My First AG Brew Day

[redblacktree]

Hey Guys,

I'm planning to jump right in on all-grain brewing. I have two extract batches under my belt, but this Saturday, I will be using a lot of new equipment: newly constructed mash tun, from rubbermaid beverage cooler (10-gal) and 20-gallon Blichmann Boilermaker, new wort chiller, etc, to make my first all-grain batch. I plan to make a 10-gallon batch of Dark Chocolate Stout (a recipe from this site).

Anyhow, I've made up some instructions for myself on my first brew day, and I'd love any feedback about things I may be missing or getting wrong. So, here it is, the plan:


The Plan:

1. Mix sanitizer into a bucket and fill spray bottle with sanitizer fluid
2. Fill the boil kettle with 10 gallons
3. Bring water to 175-180 degrees
4. Drain 6 gallons of water to mash tun
5. Stir water and cool to 172 degrees
6. Add grain slowly, stirring continuously.
7. Check temp, should be 154 degrees
8. Adjust temp by adding hot or cold water, and stirring.
9. Add water to boil kettle to reach 10 gallons, heat to 180 degrees
10. Check mash temp every 15 minutes. Adjust as necessary to keep 154 degrees.
11. Mash for 60 minutes.
12. Test a sample of wort with iodine to test for full starch conversion. Will turn dark purple/black if starches are not fully converted. Continue to mash until all starches are converted, and iodine does not change to purple/black.
13. Lift mash tun to desk and rack first runnings into a bucket
14. Add sparge water in two batches from kettle at about 180 degrees for first run, and 170 for second run, and drain until we reach 12.5 gallons of wort, in two buckets
15. Empty boil kettle
16. Rack wort from buckets into boil kettle
17. Check gravity, should be 1.049. Adjust upward with DME if necessary.
18. Boil the wort
19. Add 4 oz hops, once boiling (now starts 90 min boil)
20. With 30 mins remaining, add 2 oz hops
21. Santitize wort chiller
22. With 10 minutes remaining, add 24 oz lactose and 16 oz cocoa powder
23. At knockout, stir wort up into a whirlpool
24. Wait 5-10 minutes for whirlpool to settle
25. Put wort chiller in pot, and run it
26. Once wort is 70 degrees, remove chiller
27. Check gravity and record
28. Sanitize coat hanger
28. Rack into 2 buckets, using hop blocker
Using hop blocker:
1. Once level of kettle reaches top of blocker, reduce flow to 1/3
2. quickly pull up hop blocker screen with hanger
3. Continue racking at 1/3 speed
29. Add a starter to each bucket
30. Sanitize two airlocks
31. Place lids with hammer
32. Insert air lock, move fermenters, and wait...
33. Bottle around 2 weeks

 

[hotrodtrash]

i like how thorough your plan is but dont expect full starch conversion. i dont think anyone hits 100% efficiency. i would expect about 70% for your first batch, maybe even lower.

 

[redblacktree]

Thanks.

This is the recipe I started with: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f68/dark-chocolate-stout-136707/ - I'm not sure what efficiency he's assuming. Only mention is of brewhouse efficiency: 82%.

I was concerned about not hitting my gravity (i.e. too-low conversion). I bought some light DME for insurance, but I only have about 4 pounds at this point (after making starters). Is *light* DME the thing to use for this purpose, even in a dark beer like this? I suppose it seemed the most "neutral" to me.

Advice?

 

[redblacktree]

I just realized that you were probably referring to step 12. So, should I expect the iodine test to always turn purple, but perhaps to a lesser degree? In my instructions I say "full starch conversion," but I suppose I mean "all of the starches that are going to convert, have converted."

Thanks again for the advice. I just love this community.

 

[Frodo]

That's bad advice from the previous post. You'll get full conversion, and should always expect full conversion. I think he was somehow referring to efficiency??? dunno. Anyway, at 154F you might have full conversion within 30 min. It takes longer at lower temps and happens faster at higher temp. I usually just mash for 60 min, even if a conversion test says it's done; I figure there might be some starch in the bigger chunks of malt that hasn't converted yet. A dark chocolate stout will be dark... and you might not be able to even tell if it turns "redish" or "black". 60 miin at 154 should do the trick.

