Preparing for my 1st AG batch - check my plan

[xaugievike]

Hi all...

I've finished getting my equipment ready and have the kit for my first foray into AG. I've been reading about the process and I just want to post my plan here to get any feedback or tips y'all may have.

I've got a single hop simcoe kit (which actually also has some magnum hops...details). And 10.75lbs of grain. My plan:

Strike water temp to 168 degrees.
Total strike water 3.4 gals
For a mash temp of hopefully 155 (I will warm my converted beg cooler mash tun)

Kinda thinking that will then generate about 2.1 gals of wort from my first drain.

Planning on a fly sparge with water at 185 to hopefully get the mash out to around 168. With just shy of 4 gals water to get me to my pre boil volume of 6 gallons.

Am i on the right track here?

 

[Yooper]

Am i on the right track here?

Yes. But if you're fly sparging, you'll want to do a mash out with the hotter water to bring the grainbed to 168(ish), and then sparge with 170(ish) degree water.

You should "lose" about .125 gallons of liquid per pound of grain in the mash, so for a 10.75 pound grainbill, it should absorb less than 1.5 gallons or close to it. So your guess is right in there.

I usually need to use strike water about 11 degrees warmer than my desired mash temp. I think if you strike with 168 degree water, your mash temp may be too high. I also think 155 is a pretty high mash temp also, so if you miss by like 4 degrees (high), you may have a problem. Why not mash at 152-153, and strike with 165 degree water, to give you some room for error as well as a more fermentable wort? (What are you making?)

 

[ratinator]

Hi all...

I've finished getting my equipment ready and have the kit for my first foray into AG. I've been reading about the process and I just want to post my plan here to get any feedback or tips y'all may have.

I've got a single hop simcoe kit (which actually also has some magnum hops...details). And 10.75lbs of grain. My plan:

Strike water temp to 168 degrees.
Total strike water 3.4 gals
For a mash temp of hopefully 155 (I will warm my converted beg cooler mash tun)

Kinda thinking that will then generate about 2.1 gals of wort from my first drain.

Planning on a fly sparge with water at 185 to hopefully get the mash out to around 168. With just shy of 4 gals water to get me to my pre boil volume of 6 gallons.

Am i on the right track here?

Just make sure you factor in grain absorption and mash tun dead space. Being where you are a year ago, I really suggest using rice hulls and doing a batch sparge. You'll feel very overwhelmed with fly sparging and if your temps arent perfect and your mash tun is clogged, you'll will be cursing all grain brewing pretty fast.

 

[xaugievike]

Just make sure you factor in grain absorption and mash tun dead space. Being where you are a year ago, I really suggest using rice hulls and doing a batch sparge. You'll feel very overwhelmed with fly sparging and if your temps arent perfect and your mash tun is clogged, you'll will be cursing all grain brewing pretty fast.

Well here I got the impression that fly sparking was actually easier? Maybe I have my terms screwed up? I planned on the version where I trickle water onto the grain bed being sure to leave about 2" water "on top"?

Thanks for the input so far. Yooper, I'll take your advice on strike temp.

 

[kh54s10]

I have never tried fly sparging because it seems more difficult than batch sparging. I think you also have to worry about ph levels when fly sparging that are a lot less critical when batch sparging. It also adds 45 -60 minutes to your brew day.

Batch sparging also allows you to skip the mash out. Because it only takes 10-12 minutes to collect the wort for the boil.

I also agree with Yooper - 155 is quite high. (depending on style). I find that most of mine are 152 or 153 degrees and light ales as low as 148 degrees.

 

[xaugievike]

Well - I'm into the brew session now - have my 6(ish) gallons on the burner coming up to the boil.

Here's how things went so far:

I put just under 3.5 gallons into the mash at 163 degrees, the mash came to 151 and settled. After one hour i was at 150. I drained just under two gallons of wort from that.

I decided to do a batch sparge of 2, 2 gallon batches (last one was slightly more than 2). i went easy on temp of the first batch, about 165 degrees and let it sit for just under 10 minutes. drained, and refilled with warmer 180(ish) degree water and the grains came up to 168 on the nose. Let it sit a bit, drained and got my pre boil volume of 6 gallons nearly exactly.

I took a gravity reading and got 1.032 - which i used beer smith to temp correct and it says my pre boil OG is 1.056

 

[xaugievike]

Into the fermenter it goes.

I think i need a little gravity knowledge...

I'm reading things correctly, my refractometer is calibrated per instructions. But the OG came in at more like 1.043 (at 80ish degrees) than the 1.056 Beersmith says it was. My guess is that the small drops used on a refractometer are so small that their temps drop real quick?

 

[brewkinger]

Sounds like it went pretty well.

Thoughts....
You might want to boil more than 6 gallons. Usually boil off is between 1 and 1.5 gallons and then loss due to trub etc you may end up with less than 5 gal into fermenter.
What volume did you get into fermenter?

The other thought is your OG Is hard to comment on because we do not know the recipe.

You are spot on with the refractometer question though. The couple of drops of wort on the refractometer do cool quickly. That is an advantage of this tool.
I usually take a small pipette sample of first runnings, pre boil and post boil and set them aside to cool for a little while before testing.


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

 

[ratinator]

my first couple times round I was frustrated with my OGs as well, but after time you learn how to take proper readings. Make sure you take a sample when the wort has cooled and is about 60F, and take a wine thief and put into a cylinder and measure with a meter, make sure to stir the wort before sample because most of the sugars are near the bottom. Once I mastered how to take a proper reading, my OGs were spot on with beersmith. Also when using beersmith, make sure you enter all your equipment profiles, this makes a big difference on how much water to add and what kind of OG to expect.