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Date: 03 Jul 2006 05:22:25
From: brian@yahoo.com
Subject: My first All Grain... So far so good
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I brewed my first all grain last night and things went great so far. I
converted a cooler to a mash tun and prepared everything for a batch
sparge. I added my 10.5 lb of grains and it ended up a lot less tha I
expected in the cooler (Only about 2-3 inches deep). Since its a batch
sparge I thought it would work out fine, so I continued on. I took a
guess on the thermal mass of the cooler and bumped the strike temp up a
bit from my original calculations and hoped for the best. I tossed in
the 162 degree water and hit the mash temp of 148 on the button! After
stirring it all around I checked back and stirred every 20 min or so
(not sure if this is right or not) and then drained it out after an
hour. Added more water, stirred, and drained that as well. The water
(liquor?) was quite cloudy even after recirculating, but no chunks, so
I went with it. I checked the gravity at different points and I think
my efficiency was about 70% (need to double check the numbers with temp
correction) Boil went like normal and then topped off in the fermenter
to make up for evaporation and such. I threw the carboy in the ferment
fridge and set it for 70 and it was off an fermenting this morning
(used a starter). I dropped it to 60 (its a Kolsch) and I'll leave it
there for a week and see where its at. I'll post back to let you know
how the finished product comes out. I appreciate all the help I've
gotten from the RCB members.
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Date: 03 Jul 2006 14:26:26
From: John 'Shaggy' Kolesar
Subject: Re: My first All Grain... So far so good
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On 3 Jul 2006 05:22:25 -0700, <brian.sico@gmail.com > wrote:
> I brewed my first all grain last night and things went great so far. I
> converted a cooler to a mash tun and prepared everything for a batch
> sparge. I added my 10.5 lb of grains and it ended up a lot less tha I
> expected in the cooler (Only about 2-3 inches deep).
Wow, that must be a big cooler.
> Since its a batch sparge I thought it would work out fine, so I continued
> on.
Yeah, it shouldn't matter for a batch sparge.
> After stirring it all around I checked back and stirred every 20 min or so
> (not sure if this is right or not) and then drained it out after an
> hour.
I stir mine really well at first in order to make sure everything is
mixed together well and the temps are evenly distributed. It's easy to
get hot/cold spots. Once I've done that though, I usually just leave it
alone for the rest of the mash. Some people do stir at regular intervals
throughout, so I'm sure what you did didn't hurt anything. However, I've
found that as long as everything is mixed well to begin with I don't
really notice any difference if I stir throughout or leave it alone.
John.
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Date: 03 Jul 2006 08:57:49
From: Wayne
Subject: Re: My first All Grain... So far so good
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brian@yahoo.com wrote:
> I brewed my first all grain last night and things went great so far. I
> converted a cooler to a mash tun and prepared everything for a batch
> sparge. I added my 10.5 lb of grains and it ended up a lot less tha I
> expected in the cooler (Only about 2-3 inches deep). Since its a batch
> sparge I thought it would work out fine, so I continued on. I took a
> guess on the thermal mass of the cooler and bumped the strike temp up a
> bit from my original calculations and hoped for the best. I tossed in
> the 162 degree water and hit the mash temp of 148 on the button! After
> stirring it all around I checked back and stirred every 20 min or so
> (not sure if this is right or not) and then drained it out after an
> hour. Added more water, stirred, and drained that as well. The water
> (liquor?) was quite cloudy even after recirculating, but no chunks, so
> I went with it. I checked the gravity at different points and I think
> my efficiency was about 70% (need to double check the numbers with temp
> correction) Boil went like normal and then topped off in the fermenter
> to make up for evaporation and such. I threw the carboy in the ferment
> fridge and set it for 70 and it was off an fermenting this morning
> (used a starter). I dropped it to 60 (its a Kolsch) and I'll leave it
> there for a week and see where its at. I'll post back to let you know
> how the finished product comes out. I appreciate all the help I've
> gotten from the RCB members.
>
Sounds like you did everything right. The cloudy wort is just fine as
long as there are no chunks. With the shallow grain bed there isn't as
much filtering. On the other hand a shallow grain bed works fine for
batch sparging and there is much less chance for the dreaded "stuck
sparge" you hear about on here so often. Good job!
Wayne
Bugeater Brewing Company
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Date: 04 Jul 2006 02:56:00
From:
Subject: Re: My first All Grain... So far so good
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brian@yahoo.com wrote:
I added my 10.5 lb of grains and it ended up a lot less tha I
> expected in the cooler (Only about 2-3 inches deep).
What size of cooler is it?
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Date: 05 Jul 2006 12:55:36
From: brian@yahoo.com
Subject: Re: My first All Grain... So far so good
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jlkeeney@gmail.com wrote:
> brian@yahoo.com wrote:
> I added my 10.5 lb of grains and it ended up a lot less tha I
> > expected in the cooler (Only about 2-3 inches deep).
>
> What size of cooler is it?
It was a 64 qt cooler that I had at home that I wasn't using. Cleaned
it up, removed the drain, put some CPVC in there and voila... its a
mash tun. Its probably big enough to handle a 10 gal barleywine even!!
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Date: 11 Jul 2006 07:28:57
From: brian@yahoo.com
Subject: Re: My first All Grain... Update
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After a week at about 60 degrees and a nice slow fermentation (only a
1/2 inch krausen layer) my Kolsch is doing well. I checked the gravity
and it read 1.010 (started at about 1.050). It looks like I'm most of
the way there (I expected 1.006 - 1.008) so I transferred to secondary.
This is by far the lightest beer I've ever made, probably due to not
using extract. I tasted the sample and I'm quite happy with the beer.
The hops seem a tiny bit strong, but they tend to mellow over a bit
more time and the beer seems to have a malty flavor, but a pretty dry
finish. I'll see how things look after a week in the secondary. Next
weekend it goes in the keg and will go down to near freezing for a few
weeks. I will of course need to take weekly samples for quality
control and to monitor the lagering process. The grand plan is to
lager for 4 weeks and serve at my daughter's christening on Aug 13.
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