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Author Topic: Brew Day Updates  (Read 3824 times)

Offline HoosierBrew

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Re: Brew Day Updates
« Reply #15 on: January 18, 2015, 12:39:31 pm »
+1
Jon H.

Offline denny

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Re: Brew Day Updates
« Reply #16 on: January 18, 2015, 12:47:17 pm »
Vorlauf about 6 quarts. Pretty darn clean. When I drained the MT I do see some very small white specks

Clear doesn't mean you can read a newspaper through it.  It just means free of "chunks".  I never have to vorlauf more than 2 qt. and usually it's around 2 cups.
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Offline denny

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Re: Brew Day Updates
« Reply #17 on: January 18, 2015, 12:48:00 pm »
So at this point I should use all 4 gallons of sparge water?

Use as much as you need to hit your boil volume.
Life begins at 60.....1.060, that is!

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Offline flbrewer

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Re: Brew Day Updates
« Reply #18 on: January 18, 2015, 12:49:11 pm »
Not sure exactly I think 6.5 the recipe says NA. http://www.homebrewersassociation.org/homebrew-recipe/regal-pale-ale/

Offline flbrewer

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Re: Brew Day Updates
« Reply #19 on: January 18, 2015, 01:17:19 pm »
Just an update...I do have a bit of these little white things in the boil from the mash..no big chunks or hulls.


Offline 69franx

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Re: Brew Day Updates
« Reply #20 on: January 18, 2015, 01:49:00 pm »
I think you're fine, no issues there
Frank L.
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In keg: Nothing (Double UGH!)
In the works:  House IPA, Dark Mild, Ballantine Ale clone(still trying to work this one into the schedule)

Offline flbrewer

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Re: Brew Day Updates
« Reply #21 on: January 18, 2015, 02:46:14 pm »
Chilling quickly here gents. 10 minutes in and it's down to 109. The lid is off of my kettle, is that ok?

Offline Stevie

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Brew Day Updates
« Reply #22 on: January 18, 2015, 02:58:40 pm »
Yep, you are fine. At this point you can put the lid on if it makes you feel better, but as long as nothing is blowing into it, you're golden.

I only use the lid during the whirlpool settling, but only when it's windy and the wasps are hanging out trying to get to my sweet wort.

Offline flbrewer

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Re: Brew Day Updates
« Reply #23 on: January 18, 2015, 04:21:19 pm »
WOW...what a day! Exciting, stressful, really fun today all in all. After the boil started my first beer helped me relax a bit  ;) Some notes below, if anything sticks out kindly chime in. THANK YOU to everyone who was quick to respond today, I couldn't have done it without you.

-Mash temp was within one degree at strike. After an hour it only dropped 2 degrees.

-Vorlauf initially took about 5-6 quarts. It was clear rather quickly, just not sure about those little white buggers.

-My pre-boil wort goal was 6.5 gallons. I ended up getting 2.75 first runnings, added to 6.5 after sparging. FWIW, the mash tun has just over 7 gallons worth of liquid in it in all. Perhaps something was off. I only ended up with ~4.75 in the fermenter. I think I either boiled off more than a gallon or maybe I misunderstood what was meant by mash tun dead space.

**Mental note to either use my shiny new Blichmann as BOTH the HLT and the boil kettle or get a new kettle. Using a boil kettle with no measurements takes WAY too long to get measurements.

-Used my SS immersion chiller after much internal debate with the following results...
-5 minutes, 126 degrees
-10 minutes, 109
-15 minutes, 97
-20 minutes, 88
-25 minutes, 80
-30 minutes, 80 (at this point, I pulled it out. Although tap water temp. was at 66, I figured it wasn't dropping any lower)
**Side note, I used a shi$ ton of water to do this. Figured out that I was using 5 gallons every minute and a half. That equates to 100 gallons of water to chill my beer. Not sure if this is better than other means of chilling.)

Finally, I was really stoked to find out that my post-boil gravity was 1.057, the recipe states 1.056!  :D

Again, thank you so much. Oh yeah, I tasted the wort after I checked the gravity and that was certainly the best tasting wort I've ever had. Miles above any extract I've sampled. Looking forward to my next brew!
« Last Edit: January 18, 2015, 07:19:37 pm by flbrewer »

Offline HoosierBrew

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Re: Brew Day Updates
« Reply #24 on: January 18, 2015, 04:26:27 pm »
Good for you. Told ya you could do it !  As the saying goes, you better brew again soon. You'll fly through that first AG batch.
Jon H.

