My first all-grain!

[slipperypick]

Well, today was the first all-grain batch, and it probably couldn't have gone much better, imho. There were a few issues:
1. My efficiency was pretty low; my pre-boil gravity was supposed to be 1.041... It was closer to 1.038. I wonder why.
2. My sight-glass on my Blichmann kettle wasn't as useful as I thought it would be... As a result, I boiled from 6.5 gals to just over 5 (rather than 5.5). As a result, my target OG of 1.049 was closer to 1.058. Wierd. That also made the final amount in the fermenter abou 4.75 gals.
3. My Shirron Plate Chiller got the wort down to 78 degrees... I pitched anyway, hoping the yeast won't mind.
4. Forgot to add Irish Moss. Chill haze issues later...?
Overall, I'm happy with how things went. I'll let y'all know how it turns out!

 

[Grizzlybrew]

Congrats on the first AG brew! You'll never go back! What was your eff (and your mash/sparge schedule)?

I've been contemplating the site glass for a while and just can't bring myself to do. I still think it would be nice on the HLT, but I guess I can do without it on the kettle.

Again... congrats!

 

[Jkane101]

Grats on the switch to AG! I'll be doing my first two AG batches come labor day weekend.

1. My efficiency was pretty low; my pre-boil gravity was supposed to be 1.041... It was closer to 1.038. I wonder why.

That's pretty close all things consider, I dont thin I'd worry about it

2. My sight-glass on my Blichmann kettle wasn't as useful as I thought it would be... As a result, I boiled from 6.5 gals to just over 5 (rather than 5.5). As a result, my target OG of 1.049 was closer to 1.058. Wierd. That also made the final amount in the fermenter abou 4.75 gals.

I guess you could top it off?

4. Forgot to add Irish Moss. Chill haze issues later...?
Don't know what you brewed but if its an Amber ale or darker I wouldnt sweat it too much.

 

[bbrim]

Even without the Irish Moss your beer will clear with time. It takes a bit to get your evaporation rate down, but no worries there.I usually pitch my yeast at 80 degrees for ales, haven't had a problem yet. If you did a fly sparge the best way (I find) to improve eff. is to sparge slower. I don't know about batch sparging. Congrats, you wont go back!

 

[Grizzlybrew]

Did you make sure to adjust for the temperature when you took a pre-boil reading (If you didn't chill the sample to 60 deg)? You might have been closer than you think or even higher than you were shooting for. Also, Jkane had a great point, topping the carboy off with boiled or distilled water would have gotten you to your ideal volume AND closer to your gravity.

 

[slipperypick]

Actually, I did compensate for temp, but thanks for the tip nontheless.
Efficiency was 60ish, not too happy about that. My schedule was basically an hour mash at 154 degrees, recirculated with 5 quarts of wort. Sparged w/ 170 degree water, but I didn't let it settle more than 10 minutes. Should I have let the grain bed settle more? Would that help efficiency?
Thanks for the responses! I can't wait for my next brew day in 2 weeks!!!!

 

[Denny's Evil Concoctions]

Issue number one could be from your crush. Do you crush your own?

KKeep in mind the fluid ex[pands when heated plus you have avigours boil going on so when it reads 5g it willa ctually be less when cooled.

 

[ajf]

Well, today was the first all-grain batch, and it probably couldn't have gone much better, imho. There were a few issues:
1. My efficiency was pretty low; my pre-boil gravity was supposed to be 1.041... It was closer to 1.038. I wonder why.
2. My sight-glass on my Blichmann kettle wasn't as useful as I thought it would be... As a result, I boiled from 6.5 gals to just over 5 (rather than 5.5). As a result, my target OG of 1.049 was closer to 1.058. Wierd. That also made the final amount in the fermenter abou 4.75 gals.
3. My Shirron Plate Chiller got the wort down to 78 degrees... I pitched anyway, hoping the yeast won't mind.
4. Forgot to add Irish Moss. Chill haze issues later...?
Overall, I'm happy with how things went. I'll let y'all know how it turns out!

Unless you added some fermentables during the boil, something doesn't quite add up here.
You say you started the boil with 6.5g at 1.038. That's 247 gravity units (6.5 * 38). If you boiled that down to 5g, you would end up with a gravity of 1.049 (247 / 5 = 49.4), but you ended up with 1.058, an increase of about 40 gravity units. A pound of DME or sugar added during the boil could explain this difference, but if you didn't do this, perhaps you got better efficiency than you thought, and got a low pre-boil gravity reading because you didn't stir the wort enough before taking the sample..

-a.

 

[slipperypick]

I think my final yield was closer to 4.5 gals. I didn't think to put any kind of gauge on my carboy, so I've just kinda eyeballed it; I will mark it for my next batch...
The LHBS crushes my grain.
I dunno, we'll just have to see how it all goes next weekend!
Thanks for all the input, folks!

 

[Bobby_M]

Yup, calibration marks on the fermenter is the most accurate way to measure brewhouse efficiency. I do agree that your preboil sample wasn't fully representative of the whole wort. Stir it really well before pulling a sample. If you did boil down too much, just top off. The sight glass on the kettle will tell you how much volume you have at boiling temps but don't forget about the contraction that occurs when it cools. If I'm not mistaken, it will be about 4%. So, if the sight says 5 gallons at 212F, it will be 4.8 gallons at 70F.

The moral of the story is to increase your preboil volume by about a quart at a time until you are consistently hitting the final batch size.