Tanagra
Well-Known Member
I brewed my first batch of beer yesterday!
I have some experience in wine-making, and decided that brewing beer during the off-season would put my equipment to good use. I found a very simple five gallon stout recipe online that had great reviews, and decided to dive right into All-Grain Brewing. My friend who has recently taken up extract brewing came by to help me out, and this was a first AG batch for either of us. I have to say that it went off VERY well and I am elated with the results thus far. I used the recipe below and deviated only slightly in that I did NOT use any gypsum, and I used .5tsp of moss.
Dry Stout Recipe
5lbs 2-Row Pale Malt
2lbs Flaked Barely
1lb Black Barley
2.25oz Goldings, East kent
.25tsp Moss
10grams Gypsum
Wyeast Irish Ale #1084
Some of the Highlights:
The smell from the moment the grain is stirred-in until the moment the hops are added is absolutely heavenly!
My mash temperature settled to 155.8° - I felt that was pretty good considering I was aiming for 154°. I did not attempt to adjust it.
I was shooting for a starting SG of 1.039 and actually measured 1.042 @ 65°.
The 'boil-over' after adding the hops was all contained in the pot - BARELY. No Mess, No Loss!
The Not-So-Proud Moments:
I was planning to mash-out at 168° for 10 minutes and then sparge, but I only mashed-out at 159° (a gross miscalculation on my part - and I wasn't even drinking yet!).
I ran out of sparging water EVEN THOUGH I planned to have WAY more than I would have EVER needed.
Other Thoughts:
Before embarking on this adventure, I had no idea that controlled, sustainable water temperatures were so critical. Apparently, having your mash temperature off by as little as 4° can yield unpleasant results. I recommend having a GOOD, QUALITY, and dead-balls ACCURATE thermometer - it is probably (in my mind at least) the single most important tool a homebrewer needs for proper conversion. Luckily, my friend brought his expensive thermapen and it was a godsend! Without it, hitting my strike temperatures would have been a shot in the dark.
When I bought all of my equipment at the local homebrew store last week, I thought that in terms of measuring temperature, a weld-less Brewmometer and a floating thermometer were all I needed. Boy was I wrong! What a joke that $6 floating 'thermometer' is (hard to call something that doesn't measure temperature a thermometer). Although reliable at room temperatures, at boiling, it was off by over 11°! Where my friends thermapen and my installed Brewmometer read 212°+/-0.7, this floating liquid 'thermometer' read over 223°! I let the pot slowly cool to 170° and took another reading - Brewmometer and Thermapen were nearly identical, while the floating 'thermometer' was off by 8°.
One thing I cannot stress enough at least in my extremely limited experience as a new homebrewer, second to a good thermometer, is to 'Be Prepared'! I even went as far as doing a 'dry-run' the night prior to brewing. I determined how long it takes to bring five gallons of water from 120° to 210°, connected and tested my wort-chilling equipment, and even practiced running hot water through the sparge for a while to get a feel for what an equalized ten-minute running gallon 'looks' like. Having some of this experience behind you, it is MUCH less stressful when the 'I need more sparge water - What Now?!?', or the 'I can't get six gallons of liquid to boil on this stove - What Now?!?' situations come up.
My primary is currently bubbling away, and I am anxious to see what my final SG will turn out to be. I plan to rack into the six gallon glass carboy at fourteen days, and into my five gallon Cornelius Keg fourteen days after that. I will keep you all updated as to my progress, and of course, I welcome all questions/comments/suggestions.
- Tanagra
Total Time: 5hrs, 10min (including setup and cleanup)
I have some experience in wine-making, and decided that brewing beer during the off-season would put my equipment to good use. I found a very simple five gallon stout recipe online that had great reviews, and decided to dive right into All-Grain Brewing. My friend who has recently taken up extract brewing came by to help me out, and this was a first AG batch for either of us. I have to say that it went off VERY well and I am elated with the results thus far. I used the recipe below and deviated only slightly in that I did NOT use any gypsum, and I used .5tsp of moss.
Dry Stout Recipe
5lbs 2-Row Pale Malt
2lbs Flaked Barely
1lb Black Barley
2.25oz Goldings, East kent
.25tsp Moss
10grams Gypsum
Wyeast Irish Ale #1084
Some of the Highlights:
The smell from the moment the grain is stirred-in until the moment the hops are added is absolutely heavenly!
My mash temperature settled to 155.8° - I felt that was pretty good considering I was aiming for 154°. I did not attempt to adjust it.
I was shooting for a starting SG of 1.039 and actually measured 1.042 @ 65°.
The 'boil-over' after adding the hops was all contained in the pot - BARELY. No Mess, No Loss!
The Not-So-Proud Moments:
I was planning to mash-out at 168° for 10 minutes and then sparge, but I only mashed-out at 159° (a gross miscalculation on my part - and I wasn't even drinking yet!).
I ran out of sparging water EVEN THOUGH I planned to have WAY more than I would have EVER needed.
Other Thoughts:
Before embarking on this adventure, I had no idea that controlled, sustainable water temperatures were so critical. Apparently, having your mash temperature off by as little as 4° can yield unpleasant results. I recommend having a GOOD, QUALITY, and dead-balls ACCURATE thermometer - it is probably (in my mind at least) the single most important tool a homebrewer needs for proper conversion. Luckily, my friend brought his expensive thermapen and it was a godsend! Without it, hitting my strike temperatures would have been a shot in the dark.
When I bought all of my equipment at the local homebrew store last week, I thought that in terms of measuring temperature, a weld-less Brewmometer and a floating thermometer were all I needed. Boy was I wrong! What a joke that $6 floating 'thermometer' is (hard to call something that doesn't measure temperature a thermometer). Although reliable at room temperatures, at boiling, it was off by over 11°! Where my friends thermapen and my installed Brewmometer read 212°+/-0.7, this floating liquid 'thermometer' read over 223°! I let the pot slowly cool to 170° and took another reading - Brewmometer and Thermapen were nearly identical, while the floating 'thermometer' was off by 8°.
One thing I cannot stress enough at least in my extremely limited experience as a new homebrewer, second to a good thermometer, is to 'Be Prepared'! I even went as far as doing a 'dry-run' the night prior to brewing. I determined how long it takes to bring five gallons of water from 120° to 210°, connected and tested my wort-chilling equipment, and even practiced running hot water through the sparge for a while to get a feel for what an equalized ten-minute running gallon 'looks' like. Having some of this experience behind you, it is MUCH less stressful when the 'I need more sparge water - What Now?!?', or the 'I can't get six gallons of liquid to boil on this stove - What Now?!?' situations come up.
My primary is currently bubbling away, and I am anxious to see what my final SG will turn out to be. I plan to rack into the six gallon glass carboy at fourteen days, and into my five gallon Cornelius Keg fourteen days after that. I will keep you all updated as to my progress, and of course, I welcome all questions/comments/suggestions.
- Tanagra
Total Time: 5hrs, 10min (including setup and cleanup)