General AG questions / critique my procedure?

[IHateMayonnaise]

Hi there,

I brewed my first AG batch last night and plan on doing another today. I ran into some problems and was a bit unclear on a few things, hopefully you guys can help me sort it all out! I will be brewing the Alaskan Smoked Porter kit that I got from AustinHomebrew. Here's what I plan to do (questions will be in the procedure bolded):

1) Warm up my 10-gal rubbermaid mash tun by putting ~6 gallons of hot water in it (~175 degrees).
2) Warm up my strike water. I have 12.875lbs of grain so I'll need 16.1 Qts=4 gallons (at 1.25Qts/lb). I will bring the temp up to 170 due to losses from the grain.
3) Empty my mash tun, and fill it up with the proper amount of strike water. Pour about 1/4 of the grain in, stir well, repeat until it's all mixed thoroughly.
4) Check temp, if not at 150 then add hot water (190 degrees) or cold water from the tap.
5) Wait an hour, check temp every 20 mins and adjust accordingly. Should I stir at all during the mash?
7) Warm up the sparge water to 170 degrees. For a five gallon batch I should heat up 5 gallons (is this correct?).
8)Start Valoufing. Draw off a liter at a time and (gently) pour back to the top until it is running "clear" (How clear is clear enough?)
9) Start sparging. Open the ball valve just so that there is a trickle, such that 1 gallon flows in about 13 minutes (is this the proper speed?).
10) As soon as the water level in the mash tun drops below ~1 inch above the grain bed, add more sparge water to compensate.
11) Keep sparging (constant ~1 inch of water above the grain bed). When 6.5 gallons is run through stop(is this how it should work? Or should I stop adding sparge water at some point and for the last runnings collect what's already in the tun?)
12) Bring the liquor to a boil, and add hops accordingly (should I boil at all before adding hops to boil down the wort so it is more concentrated?)
13) Cool it down. For me it will take about 30 minutes to cool, since all I have is a bathtub full of ice.
14) Add yeast when it is at 75 degrees or so. Pour directly into the kettle and transfer via auto siphon to a 6.5 gallon carboy. The hose is attached the top of the carboy, so the stream of wort passes through plenty of air before it hits the bottom.
15) When done siphon it back from the carboy into the kettle. Then send it back to the carboy, and shake a bit (Is this an okay to aerate my wort?)
16) Put on airlock, wait.

Critiques? Problems? Suggestions?? Thanks everybody !!

 

[shanecb]

- I stir about every 20min during the mash. Don't spend too much time doing it, though, otherwise you might lose a degree or two with it open.
- You'll want it pretty clear to have as little grain particles as possible getting to your boil kettle.
- I don't fly sparge so I can't answer your questions about that.
- No specific need to boil a period of time before adding hops unless that's just how your recipe is formulated.

 

[The_Professor]

I usually do a step mash with direct heat. I stir constantly during each step up, set a timer for 5 minutes, stir and check temp again, let sit for the remainder of the rest.

I usually recirculate about four cups with a 2 cup Pyrex (fake modern version) measuring container. First 2 cups is pretty cloudy, second 2 is usually much clearer, do another if needed.

Sparging on my primitive setup means as slow as I can keep a constant stream going.

Add hops after hot break.

 

[dzlater]

..................................................
15) When done siphon it back from the carboy into the kettle. Then send it back to the carboy, and shake a bit (Is this an okay to aerate my wort?)
I wouldn't pitch the yeast into the kettle.
And I would skip this step no need to put your cooled wort back into a dirty kettle.
Just chill transfer to carboy, aerate, and pitch yeast.

 

[johnodon]

1 & 2) You can make this a one step process. Heat your strike water to ~10* hotter than it should be. Add to the mash tun and wait for the temp to come down to strike water temp. Make sure you take teh temp of your grain to get a more accurate strike water temp. i.e. if you grain is 65* rather than 72*, this will have an impact on your calculated strike water temp.

3) I usually make my strike water 1 or 2* higher than what beersmith calls for...stirring will reduce teh temp. I just dump all of the grain in a stir like crazy. This is just preference. I have never had an issue with grain not getting completely wet. Stir until you come down to your mash temp and close the lid. Start the timer.

4) I haven't had to do this yet. If you start with good strike water temp (grain temp calculated in), this more than likely won't be an issue.

5) Two schools of thought here. I leave the mash sit for 60 minutes undisturbed. As BobbyM says, "leave it be and don't risk losing temp by opening the lid". Others open every 20 - 30 mins to stir to help with conversion. Personally, I think conversion happens just fine without any intervention.

