My first AG - Still going

[Vagrant]

Finally after weeks of preparation, I have got my first AG out of the way. Talk about a learning curve. I'll post my folly's. I know I did just about everything in the book wrong, but feel free to post your comments.

The first problem I had was doing a step mash my first time =) But, that's how I learn and I really dont think I could have jacked it up too much. We'll see. I had a hard time getting the temperatures to raise. I used brewsmith to try to calculate how much and what temp water to add, but it was much lower than it was calculated. I tried compensating more and more aggresively, but it seemed to stay just as hard. So, I ended up doing my sacc rest 2-5 degrees under 150. Mashout could only hit right around 159 (vice 168). I was getting concerned with having too much water in the MLT.

After mashout, I ran about 2 or 3 quarts til it looked clear and vorlauf'd. (Is that right?) Then, my drain stuck 1/2 way through. I tried forcing air into it, I heard an air bubble come out of the MLT, but it didnt un stick it, so I used my paddle to jab channels to my stainless steel braid. When jabbing my grains, it was like a brick. What was the problem?

I vorlauf'd twice total and didnt sparge because I thought I had too much water. I say I thought because I measured it and I could have swore it was 28 quarts. So after I cleaned out my MLT and started trying to boil my water (another story..) I realized I only had more like 18 quarts. I took a hydrometer reading and it was telling me 1.041 @ 130 degrees, which put me at 1.053 in reality. So that's the good news =) I just topped off with a couple quarts to get closer to 5 gallons, pre boil. I'll take a reading after and see if I can get away with topping more and still maintain a decent SG.

Trying to boil... I was going to use my 150k burner but it got dark and time ran out quicker than I expected. So I threw the 50 quart kettle on my stove. Turns out one burner wasnt enough, and had to move it to my other 2 burners and turn them both on just to get it to boil. It's been boiling a good 22 minutes at this point.

So, yeah, I made quite a few mistakes, but I can only improve from here. Brewsmith has me at 73%, so it wasnt a complete waste of ingredients =)

 

[WBC]

From my experience I would not recommend multiple infusions for new all grain brewers. There are limits on how much water you can use with a given size mash tun. If too much grain is used you can never get up to the temperatures you need or you will have too much water in the tun. Grains are well modified these days and a single infusion is all that is needed in most cases. Always inquire about the grain you are using as to how to mash it. Don't assume anything. Some of the recipes on the web are old recipes calling for multiple infusions and that was because of when the recipe was written it was for less modified grains.

 

[Vagrant]

I knew what I was getting myself into, overall it was a success and I learned a lot, but there were some mistakes along the way. I did research quite a bit and after the fact realized I should have just used more water. It was a lot to keep track of the first time around.

I have a 10 gallon MLT. I was brewing a Hefeweizen, which I've seen arguments go both ways, single infusion works fine, but decoction produces different flavors. I figure I'll do it the hard way up front and slack off later =)

I was amazed at how quickly my wort chiller cooled my wort to pitching temps. I went from boil to fermenter in ~15 minutes. I should have gotten one sooner.

 

[WBC]

If doing a single infusion you should use a program such as Pro-mash or Beer Smith and pre heat your mash tun using water that is 5 degrees hotter than your strike temp. Put the lid on and wait 6 minutes, stir and check the temp. When it is at strike temp then add the grains. Your mash temp will be right on! Wait an hour and sparge with equal amounts of 185 F water. This should be close to 168 F when stirred. If not then adjust temp for your next batch of beer. This is the learning curve and once you find what works for you will work every time. Note that more or less grain will change this temp a bit.

 

[malkore]

If you find pre-heating the MLT with 158 degree water sucks, you can use hot tap water. my tap is 122F. I heat the MLT in advance, and then need to have my strike water about 10-12 degrees warmer...in other words I hit 165F water, and it equalizes to 153F. the grain will absorb some heat, adn the above assumes the grain is at 70F.

ProMash will help you determine temperatures, and water volumes.

the grain also absorbs some strike water. I wanna say its about .2gal per pound of grain...again ProMash will help with that.

get the evaluation version of promash for now. it doesn't expire...just doesn't let you save/load a bunch of recipes...the other tools still work fine.

also, the act of draining a little wort until its 'clear' and then recirculating...that is the vourlaf process.

as for why the grain bed was so thick...normally doesn't happen if you've got 1.25quarts of water per pound of grain, unless there was a lot of wheat in there, which can gelatinize a little. raising the temp to 160-165 for lautering should help that. I suppose too fine a crush could have compacted even using a braid.

post your grain bill and we can help.

 

[Vagrant]

WBC - Your second post was exactly the kind of input I was looking for. Thanks. I'll pull this thread up and apply those procedures next time.

malkore - Thanks for your input as well. I suspect it was either the wheat + the two hour rest that created the "adobe" in my MLT. Here's my grain bill:

6# wheat malt
3# pale malt
.5# vienna

Thanks again.

"Shout outs":
Thanks to drunkensatyr for sending me a couple stainless steel fender washers so I could complete my MLT. I could not find them anywhere in my area.

Thanks to Bobby_M for posting his video and giving me some advice for my first AG. Next time I'll try to apply more of it.