Would be First AG

[Sager Brewing Co.]

This is going to be my first AG brew, how does it look?

New Pale Ale: English Pale Ale (Special/Best/Premium Bitter)

8# Marris Otter
1# Victory
.5# Carapils
.5# 20L Carmel Malt

Mash- 10lb grain, add 3.75 gallons at 155 degree, Hold for 60 min
Sparge- with 5.5 Gallons at 170 degree

Projected OG 1.045

.75oz Northern Brewer @60
.5oz EK Goldings @20
.25oz EK Goldings @5 min.

IBU = 36.7

London Ale Yeast.

 

[Haterade]

Looks pretty standard to me... should be a good first AG! Personally I would use some Fuggles but EKG will work just fine. If you happen to have any Munich malt laying around that could add some extra depth of flavor. But that's just me nitpicking based on what I like.. it looks good to me.

 

[Yooper]

That seems like a lot of sparge water to me- what size boil are you planning? The recipe looks good to me.

 

[Sager Brewing Co.]

That seems like a lot of sparge water to me- what size boil are you planning? The recipe looks good to me.

Well I am not sure how much wort I will get out of the Mash, I know some of the water will absorb into the grain bed. Then with the Sparge I should get most all of that. So I was figuring about 7 to 7.5 gallons when I begin the boil. I based the initial amounts of water from the John Palmer's guide. 1.5qt/lb for the mash and then 1.5 times the mash water for the sparge. I may not need all of the sparge water, but I want to have at least 7 gallons of wort before the boil so that after loss from the boil I still have 5.5 to 6 gallons into the fermenter.

 

[flyangler18]

1.5 times the mash water for the sparge.

I think you may have misread. The usual sparge amount is .5 gallon/lb of grain. 10 lbs of grain = 5 gallons of sparge water. I usually go for a thinner mash- 1.25 qt/lb. I'd aim for around 6.5 gallons of wort pre-boil, boiling down to 5.5 to be transferred to the fermenter.

 

[Yooper]

I think you may have misread. The usual sparge amount is .5 gallon/lb of grain. 10 lbs of grain = 5 gallons of sparge water.

Yeah, I'd follow this, too. No more than .5 gallons of water per pound, otherwise you may risk oversparging your grains.

I usually do 1.25 quarts of water per pound of grain in a mash, but you're ok with 1.5 quarts. The only caution I would have is since it's your first, you may want to mash in with a little less (like 1.25 quarts/pound) just in case you miss your temperature and need to add some more either hot or cold water. Have some extra boiling water and some cold water on hand in case you need to adjust the temperature either up or down.

If you do miss the temperature, make sure you stir and let it sit for a few minutes before you correct (unless it's terribly high or low), because then people tend to have it too warm, then too cool, etc. It takes a few minutes to equalize the temperature.

 

[bull8042]

Another thing I noticed that you may already know, but you need to hit your mash with 170°F or so water depending on the temp of your grains so the temp settles down to the 155°F you are wanting.
Your sparge water should be around 198°F to get your 168°F mash bed temperature.
Again, you may already know this but I posted it anyway just in case...

 

[flyangler18]

Your sparge water should be around 198°F to get your 168°F mash bed temperature.

That's far too high. The highest that I have ever sparged with while keeping the grain bed around 168 has been 190.