7 - 11) Most will heat sparge water to about 185*. Remember, you want the grain bed to be 168* - 170* when you sparge. Since your grain bed will be 150* at the very highest, it is better to err on the side of caution and use hotter water. Also, most do a two batch sparge. So, if you sparge water is 5 gal, split it into two 2.5 gal spages. before you sparge, vorlauf and drain the first runnings. Once drained, add the first round of sparge water, stir like crazy, shut lid for 10 mins. Vorlauf/drain again. Add next round of sparge water and stir like crazy. Shut lid and wait 10 mins. Vorlauf/drain. There are other methods for determining sparge water amounts such as measuring the first runnings. Boil volume - first runnings = sparge water. i.e. if your boil volume is 7 gal and you collect 1.5 gal after your first runnings, you will need 5.5 gal of sparge water. A lot of folks here think this is the better method than relying on software.

12) As soon as your wort starts to boil, that is when you start the timer. Keep it at a rolling boil and add hops and additives Iirish moss) as scheduled. Do not cover the kettle!

14 - 15) Once cooled, I transfer the wort to my primary (6.5 gal glass carboy). I then pitch the yeast and AERATE!!! This is very important. Yeast require a healthy leavel of oxygen. The way I do this (and cheapest) is to just put on a carboy cap, sit in a chair, put the carboy on my lap, and rock it pretty violently for about 3 minutes. If you are using a galss carboy, just invest in a big funnel to transfer from the kettle. Siphoning takes longer than needed.

16) It might be a good idea to move right to a blowoff tube than an airlock. This will help prevent huge messes in the future and is just as easy to do. Depending on where you are putting your carboy, you may want to protect it from direct sunlight. I make a hole in the bottom of a green trashbag and put it over the top.

Hope this helps!

John

 

[Northcalais40]

My advice is to try and simplify where you can.
I'd preheat with less water (like a gallon or so @ 200), or figure out how much to over heat strike water to hit temps without preheating.
If you are ladling sparge water by hand, you may prefer batch sparging, it's easy to find good advice on this forum. If you prefer fly sparging you should rig up a auto drip system. You need a drain valve on the HLT and a bit of hose. (I made a 9" diam. drip ring with pex and 3 brass t's. I know that hot pex and brass will indeed kill me so save it.)

Why stir the mash, unless it's too hot?

I run my fly sparge until I've got the proper preboil amount. I assume the more sugary wort gets flushed down in a gradient as I sparge. When you stop the HLT flow doesn't the sugar content in the grain bed stabilize from the top down? They say to sparge 1 qt/min. I find that difficult.

As soon as I'm boiling I add hops. Others might wait until they've had the hot break.

I also would not re-siphon from the carboy to the kettle. Once I get the carboy half full I grab it by the neck and base and shake the crap out of it so that it is foaming over (plastic carboy). I also bought for $1-$2 a wine aerator, which is a plastic widgit that makes a sort of spray. It works.

Put your yeast in the carboy, not the kettle. If your careful, you can leave a lot of trub in the kettle that you don't want in the carboy.

Also make a starter for yeast and shake the crap out of it before you pitch it. If you use dry yeast instead, pitch it after filling the carboy and then shake the crap out of it.

Look up whirlpooling. It'll help you get cleaner wort.

 

[IHateMayonnaise]

I brewed before I got any comments on the aeration so I did just pour the yeast into the kettle and siphon back and forth a couple times. Next time I am avoiding the issue by buying an oxygen stone and a oxygen tank.

I suppose I'll batch sparge next time, since I don't have a method to sprinkle the sparge water. So from what I gathered I should heat 2.5 gallons of sparge water to 185* and add it to the top of the grain bed and wait 10 minutes (and then do it again when the water level gets down to the grain bed)?

Also, why shouldn't I cover the kettle? I have a 10 gallon pot which covered two burners on my stove, and with 7 gallons it seems like it would take a very (very) long time to boil without the lid on.

What is a hot break?

I double pitched my last batch so I reasoned that I didn't need a starter. Bad logic?

Thanks everyone!

 

[Northcalais40]

Shaking is free.

Check out a step by step batch sparging thread, these guys are good.

Covered kettles boil over.

Hot break is where the wort starts to foam up, Junk is coagulating at the surface, then it subsides and sinks to the bottom. It becomes the crap you don't want in the fermenter, trub.

Starters are needed when using liquid yeast, not when using dry yeast. There are also many good threads on this topic.