First All grain batch help

[RobertC]

I'm wanting to try and do an all grain oatmeal stout, but I was wondering if someone could run me through a general step by step process for all grain recipe.
I have never done an all grain batch before.

[darylM]

There is a free book on the internet that will tell you all you need and more www.howtobrew.com (http://www.howtobrew.com)

[bhd147]

Hey Man, I recently made the change over to all grain as well. In the last month or two I've done about 5 recipes. Here are a few tips I've learned the hard way...Granted, I use 2 kegs (one as a hot liqour tank and one as a boil 'keggle') and an igloo and bazooka screen as a mash/lauder tun. But this advice should hold true to whatever your system is...I think....lol

1) Check for dead spaces (areas below your valves and things where wort or water may be left behind and not collected. In my boil keggle, there's about 1-1.5 gallons of wort, break and solids that are left behind below the drain valve. I could tilt the pot and collect them and I'm sure they'd settle out during fermentation. But they look nasty as hell so I leave it. BUT....This wort left behind was causing my OG's to be a good bit lower. Think about it. If one gallon of wort is left behind in a 5 gallon batch; that's 20% of the batch! So I've had to scale up my grain bill in proportion to the dead space leavings!

2) Partially fill your pots and tuns before you start brewing to the valves, 'thermothingies', site tubes and whatevers to make sure they haven't developed leaks since the last brew day.

3) Counter Flow Chillers are the BOMB!!!!

4) Find out what temp your mash in water needs to be to hit your target sustaining mash temps

More to come as it comes to me....

Also, there are hundreds of different ways to assemble systems. If you haven't already put one together, check out my site below. Under the blogs, hit the "Hellz Yea!" post and check out my pics there. Nothing complicated, nothing fancy! No pumps either. I'm getting a tower built to put everything on. I'm just a believer that GRAVITY will work Everytime!

http://www.myspace.com/hallowed_grains_brewery

[Vienna Lager]

1) Pre heat your mash tun with some boiling water then dunp that out before starting to mash. That way strike water degrees arn't lost to heating your tun.

2) Pour about a gallon of strike water into your tun after pre heat before adding grains at dough in. That way the weight of the grains won't be as likely to compact to the bottom and possibily cause a stuck sparge.

[darylM]

Expect your first all grain experience to be a learning one. Your aim should be good, drinkable beer, not award winning. I did my first mini-mash (not steeping, mashing) last batch and I learned a lot about all grain and the equipment I had.

Depending on the amount of oatmeal (> 25%) in your grain bill, you may need a two temp mash. The single temp mash was enough for me.

Another tip, I found that 8 qts of water is the minimum when you want the temp to stay stable in your tun or be ready with more water. The reason I know this is I did experiments to find out what is the magic amount of water after I lost 10 degrees in 15 mins on my last batch.

[Mad Scientist]

Originally posted by bhd147

1) Check for dead spaces.......

2) Partially fill your pots and tuns before you start brewing to the valves, 'thermothingies', site tubes and whatevers to make sure they haven't developed leaks since the last brew day.

3) Counter Flow Chillers are the BOMB!!!!

4) Find out what temp your mash in water needs to be to hit your target sustaining mash temps

http://www.myspace.com/hallowed_grains_brewery

1. You need a pickup tube and a stainless steel scrubber (or other filtration) to help filter out the trub and hop debris. If you cannot find a picture one the net, let one of us know, and we will send you a pic of ours.

2. Your properly constructed brew-ware should not develope leaks between uses.

3. Oh yeah? You need to try a plate chiller.

4. This is one of the most tricky things to figure out, and varies by system. If you have yours figured out, kudos.

[Mad Scientist]

Originally posted by RobertC
I'm wanting to try and do an all grain oatmeal stout, but I was wondering if someone could run me through a general step by step process for all grain recipe.
I have never done an all grain batch before.

Hi Robert, after you have how to brew, get back to us with your addtiitional questions. Be advbised though, you might want to try a pale ale your first time out of the gate.

[bhd147]

Originally posted by Boerne Brew
1. You need a pickup tube and a stainless steel scrubber (or other filtration) to help filter out the trub and hop debris. If you cannot find a picture one the net, let one of us know, and we will send you a pic of ours.

2. Your properly constructed brew-ware should not develope leaks between uses.

3. Oh yeah? You need to try a plate chiller.

4. This is one of the most tricky things to figure out, and varies by system. If you have yours figured out, kudos.

Properly constructed or not, if you move your equipment between storage and brew area there's Always chances for bumping, kicking or droping any part of you have attached to pot or tun. I'm not talking about loosing a gallon a minute through a blown out gasket or anything. But small leaks can be quick fixes that don't need to be forgotten about.

And I'll put my counter flow up against just about anything. I built it for less than half the price of a CHeep plate chiller. And really, cooling 5 gal in 5 minutes or 8 minutes...really....

I'll have to brag about hitting my temps though lol. The first time I used my system, I plugged all my numbers into BeerSmith and it gave me a temp to mash in with...and it hit it within a degree! And its been true for every brew since. Just a freak coincidence between BeerSmith and my system, but it's works!

[BrewDog]

Hitting temps and gravity are very important. They indicate that you can reproduce your beers.

This becomes more and more difficult the more steps you have in your mash.

Great job- Keep it up-

[corkybstewart]

Have fun with it, learn from your mistakes, and just keep brewing. It ain't rocket surgery.

[cbtrtbum]

Boerne, out of curiosity why do you recommend doing a pale ale first time out of the gate for an all grain? Thanks,Chris

[Payson]

Originally posted by cbtrtbum
Boerne, out of curiosity why do you recommend doing a pale ale first time out of the gate for an all grain? Thanks,Chris
I'd guess it's due to their forgiving nature as well as the fact that faults can be hidden pretty easily behind an aggressive hop bill.

[Mad Scientist]

Originally posted by Payson
I'd guess it's due to their forgiving nature as well as the fact that faults can be hidden pretty easily behind an aggressive hop bill.

Yup.

That, and it is pretty easy to come up with a fool-proof recipe on your own.