Your Brewhouse Efficiency might be lower than 82% especially batch sparging. Might want to recalculate the amounts of grain needed based on a 70 or 75% efficiency (especially since it's your first batch, and better to err in the "middle" than shooting for the stars).

So, other than that, around steps 4-6 when you're mashing in, make sure you let the temp stabilize in the MLT at the strike temp and volume that you want (usually i wait 10 min or so). It takes a little while for the plastic to heat up to the strike temp. Then after 10 min or so you can adjust hotter or cooler depending on what the temp is. Then I don't bother adding the grain slowly, I just dump it in and stir to mix up the clumps. Go light on your strike water at first (closer to 1 qt/lb) so you can adjust the temp with hotter or cooler water if need be. I can't emphasize enough, that TEMP IS THE MOST IMPORTANT PART OF ALL GRAIN, EVEN BREWING IN GENERAL. Enough emphasis? Ok moving on.

The second most important part of brewing AG is VOLUME. Make sure you know that you can measure it very accurately, your preboil gravity reading depends on it. Sounds like you'll be draining the runnings into buckets, that should work.

Ok enough rambling... hope some of that helps!

 

[redblacktree]

Thanks for the advice.

You suggest that I start with a thicker mash, 1qt/lb. What happens if I hit my temps? Do I just have to add a little hot, a little cold water to try to keep the temp until I get to my desired mash thickness?

Good point about the dark beer. I suppose I'm out of luck for using iodine to test for starch conversion. Like you suggest, I'll just have to have faith.

As for measuring volumes: my buckets have markings, and the boil kettle has a sight glass, so we should be good to go.

 

[CPooley4]

Good luck rbt, hope it all goes well.

You may want to give my Brew Chart a look. It's set up for batch sparging and will help you along your brewday with numbers and possible gravity corrections needed to your wort. That way the math is done for you and all you need to be concerned about is your process and making sure you record your gravities and volumes correctly. You can find the link to the Brew Chart in my signature below.

cp

 

[hotrodtrash]

efficiency illustrates potential conversion versus actual conversion. considering the fact that malts will not be able to be converted fully there will always be some level of starch. with any level of starches the iodine will change. but yes you are right on track with the "what will be, has been" concept. all in all get to brewing! let us know how it goes.

 

[SamuraiSquirrel]

efficiency illustrates potential conversion versus actual conversion. considering the fact that malts will not be able to be converted fully there will always be some level of starch. with any level of starches the iodine will change. but yes you are right on track with the "what will be, has been" concept. all in all get to brewing! let us know how it goes.

Negatory captain ..........

Starch conversion and efficiency are two different things

100% efficiency is theortetical based on the extract potential of the grain. Your actual efficiency is how well you did at rinsing those sugars from the grain. So lets say your extract potential (based on the ingredients you put in) is 1.075 ..... if you take your preboil and you're at 1.053 then you got 70% efficiency. Meaning you got 70% of the possible sugar out of the grain as a result of your mash/sparge process.

You should always get 100% starch conversion (and this really isn't difficult to do nor do you really need to test for it IMO)

 

[rmedved]

Good luck rbt, hope it all goes well.

You may want to give my Brew Chart a look. It's set up for batch sparging and will help you along your brewday with numbers and possible gravity corrections needed to your wort. That way the math is done for you and all you need to be concerned about is your process and making sure you record your gravities and volumes correctly. You can find the link to the Brew Chart in my signature below.

cp

I just grabbed your spreadsheet. It's super helpful. I haven't figured out how to adjust the water:grain ratio for the mash though?

 

[Tsuyako]

Negatory captain ..........

Starch conversion and efficiency are two different things

100% efficiency is theortetical based on the extract potential of the grain. Your actual efficiency is how well you did at rinsing those sugars from the grain. So lets say your extract potential (based on the ingredients you put in) is 1.075 ..... if you take your preboil and you're at 1.053 then you got 70% efficiency. Meaning you got 70% of the possible sugar out of the grain as a result of your mash/sparge process.

