Ok Guys I Just Finished Reading "brewing Your First All Grain Bee

[razE]

and i have to say its a great read and easy for me to understand. The link is here if there are any other guys who missed the link and are interested in a simple guide to AG. http://www.beerdude.com/howto_brew_allgrain.shtml . Atm i have been doing as much research as i have time and have purchased my burner, boil kettle and almost finished making my mash tun but had a question. As I will be doing a protein rest, sachrification rest, mash out and sparge all in my mash tun i was a little confused on a couple of things.

Lets say I want to mash with 15L of water and i want to do my protein rest at 49degrees for 20 mins then i want to raise the temperature to 65 degrees to mash for 1hr. Do i add the whole 15L for the protein rest and add small amounts of boiled water and stir till i reach 65 degrees for the 1 hour mash? Or do i use a smaller amount of water for the protein rest and bring it up to the 15L as i raise the temp to 65degrees with added boiling water for the 1 hour mash? Or it doesn't matter if your a bit over on water in the mash tun?

Also is this right, after the 1hr mash add small amounts of boiled water to raise the temp too 76 degrees and leave sealed in the mash tun for 5 minutes then drain off into the boil kettle untill there is approximately 1inch of water above the grain. Then add 27L of water at 76degrees to the mash tun and sparge off into the boil kettle or do you just add a few litres of water at a time untill you have collected enough wort?

Sorry guys hope i was clear enough but this part is where im not totally sure and want to get it right in my head before i attempt to brew.

Thanks again!

 

[MHB]

Mate it would make youre life a lot easer if you could watch a brew, if you fill in your location, I am sure someone would let you look over their shoulder on a brew day.

If you are using good quality grain, dont worry about the Protein rest, with todays well modified malts it isnt going to be all that much use.

For a first brew, start with a nice simple recipe say 95% Base Malt (either Ale or Pilsner) and 5% Crystal (or CaraMunich)

Mash in at a ratio of 2 to 3:1, thats 2 or 3 Litres of water for each 1 Kg of Malt

Aim to mash in at 65-67 C so your strike water will be around 72-76 C

For a first brew batch sparging is going to be a whole lot easier just remember to recirculate the sweet water until its crystal clear, both times, then drain down slowly dont rush the sparge.
For a batch sparge I would think of mashing in at 3:1 then using another 3:1 of around 85C hot water for the sparge.
The best part of 1 litre/Kg will stay in the grain, should give you 5.2 ish L/kg of malt, to the kettle.

Resist the urge to over hop, aim for 25 IBU and use a nice tasty late hop

Most important of all is to have fun, luck on the cherry breaker.

MHB

 

[Barley Belly]

Take a look at this, it's simple and to the point.

It convinced me how easy it was to turn to the dark side.

It also helped me break my AG cherry last week. :icon_cheers:

http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=JMHLqnWCNjE

 

[Tony]

good advice from mark there.

Keep the recipe simple and the mash schedule simple. Keep it all simple and work your way up.

perfect the basics and then move up to protein rests ect.

if you want to get in to protein rests....... get promash brewing software. It will calculate all your temperatures and volumes ect.

A simple rule i use is this.

I mash in at 2 liters per kg of malt at 52 deg for a protein rest for 10 min. Get 1 liter/kg of water heading for the boil.

when the mash has rested for 10 min, add the boiling water and mix in fast. This will get you to 3:1 water to grain and around the mid 60's temperature wise. Let it mash for an hour.

mash out at this temp and batch sparge. Dont get greedy and over sparge. Your better off topping up with a touch of water to the kettle than rinsing grain trying to get every last bit out...... all you will get is tannins.

cheers

 

[buttersd70]

Resist the urge to over hop, aim for 25 IBU and use a nice tasty late hop

Absolutely one of the most important things imo. Balance of flavour is much more important than explosive hop punch that hides all other flavours. . And as Mark said, remember to have fun. If going into intricate detail flicks your switch, do it. If keeping things simple is your bag, do that. But to start with, get the basics right, and then let the finer points come into their own as and when they will.

 

[razE]

Ok guys Well i have Beer Smith and am slowly working it out. I currently have a lager in the fridge that is fermenting so I have time on my hands to consult the experienced lads here on AHB about my up comming all-grain brew. Thanks for your formula there on the protein rest tony, ill be keeping a note of that. Im planning on popping up to the next BABBs meeting to meet some of the guys and learn some more tricks.

Thanks again guys, appreciate it. :super: