my first all grain brewing attempt yesterday

I find it better to overshoot strike temp than under shoot, if you overshoot, simply leave the cooler open and stir until the temp comes down to your desired reading..Let us know how it turns out!

 

Ha! good for you....I drank my first all-gain attempt yesterday (and second temp overall). I had some of the same problems as you...or at least I would have written a post with a very similar tone to it.

I ended up with a darn good session beer...even though I was shooting for a 7.5% ipa...but at least its drinkable.

I discovered that reading about brewing is one thing, and actually doing it is another. Now that I have perspective, and remember all the unforeseen shit that went wrong...I cant wait to jump back on the horse asap.

 

Your efficiency was a bit low( 59%), did you crush the grains?. Did you check mash ph?. It would be important to understand how mash plays it role .

http://www.howtobrew.com/section3/chapter14.html

 

It is always easier to add some cold water to your mash to bring your temps down.

 

LHBS fail. Shocking. There are several factors that go into computing your strike water temperature. There is no one size fits all number. Now that you are all grain brewing, I'd recommend either learning the math or using decent software.

 

This should be printed in all caps and issued with kit instructions.

In addition to @Mag00n 's comments, I learned to have a kettle with 2 qts of boiling water standing by which can give me 1 or maybe 2 degrees. Only took me three batches to figure this out so you are well ahead of the game. I end each brew session with some hot water left over. Also, pick a calculator and learn it's mash/strike/sparge errors. I use Beersmith and it always understates quantities . . . but the error is fairly consistent and gives me a benchmark. Some free ones are Brewers Friend and http://www.rackers.org/calcs.shtml. For Vikeman: how does Brewcipher stack up here?

If your strainer is collecting grain it's doing it's job . . . wouldn't worry about this.

 

Well, it´s not a good thing to do not allow DMS evaporate but who knows.

Read this : http://beersmith.com/blog/2012/04/10/dimethyl-sulfides-dms-in-home-brewed-beer/

 

Hard to say, since I haven't used the others. But BrewCipher does have something that the basic formulas (like the ones in How to Brew) don't have. That's a Mash Tun Intial Heat Absorption parameter. If the computed answer under or overshoots the target, this parameter can serve as a knob to dial it in. Here's the description...

"Mash Tun Initial Heat Absorption factor accounts for the thermal mass of the mash tun. It's expressed in terms of the volume of water (in GALLONS or LITERS) that would have the same heat capacity, thus allowing it to be used in standard strike water and sparge water temperature calculations. I have measured my Coleman Xtreme 52 quart cooler to have an approximate value of 0.74 Gallons. If you consistently overshoot your intended mash temps, decrease this value. If you consistently undershoot your desired mash temps, increase it."

 

I always keep a pound of light dme around for when I come up short on the gravity. DMS may be an issue, but hard to say for sure just make sure next time to uncover during the boil and congrats and welcome to the obsession. Keep us posted on how it turns out.

 

I'm thinking maybe a 60min hop addition might had helped, that and you said you had a big clump of hops left in the strainer after the boil. Try first wort hopping next time, and try and keep that hop strainer moving around. The few times that I've used a paint strainer bag to put hops in, I'd keep the bag moving around and lift it in and out of the boil a few times, this will help with hop utilization.

After the beer carbs up some this might help bring out some of the hop flavor. Glad to hear you didn't get any of the dms flavor,
Cheers

 

A couple of things:

1. If your hops were old and/or poorly kept they loose potency. Toss about 4-6 pellets in a light lager, recap, then taste-test in 5 days to see if they are ready for the task.
2. All of your hops were added during the boil. Nothing wrong here, but hop oils are volatile. Unlike alpha acid they evaporate. Consider adding some hops after flame out.
3. It's not unusual for hop flavor and especially aroma to be sub-standard in flat beer. Just adding bubbles should give better results.
4. Your hop aroma is largely dependent on dh'ing. When you have a good aroma the nose tricks the brain into thinking you are tasting hop flavors also. But again, you need some bubbles to get this in gear.
5. Finally, sometimes you just need more hops.

 

Had the mash tun been pre-heated to at least the targeted mash temperature ... the LHBS advice wouldn't have been all that bad.

Had the two cup addition been just off the boil ... chances are the grain bed temperature would have been fairly close to its target.

 

Great advice - it's always a good habit to reduce as many variables as possible.