You should always get 100% starch conversion (and this really isn't difficult to do nor do you really need to test for it IMO)

Sorry for the partial hijack but could you explain this a little more? Is the 1.075 the OG? If not then how does one find the gravity reading to find conversion rate?

 

[Frodo]

Sorry for the partial hijack but could you explain this a little more? Is the 1.075 the OG? If not then how does one find the gravity reading to find conversion rate?

No, the 1.075 was the theoretical preboil gravity he was using for the maximum extract potential for a theoretical grain bill at a theoretical preboil volume. There are charts that give the approximate extract potentials for all the grains, in gravity pts per lb per gallon.

here's one on the wiki:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/wiki/index.php/Malts_Chart


EDIT: Then the actual gravity you can measure with a hydrometer or refractometer... if that was partially what you were asking.

 

[SamuraiSquirrel]

Sorry for the partial hijack but could you explain this a little more? Is the 1.075 the OG? If not then how does one find the gravity reading to find conversion rate?

What frodo said ^^^^^

Sorry, I just threw numbers out there to illustrate the concept. Taking a more real life example .......

Lets say you have a simple recipe of 10 pounds 2-row and you are making a 5gallon batch and your preboil volume is 7 gallons.

The extract potential of the 10 pounds of 2 row diluted at 7 gallons of water is 1.052. This is what you would get if you got EVERYTHING (100% efficiency so to speak which just isn't possible). This extract potential is calculated by your brewing software or a chart whichever you use is personal preference. This is what YOUR efficiency is based off of.

So you mash, sparge, etc. using your method of choic..... You sparge till you get to your preboil volume of 7.0 gallons and take a gravity reading. Lets say you take your reading and you are at 1.039. Knowing this you could calculate or your software would tell you that you extracted 75% or the potential sugar.

39/52=75%

All the software does to give you your "estimated preboil gravity" is rearrange the simple formula above based on what ingredients you put in and what efficiency you tell it you got on your last batch or typically get with your system.

Extract potential (based on ingredients and preboil volume which you input) * efficiency (whatever you tell it yours is) = Estimated preboil gravity

Hope that helps clarify the point I was trying to illustrate in the shortened post.



Sorry, I got sidetracked on the efficiency discussion in the thread. Getting back to the O.P. and his process. The only recommendations I have are relax and don't bother with all the "adjust if necessary" stuff unless you are WAY off the mark. If you mash in and you're at 157 instead of 154 don't sweat it. Or on the flip side if you are 2-4 degrees low or if you mash starts at 154, and 30 minutes in you're at 152 just let it ride. Your beer will still turn out and taste just fine.

Same goes for gravity. If you take your preboil and you're +/- 4 or even 5 points I would just let it ride. If you're 10 points low or something ridiculous then maybe add some DME.

The point of this first AG batch should be to take tedious notes of everything so you can work toward nailing the temps, boiloff, efficiency for your subsequent batches. The first one is kind of a shot in the dark. That being said there is no reason why it still won't turn into a perfectly good beer.

 

[redblacktree]

Wow. Thanks for all of the feedback!

Brew day went really well, I think. I didn't get the efficiency from the recipe, of course, but I do have two buckets of beer fermenting as we speak!

I wrote it all up on my beer blog, with LOTS of pictures: http://wholegrainbrewing.com/blog/2011/01/brew-day-my-first-all-grain-dark-chocolate-stout/

Thanks again for all the help and feedback. I learned much of what I know about brewing from this forum.

 

[zacster]

You should use sanitizer in the airlocks and drink the vodka!

When I was on my honeymoon in St. Martin (the French side), the locals used vodka to wash windshields. It was cheaper to buy than Windex since St Maarten (the Dutch side) was completely tax free. This was 20 years ago. The 1.5L Absolut was about $4.

 

[redblacktree]

I have used vodka in the airlock for all three batches. I read somewhere (probably in Palmer's book) that the fluid in the airlock can suck back into the fermenter, in certain conditions (I can't remember what those were). If it did suck back in, I'd rather add a little vodka to my beer than sanitizer.

 

[Frodo]

Star San is a "no worry" sanitizer. It apparently ends up being yeast nutrient if it goes in.