1st All Grain completed......

[BucksBrew]

Well I couldn't wait for my parts to get here from Ca. to Pa. to get my Gott/Rubbermaid Cooler set up, so I went ahead and hooked up a brass valve and a hose up over the side and started to Mash! I connected the hose after the Mash so I could close the lid.

Initially I had trouble getting the Temp. up to 152 degrees. It stuck at 148 degrees for 10-15 minutes until I nuked some water in the Microwave and boiled some in a Tea Kettle.

I had to get it up to 200 degrees to raise the overall temp quickly. Eventually it got up to 152 degrees which was a welcome relief. Unfortunately I ended up using alot more water to start than I wanted to, over 5 gallons. I lost track in my frenzy!

I tried to get it up to 170 degrees at the end of the mash but only succeeded to get it up to 156 degrees.

I siphoned and recirculated until clear. This was going fine until my plumbing starting sucking air in one of my fittings. This was killing me! I opend the valve full to try and purge the air. This did not work and eventually I got a stuck sparge.

I stirred, sat, and recirculated. The second collection went smoother without the air bubbles. I think I was collecting too fast, even though I timed it at 1qt. per minute. Oh well.

I think I had too much sparge water on top while I collected the wort. At times it was 3'' thick or more on top of the grain bed. I think this is why my Starting Gravity was only 1.046. This isn't horrible, but I was targeting 1.052.

Right now with a 1.046 and a hopeful FG of 1.010 I will end up with a 4.7% ABV instead of a 5.5%ABV, a .8% difference. My recipe calls for a 5.5% ABV finished.

Corrections:

Next time I start with hotter stike water.

Keep my intial volume of strike water to 1.25 to 1.5qt. per lb.

Collect wort slower to get a better SG.

Other than that it wasn't that bad.

The poor aeration and the auto siphon getting clogged was another story!

I did not put my hops in a bag and used fresh hops in the last 2 minutes which clogged my auto siphon. In unclogging it I pushed the baffle out and could not get it back in. I eventually fixed it.

Alot of things went wrong on Saturday, but I think I came out with a decent 1st All grain batch.

The true challange is mastering new techniques and brewing styles!

Cheers!

PS: This post is long, but so was my brew day! haha

[Jughead]

Congratulations on the successful move to all grain. I found it takes a couple runs to work out all the system bugs, but your first run sounded pretty good.

Palmer has some formulas on www.howtobrew.com for calculating strike water temp. For my system, they usually get me within a degree of the step temp.

Did you pre-heat the cooler? I let mine sit with hot tap water inside it while I heat the strike water.

Cheers

[BucksBrew]

I added a kettle of hot tea water. It wasn't much, maybe 1-2 qts., I think I probably should have added more, like a gallon and let it sit longer.

I think I just wanted to get started! Next time I'll be more patient and tweek some of my procedures.

I'm satisfied with the results considering I did it all from memory! I left all my paperwork at work. We had an ice storm Thursday night, didn't go to work on Friday.

I forgot to mention in my initial post that as I was checking my Starting Gravity on the internet, my daughter came over and started playing with me and knocked my beer over on my wifes Labtop Computer! What a fitting end to a day! haha.

I quickly picked it up and turned it over as we dried it with towels.

We took it apart, no liquid got under the keyboard, but a little got in the floppy and CD cartridges.

Thanks for the link.

My Mojo was waaaaaayyy off on Saturday!:(

[S.F.B.]

Congrats on your first. Keep us up to date.

[BucksBrew]

I pitched the yeast at 2pm on Saturday and put in in my heater room overnight. It started chugging away by Sunday evening, so I moved it to my pantry which is 60 degrees. It was still burping at a nice steady pace this morning. I guess one a second and it has a nice thick Krausen on top along with some hops floating in there as well that were sucked in with my auto siphon.

I'm hoping for a nice slow "FULL" ferment to help boost my attenuation since my SG did not hit my target.

It's sitting next to her brother, a Yeungling Porter Clone from an extract kit.

