First All Grain!

[floydmeddler]

Hi folks,

Going for my first all grain tomorrow night. Feel like I'm getting married! Nervous and excited but in my heart, know that I'm doing the right thing. It's been on the cards for a while now and I'm really ready for the commitment...

I don't have a large kettle and can only boil up 10 litres. With that taken into account and with a mini mash or two under my belt (and a homemade mash tun) here is my plan of action.

1. Add 4kg of grain (pale) to my mash tun and pour in 10 litres of water at 70-72c. Leave for 1 hr (is water quantity OK here?)

2. Collect first runnings then pour back over grain bed

3. Collect sweet wort in my kettle and sparge until my kettle has 10 litres worth

4. Sparge and collect runnings directly into my fermenter. Keep sparging until there iare 12 litres of second runnings in my fermenter. Chill to 20c

Go back to my kettle and boil up my 10 litres of first runnings and add hops (which have been calculated for a 10 litre boil) etc as normal. Chill and pour into my fermenter.

Take reading and pitch yeast.

Does this sound like it will work out OK?

Cheers

Floyd

 

[Maple]

Are you saying that you are not boiling the remaining wort (post 10L collection)? I think that is a mistake. why not just collect it in a spare fermentor/cube, and do the boil once you have finished your initial 10L boil? you need to stop the enzymes from their work, and kill off all the potential nasties, hence the boil. Just my thoughts.

 

[brendo]

Hi folks,

Going for my first all grain tomorrow night. Feel like I'm getting married! Nervous and excited but in my heart, know that I'm doing the right thing. It's been on the cards for a while now and I'm really ready for the commitment...

I don't have a large kettle and can only boil up 10 litres. With that taken into account and with a mini mash or two under my belt (and a homemade mash tun) here is my plan of action.

1. Add 4kg of grain (pale) to my mash tun and pour in 10 litres of water at 70-72c. Leave for 1 hr (is water quantity OK here?)

2. Collect first runnings then pour back over grain bed

3. Collect sweet wort in my kettle and sparge until my kettle has 10 litres worth

4. Sparge and collect runnings directly into my fermenter. Keep sparging until there iare 12 litres of second runnings in my fermenter. Chill to 20c

Go back to my kettle and boil up my 10 litres of first runnings and add hops (which have been calculated for a 10 litre boil) etc as normal. Chill and pour into my fermenter.

Take reading and pitch yeast.

Does this sound like it will work out OK?

Cheers

Floyd

Someone else may correct me - but I would think that you would need to at least boil the second runnings for 20-30 mins to make sure that you kill any nasties from the grain. That's what you do with steeping grains, so I would think that the principle still holds.

So you may need to do a split boil.

Cheers,

Brendo

 

[floydmeddler]

Hi,

Yes that makes sense folks. OK, so I'll collect the second runnings into another pot and boil it for 10-15 mins to kill nasties. Chill, then add to fermenter.

Having rectified that, do think I'm good to go?

Many thanks for replies.

Floyd

 

[enoch]

I'm with you to 4. - sounds like you are proposing to only boil half of what is going in the fermenter which is a recipe for a number of prob's no the least of which is infection.

Need to boil both the first and the second runnings for long enough to get proteins to coagulate (break) plus hops to do their thing. Could do it in two batches running one half after the other into the fermenter following boiling.
Hops need to be calculated for your total ferment volume of ~20 litres if you split them between the boils then utilisation will be better if only into the first then the utilisation would be down a bit.

Might be worth putting your location in your profile as someone local may be able to help you out.

{Edit -Too late! I type slow!]

 

[brendo]

Hi,

Yes that makes sense folks. OK, so I'll collect the second runnings into another pot and boil it for 10-15 mins to kill nasties. Chill, then add to fermenter.

Having rectified that, do think I'm good to go?

Many thanks for replies.

Floyd

water seems fine to me... may want to drop the mash temp a bit though depending on what style of beer you are going for. That seems a tad high to me - I thought you pretty much topped out around 68 for most styles with 72-75 being closer to a mash out to halt the enzymes and starch conversion.

As to the hops, you are going to want to increase the IBU's and consider it for the entire batch as when you add the hopped wort back into the fermenter with the unhopped wort you are going to dilute it.

Cheers,

Brendo

 

[enoch]

You could also just do a 10 litre brew rather than go through all the wort juggling.

 

[floydmeddler]

water seems fine to me... may want to drop the mash temp a bit though depending on what style of beer you are going for. That seems a tad high to me - I thought you pretty much topped out around 68 for most styles with 72-75 being closer to a mash out to halt the enzymes and starch conversion.

As to the hops, you are going to want to increase the IBU's and consider it for the entire batch as when you add the hopped wort back into the fermenter with the unhopped wort you are going to dilute it.

Cheers,

Brendo

Hi, made it a little higher in case I lost a few degrees throughout the hour. Will heat it to 70c and hopefully when it hits the grains it should settle at around 68c.

Thanks

 

[floydmeddler]

You could also just do a 10 litre brew rather than go through all the wort juggling.

It's for a friend and me so we need to keep it at 23L.
Cheers

 

[seemax]

I think a split boil would be your best bet. You can get stock pots (10-12L) very cheap at most large stores ala Big W, Kmart, etc. The always seem to be having sales. Actually someone mentioned there was a 40% off sale somewhere this week, might only cost $10-20 max.

You should collect about 20L of wort from 4kg of grain. Splitting the hops should work ok, however the SG of the first runnings will be higher than the sparge, so utilisation will be higher in the sparge pot. Probably only talking 10% or so, which may be an issue if you're brewing a 150IBU mega IPA!

 

[floydmeddler]

So, advice I have acted on so far:

I will make sure that I boil all the collected wort and up my hops quantities.

Thanks guys. Really appreciate all your advice/comments.

F

 

[brendo]

Hi, made it a little higher in case I lost a few degrees throughout the hour. Will heat it to 70c and hopefully when it hits the grains it should settle at around 68c.

Thanks

If that is your strike temp (the temp of the water going itno the mash tun) then you are probably OK as you will loose maybe 5 or 8 degrees to the grain/tun. I read your temps as what you were going to hold it at for the hour.

 

[floydmeddler]

I think a split boil would be your best bet. You can get stock pots (10-12L) very cheap at most large stores ala Big W, Kmart, etc. The always seem to be having sales. Actually someone mentioned there was a 40% off sale somewhere this week, might only cost $10-20 max.

You should collect about 20L of wort from 4kg of grain. Splitting the hops should work ok, however the SG of the first runnings will be higher than the sparge, so utilisation will be higher in the sparge pot. Probably only talking 10% or so, which may be an issue if you're brewing a 150IBU mega IPA!

Haha. It won't be a problem then! So basically, are you saying that I should fill 2 pots with 10 litres of sweet wort and half the hops quantities with maybe a little less in the sparge pot?

Thanks

 

[floydmeddler]

If that is your strike temp (the temp of the water going itno the mash tun) then you are probably OK as you will loose maybe 5 or 8 degrees to the grain/tun. I read your temps as what you were going to hold it at for the hour.

Sorry, was a little unclear there.

 

[raven19]

Can I suggest being online on AHB, so if you have any questions, others can help if you are stuck.

Take plenty of measurements and notes.

Dont start drinking beer till after fermenter or second kettle batch is full! :icon_cheers:

I am sure it will go well though, and you shall make beer.

Ensure fermenter tap is CLOSED!!!!!!

 

[floydmeddler]

OK. I'm ready to go!!

WATCH THIS SPACE

 

[mckenry]

OK. I'm ready to go!!

WATCH THIS SPACE

:lol: 4.25am - you are pumped! All the best.

 

[floydmeddler]

Hello folks,

Here's what happened...

The mash tun kept the temperature at 67c which was fantastic. However, when we turned the tap to collect the wort, it kept stopping. The only way we could get it to flow was to stir vigorously resulting the wort running off quite cloudy. We collected 20L in this way. Worried now that this will affect the overall quality of the beer.

What do you think. Is this brew messed up? First all grain experience not what I had hoped.

Cheers,

Floyd

 

[Justin]

Sorry to hear things didn't go real smooth, but hey it's all a learning experience.

I have a few questions.
1. What is your false bottom/screen set up and made out of?
2. Did you slowly start the flow (collecting 1-2L of cloudy run off) to set the grain bed and then slowly open the tap to a higher flow or did you just open it wide from the start? Always best to let it start slowly while the run off is clearing as this sets up a good grain bed and filter set up, once the flow clears and you have collected a litre or two you can pour it back onto the mash and then open your tap a little more and start collecting the good clear stuff.
3. Were you batch sparging or fly sparging out of interest?
4. How was your grain crush and how did you crush it? Any wheat in the bill?

I'm sure the beer will still turn out ok, I think the AG process is remarkable forgiving so just hang in and see how it goes.

I know nothing about how your system is set up or made of so if you want to provide any further information we can at least see if there was any obvious reason why. If you haven't read it, John Palmers book "How to Brew" is a great resource to get a handle on what you are doing and the process.

Cheers, Justin

 

[Daniel.lear]

floydmeddler,

While this is far from ideal, all is not lost. As long as you didnt get too many grain husks in the liquid. (thereby extracting tannins during the boil)

IMO The only real problem i see yoll have is alot more foam at the start of your boil (be prepared for boil over) because of the added protiens. skim this foam off.

when you whirlpool at the end of you boil, there will be more trub at the bottom also.

Dont worry even if you mess up every step, chances are it'll still be a tasty drop and, being your first AG, something to be proud of.

Cheers

Leary