My first AG done but have questions.

[ddrayne10]

Hello thanks to this forum i have brewed extract beers and just did my first all grain batch on thursday night. I did alot of things wrong but i used everyone's advice and the motto rdwhahb. But i would also like to improve my brewing and the first and biggest problem that i had was my mash turn. I lost 3.5 degrees over one hour and 15 minutes this also could of been me opening up my mash turn and stirring it many times then i just left it alone for the last 40 minutes or so. Ok well the major problem was that i think my manifold that i made seemed to let a lot of the grain through the slits that i made. I recirculated about a gallon and a half from my first runoff. This is the first pint that i pulled out.

Then i started to recirculate and ended up with this

. I thought that this is what it should of looked like because it was alot clearer than the first run off. I brewed at night and did not have a flashlight so i thought i was doing everything right but after my boil i ended up with this in my fermenter.

This is not good Well i was done for the night and knew i messed up but i pitched my yeast and went to bed. I think the problem might be my manifold this is what mine looks like. I cut the holes with a hack saw that might be too thick?

what do you guys think? If it helps i used 13 pounds of 2 row grain and 1/2 pound crystal 20L and 1/2 pound 10L. I used a hand crank grain mill at the brew store to crush all the grain. Thanks for the advice.

 

[jbeauchamp]

I will stir my mash when I mash in and then about 30 minutes into the mash. After that, just let it sit. As for the manifold, I think you will be fine, you just need to run a bunch of wort into a pitcher to set the bed. Pour the wort back into the MLT carefully and you will be okay. I usually run a pitcher, turn the valve off and pour it back in. The run another pitcher and instead of turning if off, move the hose to the boil kettle. While it is running into the boil kettle pour the last pitcher back into the MLT. It has always worked for me. Good Luck!!!

 

[JesseRC]

The beer will still be fine

 

[Rick500]

The stuff in your fermenter looks like break material and/or hops particles. Not to worry, it'll settle.

 

[weirdboy]

Yeah even if you got a little grain in there, it will settle out so no worries.

 

[krops13]

I brewed my first all grain batch on Thursday as well. Which beer did you brew? What was your efficiency I only got a 63% I only got 5.5 gallons into the kettle then boiled it down to 4 and had to top it off.

 

[JesseRC]

I brewed my first all grain batch on Thursday as well. Which beer did you brew? What was your efficiency I only got a 63% I only got 5.5 gallons into the kettle then boiled it down to 4 and had to top it off.

You need to collect enough to account for your 1.5g loss, so if you wanted 5.5, you should have collected 7g. THat makes a big difference to your efficiency.

 

[krops13]

but i put in 4 gallons for the mash 3 gallons for the batch sparge on a 9.5 lbs grain bill should i be using more water? i thought i over did it with the water. If I fallowed the 1 to 1.25 quarts per pound of grain then that is 2.96 gallons and 1.18 gallons for the sparge?

EDIT: I think I see what I did. I used .5 quarts per pound of grain instead of gallons per pound. damn!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! so to much at first and too little in the later.

 

[ddrayne10]

Thanks for the responce but are you sure my manifold is not the problem cause i took it apart and there was grains on the inside of the manifold.

i have another manifold that i could use. Its the one on the bottom.

 

[KayaBrew]

It looks to me like the slits are too wide. The length of the slit seems right, they're just too wide. What did you cut them with? Admittedly, I'm super anal about my DIY projects, so I cut my slits with a fine-toothed hacksaw, and I made a cut at every 1/4 inch. That being said, I agree that your beer will turn out just fine. The grain and hulls and such will settle out in time.

 

[KayaBrew]

Also, it helps to vorlauf more than just a couple of pints. I usually fill a 1 quart glass pitcher twice and recirculate it. By the time I start drawing the second pitcher, the wort is running pretty clear. Hope this helps!

 

[pdbreen]

What's in the fermenter looks fine to me. As others have said, looks like break which will ride the thermal swirls while the yeast is active, but eventually settle out.

 

[ddrayne10]

Thanks guys. I used a hacksaw but i will be investing in some power tools to help with these projects cause i want to do 3 keg conversions and also down the line around Christmas time i want to start kegging beer and convert a fridge to a kegerator.