First all-grain brew-day in the bag!

Discussion in 'Homebrewing' started by Applecrew135, May 19, 2013.

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  1. Applecrew135

    Applecrew135 Crusader (431) Jul 18, 2012 Pennsylvania

    All I can say is... wow! What a great experience! I've obsessed over this for quite a while, and I'm glad I did. Everything went so smoothly!

    I used a modified brew-in-a-bag technique. I mashed in my kettle with a paint-strainer bag, using a ratio of 1.25 qt/lb to dough-in and hit my target mash temp of 150 dead on. I then placed the mash vessel in a pre-heated cooler and let it sit for 90 minutes - only lost 2 degrees over 90 minutes, which I thought was pretty good.

    I did a mash out and sparged the grains in another pot, collected the runnings and combined them in my pot. I wound up with 4.5 gallons pre-boil @ 1.038. I did a 90 minute boil. Volume into the fermenter was 3 gallons; OG was 1.055.

    BeerSmith calculated an efficiency of about 92%, which really threw me for a loop. Not having any baseline, I estimated my efficiency at 65%... which I'm a little ticked off at because the brew is already pretty lightly hopped... and now may be even less-so, but this is a learning process and now I have a ballpark idea of what to expect in the future.

    BTW, the color looks great, and I tasted the wort before going into the fermenter and it was good.
    So, I'm looking forward to see how this turns out. I'm really pleased with my first all-grain brew. It was really very easy... although it's been a long day, about 6 hours from start to finish.

    I'll do it again in a heartbeat!
     
    NiceFly and inchrisin like this.
  2. inchrisin

    inchrisin Pooh-Bah (2,013) Sep 25, 2008 Indiana
    Pooh-Bah

    Glad to hear your first AG day went well. I think a lot of us had threads that started, "Is my beer ruined???"

    If you post a grain bill we can help you with efficiency. I think most brew in a bag is high 60s to low 70s if you don't sparge. I'd give you low 70s if I had to guess.

    You have a cooler that will fit 1.25 qt water/lb grain and you don't have a mash tun yet? :slight_smile:
     
  3. AlCaponeJunior

    AlCaponeJunior Grand Pooh-Bah (3,452) May 21, 2010 Texas
    Society Pooh-Bah

    My first all grain was pretty under-hopped too. It was a maris otter / willamette smash, and turned out to be a showcase for maris otter's flavor, with just enough hops bitterness to balance it out (but little actual hop flavor). No biggie, it was still a tasty beer and those that tried it liked it. That was more of my under-estimating both how much hops to use, and the strength of willamette hops. At the time I didn't check or even consider my efficiency at all (I had other more important things to worry about!).

    Now that you have data points, you can more accurately set yourself up for next time by adjusting the numbers in beersmith. You have to keep making adjustments until you get your system dialed in. It shouldn't take too many brews untill you're hitting your numbers nearly perfectly or perfectly every time.
     
  4. barfdiggs

    barfdiggs Initiate (0) Mar 22, 2011 California

    I've been getting mid 80s consistently from my no sparge BIABs, but I'm crushing pretty fine and recirculating via a pump (All beers under 1.075 to date). I think it really depends on the system, but a baseline of 65-70% seems like a good estimate.

    Speaking of BIAB, for your selfish 3 brew day, doing one BIAB brew makes the day a lot easier. I've been doing 3-5 batch brew days for a while now, and can say from personal experience, doing one or more as BIAB beers makes it way faster, especially if knocking out some session beers (e.g. English Mild: 35 minute sacch rest, 60-90 min boil, 5 min to chill w/ plate chiller).
     
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  5. Applecrew135

    Applecrew135 Crusader (431) Jul 18, 2012 Pennsylvania

    This was intended to be a 2.75 gallon batch... and I wound up with three gallons.

    Here's my grain bill:

    4 lbs two-row pale ale malt
    1/2 lb carapils
    1/4 lb vienna
    1/4 lb crystal 10

    I doughed in with 6.5 qts of water and hit my mash temp of 150; held it in a pre-heated cooler for 90 min.

    To answer the question of why I don't have a mash tun... well... I'd be a dead man if I carved up our camping cooler! But I will have one when I gear up for 5 gallon batches... but that's another story for another day.

