Please help dissect my (I SUCK AT ALL-GRAIN BREWING CREAM ALE) Brew Day

[adkins220]

Hey Guys,

This is my third all-grain brew and it was a Cream Ale Kit from NB. It’s the lightest beer all grain I have brewed. The other two All Grain beers consisted of a blue ball wit clone and the Smooth Nut Brown kit from Midwest.

I don’t know if it was because I was more conscious about trying to calculate and do things right or what it was but today, my numbers were everywhere. My mash in was intended to be around 150 but it ended up I was right around 156-157. I am assuming the mash in calculator I used did not take into account for me warming up my mash tun?? This is just a guess. But it went over. So I dropped a few ice cubes in (4 total) and stirred them around. It brought the temp down to around 150ish in a few minutes. (Question 1: Was this ok to do…..Or is there a better way). So I decided that for this brew instead of letting the mash set for a full hour without me touching it, I would stir the mash every 20 minutes. About the third time I went to stir it I noticed the temp had dropped to 140ish(Question 2: what effect will this have on the brew?). This time I did not through a cover over the cooler plus me opening it and stirring I assume contributed to the temp loss. So with 20 minutes to go, I threw some more hot water back in and brought the temp back up to 150ish (Question 3: Should I have did this?? And since I did do it, what effect will it have on the beer?)

Next it was time for the mash out. So what I calculated for the mash out was way wrong because I only hit 160ish for my anticipated mash out. My target was 170. (Question 4: Is this going to have a negative impact on the taste?)

I did however get a lot more pre boil and post boil wort out of this brew than the other two I have done. Something like a gallon and a half more. I tried to go a bit slower with draining the wort from the grain bed so I am not sure if this played a role or not (Question 5: Does different grain recipes hold differences of a gallon of water?)

I was surprised to see in the end that I hit the OG I was supposed to. The anticipated OG was 1.040, and my gravity reading showed 1.038ish 039ish. (Question 6: Is this because of coming in about 1 gallon over my anticipated 5 gallon recipe?)

My last question does not pertain to this brew day, but just brew days in general. I chilled the wort to about 80, then took a few minutes to transfer to carboy, etc. I pitched the yeast (05) at about 70 degrees. I read somewhere today you will have “better beer” if you pitch the yeast around 60. I have never intentionally tried to pitch at a specific temp. (Question 7: Is this true?)

I know this is rather long but I was hoping it would stir up many “great” memories in experienced brewers mind that will allow you to share wisdom with some of us just starting this sport. Without a doubt I learn more every time I brew, but the knowledge you guys share on this forum is priceless knowledge for this great hobby!

Thanks in advance.

 

[flananuts]

What was your gravity post boil and volume of wort into the fermenter? Ale yeasts do well at room temp so 70 is fine. Some yeasts do better with temp control but I wouldn't worry about it too much. The overall lower temperature means more fermentable sugar conversion vs unfermentables which will likely do fine for your beer.

I'm sure it will end up fine.

 

[sonex]

did you take the grain temp for your calculation. mash calculators do not account for loose to non preheated mlt. ice cubes to cool mash did not hurt just added to mash vol. When I go over ash temp I just stir like crazy and this will bring temp down in a few minutes. once I have stirred the mash I shut the lid and don't touch it until its time to run off. after 45 min. your mash has probably already converted. most modern malts are modified and convert very well. Most of the time I don't even bother with a mash out. I start heating my wort after about 1/2 is collected. this shortens brew day by getting it up close to boil temps by the time I'm done with my second runnings. when I collect too much wort I just boil longer but won't start timing my 60 minutes till I get to my intended preboil vol. the reason your gravity turned out OK is your efficiency must have been much higher than intended (good job). Its best to cool your wort to a couple of degrees below your intended temp and let your beer slowly rise to your intended ferm temp.

 

[BrewerinBR]

First relax, don't worry, have a home brew.
Answer 1. Adding ice is one way to cool your mash, I just add cold water cause my tap water is very cold. Not sure what calculator your using but you can normally set the grain temp at strike and that is where you can add in the pre-heated mash tun temp. Most likely that is why your temps were high.

Answer 2. Stirring every twenty minutes could have contributed to the temperature drop, insulate your tun if you can. Most good coolers loose about 1 -2 degrees in an hour. Some guys stir and some do not. Insulation on the tun best idea.

