My first All Grain - Suggestions welcome

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Bill9000

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After a few successful extract batches, I tried an all grain recipe kit and despite one problem I hopefully overcame, I'm convinced that I won't be going back to extract. The post boil wort tasted so much better than that with extract brews. Sweet and flavorful without the syrupy texture.

Below are pictures of my setup. I used some composite decking and 2 x 6 to adapt my shower stall for my mash tun. It won't win any carpentry awards, but it did the job. I included a picture of the manifold which was included in the equipment I was given. I double batch sparged which seemed easier than fly sparging. I recirculated about a gallon during each vorlauf and confirmed a clear wort before transferring to the boil kettle. At the end of the second draining, I had more liquid remaining in the tun but little volume left in the boil kettle. I switched the boil kettle with a kitchen stock pot and started my boil while draining the remaining liquid from the tun. Since I didn't have enough room in my boil kettle, I reduced the liquid collected in the stock pot on the stove to around 50% original volume and added to the boil kettle. After adding the stock pot contents, I went back inside for about ten minutes. When I returned to the boil, there was an incredible amount of grain particles circulating in the kettle. I can't say with 100% certainty that the particles came from the stock pot, but I'm pretty sure they weren't there before that (the boil kettle had a healthy boil circulation and I don't recall seeing the particles). I stopped my boil and strained the wort through a metal strainer and some cheese cloth. I got the majority of the particles out, but ran out of cheese cloth and left the remaining particles in the wort which eventually made it to the primary fermenter. There are still enough particles in the wort that there were a couple particles visible in the refractometer sample.

A few questions -

Did I introduce the grain particles by completely draining the mash tun or was the problem more likely due to incomplete vorlauf or my manifold design (pictured)?

At this point, are there any suggestions for potentially recovering any damage? I have never used a secondary, but I'm not sure if there is any advantage in this situation. I've read that grain being boiled can produce tanins, but also read where that concern is overstated. The cooled wort tasted sweet and flavorful. I included a picture of the fermenter after 8 days. My initial thoughts were that it was cloudier than it should be, but comparing to pictures of my other brews, it is hard to tell.

My current plans are to continue in the primary for another week and assuming I'm at FG, I plan to bottle and see how it turns out. The only thing that could change this plan is if the pre-bottled beer tastes so terrible that it discourages me from bottling.
 

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"Did I introduce the grain particles by completely draining the mash tun or was the problem more likely due to incomplete vorlauf or my manifold design (pictured)? "

Probably so, but no big deal. These particles will settle out.

However, what as the post mash hydro reading?

Was the mash temp kept steady for the whole time mashing?

"My initial thoughts were that it was cloudier than it should be,.." perhaps due to compacting of the grain bed. Use enough sparge water to obtain the desired beginning boil volume (of course with the sufficient amount of malt(s)).

Can always clarify things by cold crashing and fining with plain gelatin.

Hydrometer reading will really let us know how things went. Did you hit the expected OG?
 
I would say that the manifold looks fairly normal but it depends on how fine your grains are crushed.

Nevertheless, I suspect what you saw was not so much grain particles but what's often referred to as "hot break." Boiling wort tends to resemble egg drop soup in that proteins collect and coagulate and present themselves as thick particulates in your wort. It's completely normal and actually healthy.

Seeing as you strained it I don't see how grain pieces could get through but the proteins can.

The cloudy fermenter is probably active yeast. It'll clear up.

I don't think you have anything to worry about.
 
I've never done beer from extract. So can't really say how it compares. Might have to use more patience to let it clear up. I let my 1 gallon all grain batches stay in the primary for 4, 5, and I think one was almost six weeks.

While I was initially worried about off tastes and such, all I've found from the long times in the primary is great tasting beer. Maybe I grew up on bad beer and just don't know what a good beer is. The only cloudy beer I had was one I bottled when only 8 or 9 days from pitch.

I think yeast clean up beer well after they quit making alcohol, but some others that know need to talk about that. I'm just speculating as several batches seem to quit all bubbling in the beer after less than 5 days but the cloudiness took weeks to clear up.
 
Thanks everyone for the input. My OG was 1.55 which was a bit higher than the recipe called for because I threw in some extra grain (my daughter gifted me the recipe and she got free shipping by spending an extra couple bucks, so an extra pound made it into the mash tun). FG was 1.01. I bottled last night after 3 weeks in the primary. It appears everything settled out as suggested. The beer didn't taste bitter and looking forward to sampling in a few weeks. I'll let everyone know how it turned out.
 
Thanks everyone for the input. My OG was 1.55 which was a bit higher than the recipe called for because I threw in some extra grain (my daughter gifted me the recipe and she got free shipping by spending an extra couple bucks, so an extra pound made it into the mash tun). FG was 1.01. I bottled last night after 3 weeks in the primary. It appears everything settled out as suggested. The beer didn't taste bitter and looking forward to sampling in a few weeks. I'll let everyone know how it turned out.
Sounds like a clear case of RDWHAHB. (Relax, don't worry, have a homebrew.)
as long as things are clean, any extraneous matter will settle out in the kettle during cooling, or in the fermenter.
 
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