Critique my first All Grain brew day.

Hey man congrats on your first AG, looks like you overcame all your setbacks, and got beer in the fermenter so that's awesome. That stuff in the carboy is no biggie, it's all going to churn up and absorb into your beer once active fermentation starts, it's totally normal. Enjoy, it's gonna be the best beer you've made, AG rules!

 

I wouldn't say it looks totally normal, but yes, that looks like cold break.

 

Next time you get a stuck sparge, open the ball valve, place a bucket underneath and stick a coat hanger in a few times. Works good.

 

Looks good to me! just lots of hop trub and cold break material beginning to settle in there. That'll usually give it the 'egg drop soup' look. Any signs of fermentation kicking off yet? congrats on your first AG brew. It'll get easier once you hone in on your own methods and practices

 

I have read numerous times that 5.2 stabilizer does not work. You may have experienced a non-optimum mash pH depending on the water you used. Did you measure your mash pH?

3 gallons of mash water is insufficient for your grain bill. You want a mash thickness somewhere in the 1-2 quarts/lb. range.

Cheers!

 

Congrats on trying all grain. Here's a few thoughts to hopefully help you streamline next time....

Photo looks like a lot of cold break. It should be ok at the end of the day, maybe a bit hazier than you would like.

Why 6 Row versus 2 Row? I can't think of too many uses for 6 row other than a classic american pils.

For your next mash, don't follow any recipe exactly and calculate your mash water temp and volume and sparge water temp and volume. It sounds like you mashed too thick. I usually mash at 1.5 quarts per pound of grain.

I agree with @JackHorzempa to ditch the 5.2 mash stabilizer. It really doesn't work anyway. For your first few AG batches I just wouldn't worry about water chemistry at all. Get the rest of your process down. Then look into either building up from RO water or getting your local water source analyzed.

 

Golden Promise is not made by Briess...unless an acquisition happened overnight ...what I did find interesting on Briess' website though, is that they offer a Full Pint malt @ 1.7 L (vs GW @ ~2.2L)...another interesting note...couldn't even find Full Pint malt on GW's website...what's going on?

 

It is entirely up to you but I personally would not blindly trust anything that came out of your LHBS folks' mouths.

Cheers!

 

I think I remember you mentioning in another thread that you're in/around Columbus. If you have city water, I can point you to someone who provided me with city water reports in the past (since we may be on different sources).

What LHBS do you use. I go to Gentile's for my grain, but wouldn't trust a lot of the guys in there. I've been fed some awful advice in the past. Much better to know what you need and not change your plan based on what they say. Unfortunately, I think this is true for a lot of LHBS.

 

Regarding cold break. I've done a lot of things over the years, from using whirlflock to using Irish moss to skipping both. I've had crystal clear beer skipping both, and hazy beer using whirlflock or irish moss, so I'm not willing to advocate any way as the "right" way. For an IPA, I wouldnt worry about it, since a bit of haze is acceptable for the style. I will add to make sure you use whirflock at 5 minutes left in the boil and not 15 like you would irish moss. The most important thing, imo more important than using a clarifying agent, for a hard cold break is to chill your wort fast.

Regarding mash ph and 5.2 stabilizer, the truth is that most water will be acceptable to bring your mash within a ph needed for conversion, treated or not. Note that I am NOT saying that the water profile will be ideal for your style, just that you will likely have no issues with conversion. The issue with 5.2 stabilizer is not that it will harm your beer, it just that it is no more likely to get you into mash conversion range than skipping it. The mineral profile may in fact not be ideal for your style, and likely is less ideal than skipping it all together. I used 5.2 stabilizer blindly for years, until researching more in depth and finding out that it was not beneficial. I eventually bought a ph meter and can tell you for sure that it did not lock in a mash ph of 5.2 or really seem to do anything at all compared to the batches where i didn't use it.

Outside of making sure there is no chlorine in your water, my advise would be to forget about water chemistry for your fist few batches and worry about process. I'll add that you should likely not brew hoppy beers for these batches, as your water profile will not be ideal. After you have an good grasp of your process, take a look at your brewing water, or look into building up from RO or distilled.

 

I'll defer on this one to others, as I dont use a chiller. My chilling method is unorthodox, I chill my 10 gall batches outside in half of a 55 gallon drum (cut in half) with constantly flowing well water. During the summer it usually takes me 30 minutes to bring my beer down to the low 60s, and my cold break is usually hard.

 

I respectfully disagree with that statement as regards to brewing lighter colored beers with tap water (and likely well water as well?). In a water presentation by Martin Brungard at a recent past NHC he made mention that most water in the US has high Alkalinity (and he presented a map; see link below). He emphasized that if you are brewing lighter colored beer with high Alkalinity water that some adjustments are necessary to acidify the mash. I homebrew with my tap water (filtered to remove chlorine/chloramine) and I add lactic acid to acidify my mash when brewing lighter colored beer so that I am in the proper pH range. I do not add lactic acid when brewing Stouts/Porters since the dark malts provide all of the acidification needed.

https://water.usgs.gov/owq/alkus.pdf

Cheers!

 

I agree with very light beer styles, like pilsners, some water modification is likely necessary. Without getting into water chemistry, a novice would likely do best to dilute their source water with RO or distilled for these styles, or stay away from them all together until they are ready to venture into water chemistry and adjustment. I'm just trying to talk in generalities since the OP is just getting his feet wet with AG.

 

Me thinks the pixs show more than just normal cold break...expect a little more trub than normal...welcome aboard the all-grain trawler!

 

The OPs grain bill:

“Rahr 6 row - 4.25lb
Briess Golden Promise 2 row - 15lb
Crystal 40 - 12 ounces”

That is a lighter colored beer IMO. If they used tap water to brew this beer they likely did not achieve a proper mash pH.

Cheers!