    I sparged w/ 3 gals of water and wound up with approx 4.5 gallons of wort with a gravity of 1.038 pre-boil. My volume may be off, just under 4.5 gallons, but not by much. I was pretty nervous about boiling that much in a 5 gallon kettle.

    Post boil I had 3 gallons with a gravity of 1.055.

    I knew right away my estimated efficiency was sorely under-estimated. I can think of a couple of things that may have contributed:

    1) I squeezed the crap out of my grain bag, so BeerSmith over-estimated the amount of liquid retained.This probably also increased the efficiency.
    2) I simulated a batch sparge by pulling my grains and dunking them in 169 degree water, squeezing my grain bag to extract as much liquid as possible. I then repeated the sparge. Total sparge volume was 3 gallons.

    I was pretty shocked when I found my pre-boil gravity was almost as high as my calculated post-boil gravity (which was planned to be 1.042... ooops... wound up with 1.055).
     
  6. Applecrew135

    Applecrew135 Crusader (431) Jul 18, 2012 Pennsylvania

    Crikey... first time using dry yeast - I pitched with Danstar Nottingham... and I already have activity 6 hours after pitching. I pitched at 67 degrees and my fermenting area is a stable 65 degrees... looks like we're off to the races!
     
  7. Applecrew135

    Applecrew135 Crusader (431) Jul 18, 2012 Pennsylvania

    And... forgot to mention, when I placed my mash in the cooler.... well... it was the whole damn kettle! Like I said... my significant other would be sorely pissed at me if I carved up our cooler... :astonished:
     
  8. AlCaponeJunior

    AlCaponeJunior Grand Pooh-Bah (3,452) May 21, 2010 Texas
    Society Pooh-Bah

    When you decide to buy the cooler, consider getting the bigger one (ten gallon size). I bought a five gallon cylindrical water cooler type, and it works fine, but there is a limit on how big of a beer I can mash and still have five gallons as the batch size. My 8% PtE type beer was theoretically needing more mash tun space than I had (it was close tho, and I just sparged a little extra). However, I couldn't brew five gallons of a big RIS or barleywine because I'd run out of room. I'd have to brew more like four gallons.
     
  9. bgjohnston

    bgjohnston Initiate (0) Jan 14, 2009 Connecticut

    Danstar Nottingham will do you well. It flocculates so hard on the bottom of the fermenter that you have to practically scrape it out, and you rack off nice clean beer.
     
  10. bgjohnston

    bgjohnston Initiate (0) Jan 14, 2009 Connecticut

    I have a 10 gallon Igloo with a hole for the spout at the bottom. All I needed to to was install a kettle valve through the hole, and it is completely reversible to use the cooler for ice water at other times. Many coolers will not require an irreversible modification to make a mash tun.
     
  11. AlCaponeJunior

    AlCaponeJunior Grand Pooh-Bah (3,452) May 21, 2010 Texas
    Society Pooh-Bah

    All that's really different is that you install a valve and a filter on a cooler. No reason you couldn't put ice and drinks in there when you're not using it as a mash tun. That's one more concern that need not be worried about. :grinning:
     
    inchrisin likes this.
  12. Applecrew135

    Applecrew135 Crusader (431) Jul 18, 2012 Pennsylvania

    Unless your family cooler has no outlet to start with... :angry:

    I'm thinking I'm gonna start hitting some yard sales looking for leaky coolers... or broken lids...:slight_smile:
     
  13. inchrisin

    inchrisin Pooh-Bah (2,013) Sep 25, 2008 Indiana
    Pooh-Bah

    If you're a DIY type of guy it's about time you drill a hole and get a spiggot. :slight_smile: If not, it's probably worth about $50, (cooler and spiggot will run about this much), not to have to drill that hole and have a cooler as big as you want. I'm very happy with my 60 quart cooler and can mash about 30# of grain at 1.25 qt/lb comfy. That's an average 5 gal barleywine followed by a parti-gyle 5 gal of session ale. It just depends on how big you want to go. I know a lot of people who want to make 10 gal of barley wine. I can't and don't.

    A yard sale would work too.
     
  14. bgjohnston

    bgjohnston Initiate (0) Jan 14, 2009 Connecticut

    Craigslist was helpful to a new brewing buddy of mine over the past month. He scored a wort chiller, cooler mash tun, and some other stuff 2nd hand and reasonably priced.

    There always seems to be somebody selling off for one reason or another.
     
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