First time

[PCaravan]

I finally did my first all grain batch. It was a ten gallon batch of Classic American Pilsner (based on my own extract redipie that was my wife's favorite... if I keep her happy with the brews she'll never notice how much I'm spending).

It didn't go completely as planned but I'm sure the beer will be great anyway. The first problem was when I realized 20 minutes into the mash that I had forgotten to add the flaked maize. I through it in emediated with some hot water. At the end of 60 minutes an iodine test showd full conversion anyway so no problem. The second problem was when I reached for the Crystal hops for the first wort hopping that I realized that the Cluster hops for bittering weren't in there. I had just gone to the LHBS that morning and handed the guy my shopping list but I didn't go over everything he put in the bag. I checked the reciept and he sure didn't forget to charge me for it! I called but it was 4:01PM and the store closed at 4:00PM. You know someone was still in there but he wouldn't answer the phone! I checked the freezer and I had an ounce of Perle at about the same Alpha Acid as I had planned on the Cluster to be but I don't know how long it's been in there (maybe a year). That should have solved that problem. The next problem was the extraction was only 65% and I had planned on 70%. No big deal, I just boiled it for longer. In the end I ended up with about an 8.75 gallon batch pretty close to my target OG.

[Fast_Eddy]

Originally posted by PCaravan
I finally did my first all grain batch. It was a ten gallon batch of Classic American Pilsner (based on my own extract redipie that was my wife's favorite... if I keep her happy with the brews she'll never notice how much I'm spending).

It didn't go completely as planned but I'm sure the beer will be great anyway. The first problem was when I realized 20 minutes into the mash that I had forgotten to add the flaked maize. I through it in emediated with some hot water. At the end of 60 minutes an iodine test showd full conversion anyway so no problem. The second problem was when I reached for the Crystal hops for the first wort hopping that I realized that the Cluster hops for bittering weren't in there. I had just gone to the LHBS that morning and handed the guy my shopping list but I didn't go over everything he put in the bag. I checked the reciept and he sure didn't forget to charge me for it! I called but it was 4:01PM and the store closed at 4:00PM. You know someone was still in there but he wouldn't answer the phone! I checked the freezer and I had an ounce of Perle at about the same Alpha Acid as I had planned on the Cluster to be but I don't know how long it's been in there (maybe a year). That should have solved that problem. The next problem was the extraction was only 65% and I had planned on 70%. No big deal, I just boiled it for longer. In the end I ended up with about an 8.75 gallon batch pretty close to my target OG.

Good recovery - I'm sure it'll be great ;)

[PCaravan]

Update to the first all grain:

Fermentation and bottling went fine. During bottle conditioning, the beer was brilliantly clear. I placed one bottle in the fridge on Friday to test if it was carbonated yet. On saturday night when I got it out it was the cloudiest beer I ever made... like hefewiessen cloudy only it was cloudier than any hefewiessen I've made. I've had a little chill haze before on most of my brews but I really expected not to have any this time since it was the first time for me to use a cf wort chiller and what bothers me is this is the worst I've seen. Could the fact that the flaked maize missed the protien rest have effected that? I can't remember off hand what type of haze the protien rest was supposed to help prevent.

Other than that, the beer came out better than I thought it would for my first all grain. I got the whole thing in the fridge now waiting to be drunk and I don't think it will last long... after trying some of the 'test' bottle, my wife wanted me to get some of the still warm beer and put it in the freezer so we could have more that night. She wasn't happy when I told her I wouldn't do that.

[PCaravan]

After researching the chill haze problem, this is what I came up with for those who are interested. I came accross this article in a general search:

http://www.skotrat.com/brewrats/haze.html

It makes for a very technical read and is lengthy but anyone wanting to make their beer clearer will find this useful.

I actually did most of the things listed at the end of the article for home brewers to do to prevent haze. What caught my attention was this part:

Yeast strain can affect colloidal stability, in general more flocculent yeast produce less stable beers than less flocculent yeasts. The pitching rate also has an effect, increasing the pitching rate tends to improve colloidal stability.

I used White Labs San Fransisco Lager yeast on this brew for the first time and it was by far the most flocculant yeast I've ever used. I thought it was great at the time of racking and bottling. Also, while White Labs yeast can be pitched right from the tube, I know it's not the ideal amount. I kept some of the trub for future use so next time I know I'll have a higher pitching rate. As far as the flocculating effect, the article explains the reason for the high flocculation causing a problem being that suspended yeast absorb tannins (half of the haze causing formula), so I'm thinking a gentle stiring up of the trub after primary fermention appears to be complete and then allowing it to settle for a day or two before transferring to secondary should help. Also, stiring up after clearing in the secondary and allowing to clear again before bottling should help too I guess. Anytime your removing tannins sounds like a good thing to me even if the effect on the chill haze turns out to minimal.

I'm also not going to bother with the protien rest this time as it obviously made no difference (couldn't have been cloudier in the fridge). I'm also considering using Polyclar (Divergant F) after reading this article but am wavering a little on that one. I may just try sriring the first time.