First all grain

[sils13]

So yesterday I did my very first all-grain! I know i made plenty mistakes. but it was nice doin the process! One question I hit my gravity dead on but my wort was like crazy super sweet much more then my extract brews I've been used to! Any thoughts? Another question when I do I mash out. Is it easier to just have my sparge water at my nah out temp?

 

[android]

well, if you hit your gravity, then you're fine. i wouldn't ever judge anything by the perceived sweetness of a sample. probably just more fresh tasting since you extracted it straight from the grain rather than buying a processed product. what kind of sparge are you doing? i normally don't worry too much about mash out; i batch sparge and normally heat up my water to around 190 and sparge in two batches, which usually ends up getting the grain bed/mash temp up to 168 or so, which I guess could be considered a mash out, but if i miss that temp low, i don't sweat it.

 

[944play]

There are some convenient mashing calculators on this page:
http://www.rackers.org/calcs.shtml
Use the "Rest Calculator" to figure how much boiling water to add to bring the mash to mashout temp. It will probably take a little extra to overcome tun thermal mass, but as mentioned don't sweat it because mashout is not critical. Hardly anything on the hot side is, for that matter. Dechlorinating your water is one.

 

[sils13]

Thanks for the replys I'll keep that stuff in mind I can't wait to get more batches under my belt and get the process dialed in! It's def much easier once u've done it!!

 

[BigBlueDog]

If you're batch sparging, a mashout isn't absolutely necessary. Bobby_M explained it well in this post:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f36/all-grain-tutorial-nut-brown-ale-77705/index3.html#post820533

 

[sils13]

Great ya I was batch sparging it appeared to b the easiest for my newb skills I'll read it up thanx

 

[android]

Great ya I was batch sparging it appeared to b the easiest for my newb skills I'll read it up thanx

and to be honest with you, i've never seen the need to fly sparge. but, of course, some do.

 

[toolboxdiver]

welcome to AG Brewing I'm a Newb myself just got 6 batches underf my belt and It is AWESOME so far I have done Cream Ale, a Citrus Honey Wheat, a Honey Rye and just did my Oktoberfast Ale and am having a ball need to get another sanke fermenter and build a ferm chamber this winter so I can have more than one beer on tap at a time