't 100% clear as this was my fist time so I wasn't sure what to expect. The first running yielded about +/- 3.5 gallons, so I sparged it about 2 gallons of water at about 190F. All this yielded about 5.5 gallon which ended up my pre-boil volume with specific gravity of 1.070.

As it started boiling I added hops as the recipe called for. I have couple of boil overs but not too bad. Final volume came out to be just under 4.5 g with a OG of 1.070, so topped it off with more filtered water to make a total volume of 6 g with gravity of 1.048. I'm happy with that.

Note about water. I did not used any additives, I have a well with a good quality water. Had it analysed earlier this year.

Since I wanted to brew today and didn't have yeast ready, I ended up buying two smack pack of Wyeast 2006 Bavarian Lager as they didn't have California Lager yeast in stock. I was going to actually do a partial mash but was given a turkey fryer just few days ago so I decided to break into all grain. The burner is 50,000 btu and heats up the worth in 15 minutes. The aluminum will have to go. I've converted our old camping cooler to mash tun few months ago.

Thanks again for all your input!

 

[Jimbodaman]

Sounds like everything went reasonably well especially for your first time Congrats! Two things about lager yeast, first 2 smack packs is the absolute minimum I would use w/out a starter everything will likely be fine but it'd be better to use a starter/more packs. 2nd when using lager yeast you need to have some way of keeping fermenting beer temps under 55 degrees F, hence the more yeast needed. Maybe you already knew that, just a friendly reminder. Cheers happy homebrewing

Edit: I'm not sure what you mean by the aluminum will have to go, it's a perfectly functional tool. Aluminum pots actually heat up faster than stainless steel when the heat source is on the outside, such as a propane burner. The only downside if you can call it that is that you can't clean it with harsh chemicals or abrasive scrubbies. But it's a brew pot it doesn't have to be cleaned vigorously. I've used my 9 gal aluminum pot for over 25 brews works great. Anyways just trying to save you a buck.

 

[chickypad]

Nice! One thing about your gravities, if you started with 5.5 gal at 1.070 it's not possible to finish with 4.5 gal of 1.070. There are a few possible reasons for the measurement error. If the sample is not cooled you would need to correct for that. Also if the wort was not well mixed before the boil you likely had stratification from your first and second runnings. The post boil sample is probably more reliable for that reason, as long as it was cooled. Also topping off it will be very hard to get an accurate reading, you're better off calculating. For example if you really did end with 4.5 gal of 1.070 and topped off to 6 gal that would be about 1.053.