Answer 3. Bring the temp back up not bad but you need to reduce the sparge that much... keeping track of all water into the process is important to hit volumes. Temps in the 140's will extract more fementable sugars for a drier beer with more ABV.

Answer 4-5-6. Not hitting mash out temp will impact efficiency more than taste since you hit the intended gravity. The added water certainly impacted the volume, you had more volume in the tun and you needed to account for that when you calculated the mash out, so once you added more water during the mash you needed to recalculate the mash out water temp as there was more volume to heat up. Each grain will absorb water at different rates, but I am not sure that it is that great, mostly the added water was the big impact.

Each yeast has it's temp range, and the 70 F mark is more for aeration, aerating wort above 70 could cause oxidation and cause beer to have a cardboard taste. Yeast need oxygen so we aerate but never above 70.
Pitching below 70 is best as ale yeast like temps below 70 and lager yeast like even lower.

I always pitch lower than 70, i n fact I like to pitch below the yeast high ferment temp.

As for this brew, you made beer and I am going to bet it will be good beer! So have a home brew and relax... and have a Hoppy Brew Year

Good Luck

EDIT: You do not suck at all grain ... sounds like your on a good path to very good beer! Keep going and keep learning, I learn and improve my process and methods and procedures with every brew day... tomorrow is brew day for me... my own recipe Amber Waves of Grain a multiple grain amber ale. My first multiple grain brew... another learning brew day!

 

[flananuts]

I would add that all yeasts have certain temp ranges that are the ideal. Higher fermentation temps produce more fruity esters in ales and are desirable in some beers and others not so. For example wlp001 is best at 70 maintained whereas rogue pacman is at 63 degrees. Your ferm temp internally will rise quite a bit during active fermentation so the better you can control it the cleaner the beer flavor will be.

Keep at it and brew the beer you drink!

 

[Goblism]

sounds like you hit your OG, fermented a little low....should make some good beer!
Nothing wrong with pitching at the temps that you did, but i would try and place it in a cooler part of your place. I usually place my fermenters in a spot that runs around 60 degrees, yielding a beer/wort temp of around 64 degrees. Ferment higher if you want more esters, 05 does a pretty clean job in the lower range though.

my 2 cents is to ignore the comments about hot side aeration, just a myth on the homebrew level

 

[devilbrewer75]

That recipe is my house cream ale. It will be good don't worry.

 

[Ravenshead]

Sounds like you did fine. In fact, if you got an extra gallon of wort and only missed you OG by a point or two, you got higher than expected efficiency.

I will say though that you're making this a little too complicated. Forget about mash-outs, stirring the mash and such. Just heat your water to a few degrees above your calculated strike temp. Then dump it into your MLT and stir until it reaches the calculated temp. Then add your grain and mix well. You should hit within a degree of your mash temp every time that way. From there just cover and forget about it for an hour.

You can do a mash-out if you like but as long as you sparge with 180 water it doesn't seem to make a difference to me.

 

[bwomp313]

Each yeast has it's temp range, and the 70 F mark is more for aeration, aerating wort above 70 could cause oxidation and cause beer to have a cardboard taste. Yeast need oxygen so we aerate but never above 70.

Hot side aeration is one of those boogeymen that I wish would just go away.

 

[Newton]

One time I aerated my wort @ 200 degrees (dont ask why) and that batch never developed oxidation flavors-even after 7 months in the bottle. Since then, ive never worried about hsa.

 

[adkins220]

Sounds like you did fine. In fact, if you got an extra gallon of wort and only missed you OG by a point or two, you got higher than expected efficiency.

I will say though that you're making this a little too complicated. Forget about mash-outs, stirring the mash and such. Just heat your water to a few degrees above your calculated strike temp. Then dump it into your MLT and stir until it reaches the calculated temp. Then add your grain and mix well. You should hit within a degree of your mash temp every time that way. From there just cover and forget about it for an hour.

You can do a mash-out if you like but as long as you sparge with 180 water it doesn't seem to make a difference to me.

Thanks to everyone for your ideas and insight. Being new to all grain and brewing in general, I am just trying to gather and absorb as much knowledge as i can. You are right, I tend to make things more complicated than they need to be at times. I guess i need to relax and drink beer, bad or good right???

I hope everyone has a great new year!