Offline fmader

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Re: Brew Day Updates
« Reply #25 on: January 18, 2015, 05:05:03 pm »
Great job! I'm impressed with everything that I've read! You hit target mash temp on your first shot. It took me a few to get that right....and still don't hit it all the time after 52 batches in my set up. I did today though lol. And fantastic job hitting your gravity! I didn't donthst today lol. Just remember.., you'll have great days where everything flows wonderfully... Then there'll be days where it just sucks. But in the end, when the beer is tapped, it almost always tastes great!
Frank

Offline JT

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Re: Brew Day Updates
« Reply #26 on: January 18, 2015, 05:16:30 pm »
http://m.homedepot.com/p/Superior-Pump-1-4-HP-Submersible-Thermoplastic-Utility-Pump-91250/204589831/
Look into getting one of these or something similar.  After your water hits 110 or so, stop your faucet and hook the pump up to your chiller.  Put the pump in a cooler and empty your ice box into the cooler.  Add couple of gallons of cold water.  Output from the chiller should go right back into the cooler. If enough ice is used, this will chill your wort down to 64 in a reasonable amt of time without using more water.
Also: congrats!
« Last Edit: January 18, 2015, 05:18:27 pm by JT »

S. cerevisiae

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Re: Brew Day Updates
« Reply #27 on: January 18, 2015, 07:57:18 pm »
-My pre-boil wort goal was 6.5 gallons. I ended up getting 2.75 first runnings, added to 6.5 after sparging. FWIW, the mash tun has just over 7 gallons worth of liquid in it in all. Perhaps something was off. I only ended up with ~4.75 in the fermenter. I think I either boiled off more than a gallon or maybe I misunderstood what was meant by mash tun dead space.

First off, congratulations on surviving your first all-grain batch.  All-grain brewing is a lot of work, but the result is more rewarding.

Wort volume expands by approximately 5% at 100C/212F.  If you want to collect five gallons of wort post boil, you are looking at end of boil, pre-chill volume of 5 x 1.05 = 5.25 gallons plus the displacement of the hops and break, which often displace a pint if not a quart or more.  Next time, try reducing the output of your burner to lower your evaporation rate.  You only need a gentle rolling boil.  With experience, hitting your desired post-chill, cast-out volume will become second nature.


Offline Wort-H.O.G.

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Re: Brew Day Updates
« Reply #28 on: January 18, 2015, 08:01:22 pm »

WOW...what a day! Exciting, stressful, really fun today all in all. After the boil started my first beer helped me relax a bit  ;) Some notes below, if anything sticks out kindly chime in. THANK YOU to everyone who was quick to respond today, I couldn't have done it without you.

-Mash temp was within one degree at strike. After an hour it only dropped 2 degrees.

-Vorlauf initially took about 5-6 quarts. It was clear rather quickly, just not sure about those little white buggers.

-My pre-boil wort goal was 6.5 gallons. I ended up getting 2.75 first runnings, added to 6.5 after sparging. FWIW, the mash tun has just over 7 gallons worth of liquid in it in all. Perhaps something was off. I only ended up with ~4.75 in the fermenter. I think I either boiled off more than a gallon or maybe I misunderstood what was meant by mash tun dead space.

**Mental note to either use my shiny new Blichmann as BOTH the HLT and the boil kettle or get a new kettle. Using a boil kettle with no measurements takes WAY too long to get measurements.

-Used my SS immersion chiller after much internal debate with the following results...
-5 minutes, 126 degrees
-10 minutes, 109
-15 minutes, 97
-20 minutes, 88
-25 minutes, 80
-30 minutes, 80 (at this point, I pulled it out. Although tap water temp. was at 66, I figured it wasn't dropping any lower)
**Side note, I used a shi$ ton of water to do this. Figured out that I was using 5 gallons every minute and a half. That equates to 100 gallons of water to chill my beer. Not sure if this is better than other means of chilling.)

Finally, I was really stoked to find out that my post-boil gravity was 1.057, the recipe states 1.056!  :D

Again, thank you so much. Oh yeah, I tasted the wort after I checked the gravity and that was certainly the best tasting wort I've ever had. Miles above any extract I've sampled. Looking forward to my next brew!
Good day it seems. As far as the wort chiller- couple tricks. Bounce the wort chiller,as you chill and it will chill extremely faster. For about $50-$60, pick up a pump and then fill a cooler with ice and a little water. You will the be recirculating chilled water from cooler and will save water and time.


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Offline tommymorris

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Brew Day Updates
« Reply #29 on: January 19, 2015, 07:02:08 am »
-My pre-boil wort goal was 6.5 gallons. I ended up getting 2.75 first runnings, added to 6.5 after sparging. FWIW, the mash tun has just over 7 gallons worth of liquid in it in all. Perhaps something was off. I only ended up with ~4.75 in the fermenter. I think I either boiled off more than a gallon or maybe I misunderstood what was meant by mash tun dead space.

First off, congratulations on surviving your first all-grain batch.  All-grain brewing is a lot of work, but the result is more rewarding.

Wort volume expands by approximately 5% at 100C/212F.  If you want to collect five gallons of wort post boil, you are looking at end of boil, pre-chill volume of 5 x 1.05 = 5.25 gallons plus the displacement of the hops and break, which often displace a pint if not a quart or more.  Next time, try reducing the output of your burner to lower your evaporation rate.  You only need a gentle rolling boil.  With experience, hitting your desired post-chill, cast-out volume will become second nature.
Great brewday!

I have never been able to consistently hit my post boil batch size target exactly. I usually aim to end up 0.25-0.5G below my batch size target and then top up with water. This of course decreases the SG.

For this beer,, if you add 0.25G to get back to 5G your gravity will drop to 4.75*57/5=54 gravity points.

Being so close to your original gravity target you may want to stay where you are.

Another thing I do after a brew day is adjust all my recipe equipment inputs in Beersmith so the software predicts what I actually got. This will make the next batch's predictions more accurate and give you an estimate of your IBU's based on your actual batch size (in your case that won't change much).