First ever all grain-stovetop- in the books

[parratt1]

So I made my first ag today with Deathbrewers stovetop method. I think it went well. Here is my recipe. I will explain my brewday and tell me how I may have hit my numbers a little off if you can tell.

3.5 gallon batch
Briess 2-Row Brewer's Malt 4 lbs, 0.16 oz
Weyermann Pale Wheat 2 lbs, 2.72 oz
Caramel Vienne 1 lbs, 3.04 oz
Briess Flaked Wheat 0 lbs, 9.12 oz
Amarillo Pellets 1 oz @ 60 mins
Amarillo Pellets 1 oz @ 30 mins
Amarillo Pellets .5 oz @ 15 mins
Amarillo Pellets .5 oz @ 15 mins
Amarillo Pellets .5 oz @ 1 mins
Amarillo Pellets 1 oz Dry Hop
White Labs California Ale- Made with a 1400ml starter
Mash at 158 degrees for 1 hour. Sparge with 2 gallons 168 degree water to achieve boil voulme of 4.5 gallons boil size.
Target OG 1.068

2.85 gallons strike water at 172 degrees. Added grain and stirred thoroughly water was at 158 degrees. Covered, stirred at 30 minutes and at 15 minutes. Checked water temp at 1 hour and it was exactly 158 still. Drained grains, put bag in colander to drain more. Sparge water ready, a litle high at 174. Added grain bag back in and sparged while stirring for 10 minutes. Drained bag again and put in colander again while I combined the sparge with mash. Added drainings to boil. Boiled as normal.
I took a gravity ready after sparge at 1.052.
Post boil gravity at 1.068. Transferred to better bottle, noticed only 3 gallons total. Topped off to achieve 3.5 gallons, rechecked gravity 1.062.
So, I feel really good with my numbers but really wanted to hit my OG. Beersmith calculated to provide for 70% brewhouse effeciency which I must have missed by a little. Need to add another half a gallon of sparge water to get 3.5 gallon post boil volume.
Anybody have any critiques? I feel like this went amazing smooth and I am back to that feeling of my first extract batch of HOLY HELL can I really wait 3 weeks to try this!!! LOL
Thanks for everyones help!
Jeremy

 

[parratt1]

Well I am bout 9 hours in with no signs of fermentation. No krausen or foam or anything. Pretty sure I just figured out why. I used five star Ph stabilizer and just realized I read the amounts incorrectly. It says 1 tbsp per 5 gallons and I thought it said 1 tbsp per gallon. Well......I guess I will see in the morning. But I am guessing I really goofed this one up.

 

[dale1038]

I'm guessing your beer will be fine. 50-1 you wake up in the morning with fermentation. RDWHAHB.

 

[parratt1]

Well Dale you were correct sir. I have a beautiful snow white krausen and some slow bubbling in the airlock. I really thought that Ph stabilizer would have been a killer on the yeast. Looks like so far so good!

 

[dale1038]

Glad to hear it!

Why did you use top up water when you hit your OG? I would just leave it next time.

Happy brewing.:rockin:

 

[parratt1]

To be honest I didn't even think about leaving it alone. I was so focused on this only being a 3.5 gallon batch, that I didn't consider any alternatives. I will think about that next time if I don't hit my volume.