My wife says they are my "other children"! haha

[Fast_Eddy]

Congrats BucksBrew - it's a lot of fun isn't it?

Like was said above - it's easy to calculate strike temp using either the equations mentioned or download and try ProMash(it does it all for you).

[BucksBrew]

Originally posted by Fast_Eddy
Congrats BucksBrew - it's a lot of fun isn't it?

Like was said above - it's easy to calculate strike temp using either the equations mentioned or download and try ProMash(it does it all for you).
Promash? Is that at leebrewery? I use the Beer Calculator there. I'm thinking Promash is something different. I'd use Promash right nowand learn the math later so I can do it at the kitchen sink with a calculator.

Thanks.

[OldHooky]

I use a 10 gallon Gott. To get 152, I pour in 170, add the grains and that puts me at 152 exactly. With the lid on, it will stay there for 90 minutes plus.

[BucksBrew]

Originally posted by OldHooky
I use a 10 gallon Gott. To get 152, I pour in 170, add the grains and that puts me at 152 exactly. With the lid on, it will stay there for 90 minutes plus.

I was stuck at 148 degrees with no water! I had to nuke and boil quickly! BTW, I have the same cooler.

My cooler and grains must have been cold.

My grains were at 40 degrees at 7am and I started using them at 10:30am. I figured they were room temp by then, maybe not.

Next time I warm stuff up prior.


On a side note, I went to promash and downloaded a trial version of the program. I went to Beer styles and printed a Sierra Neveda Pale Ale Detail sheet.

At a min. SG it had 1.045, mine was 1.046. So it looks like I barely got there. I'm glad I at least met the minimum with SG!

[Fast_Eddy]

Originally posted by OldHooky
I use a 10 gallon Gott. To get 152, I pour in 170, add the grains and that puts me at 152 exactly. With the lid on, it will stay there for 90 minutes plus.

The above is not hard and fast.

Mash temp after dough-in is dependent on (at least):

1) Strike Water Temp
2) Strike Water Volume
3) Grain Temp
4) Grain Volume

[OldHooky]

Originally posted by Fast_Eddy
The above is not hard and fast.

Mash temp after dough-in is dependent on (at least):

1) Strike Water Temp
2) Strike Water Volume
3) Grain Temp
4) Grain Volume


I know it's not written in stone, but I am amazed that it has happened that way for me. I always use the same ratio of water/grain and the I always work out of my basement(which has a pretty constant temp).

[Fast_Eddy]

Originally posted by OldHooky
I know it's not written in stone, but I am amazed that it has happened that way for me. I always use the same ratio of water/grain and the I always work out of my basement(which has a pretty constant temp).

I'd guess you pretty much brew the same gravity beers?

[OldHooky]

Pretty much. I know what I like and usually stick to it.

[BucksBrew]

Originally posted by S.F.B.
Congrats on your first. Keep us up to date.

Still burping nicely at 1 per second with a nice thick krausen on top!

I'm going away for the weekend Thursday night. I might not know when it "officially" stops if it happens before Sunday afternoon.

Hopefully I'll still have some krausen and it's still fermenting nicely.

[BucksBrew]

I got home last night at 6:30 and it was quiet and was at low Krausen.

I told the wife I'm racking Monday night, but she said she is going out.

Soooooo, I racked last night. It was at 1.010! Perfect I thought! It looked like it was at 1.080 but with fluid line correction it came in at 1.010!

I tasted it, and boy did it taste great! I dry hopped it and racked to the secondary. This is going to be a tough wait! I'll let it sit 3-4 weeks. I was able to get a quart of the flat green beer to try again tonight. Sounds weird, but can't wait to drink it. haha

Good thing I have a Porter in the secondary. I made that on 1-24-03. So I'll rack that next week into a keg. It will be a month old when I start drinking it. It had a mini krausen in the neck of the secondary last night. Which is good, keep fermenting baby!

I'm not sure what my next "All Grain" will be. Maybe the same IPA, just to perfect my process before I move on?....

[OldHooky]

Someone gave me a six pack of Founders Centenial IPA the other day. Pretty nice. A good candidate for a clone.