[Scott Swetz]

Morning,

Gearing up to do my first All Grain Homebrew and had some quick questions I was hoping to get some help on from more experience brewers.

1) I am rigging up my brew kettle with a whirlpool, per the recipe (below). I am going to be getting a pump and tubing, but also wanted to ask about re-circulating the wort with this rather than manually. My understanding is just hook it up and ensure the tube is up against the side. Does that make sense? Also if you do this how do you know when done?

2) The recipe below is probably a bit complicated for a beginner, but going to shoot for the stars, just had a few questions I was hoping to get help on;

a) The recipe makes 8 gallons, but I am only going to make 5 so assume just multiply everything by 6.25?

b) When they reference the whirlpool - is this after the full 60 minutes of the boil? I assume not, seems like cool then whirlpool with those hops for 30 minutes?

c) I can't seem to follow the dry hopping schedule, but probably because I am a first timer. When dry hopping you wait until fully fermented then transfer to secondary. Then do I read this as add the 5 Day hops first, then 3 days in add the 2 Day hops?

https://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/view/551644/blueberry-milkshake-ipa

Sorry for all of the questions, but any help will be really appreciated on this!

[Brewtopalonian]

Good Morning Scott,

I am brewing as well today, but thought I'd give you some help before I get started:

1) In regards to your whirlpool, if you don't have a brew kettle with a whirlpool port, then you can simply place the hose over the side of the kettle and up against the wall of the kettle pointed in one direction or the other (whichever way you want the whirlpool to go, doesn't matter).  Typically, a whirlpool will come with a time, on this recipe it says 30 mins which means you will begin the whirlpool immediately after flame out and whirlpool for 30 mins after flame out trying to maintain a temperature of 140*F (as per the recipe you sited).  So you can cool to 140 using a counter flow / plate chiller / immersion chiller and then stop cooling and put the heat back on ever so slightly to maintain 140*F for 30 mins.  I think this also answered your question in 2b.

2) a)  It is a complicated recipe to dive into as a first time all grain brewer, however not impossible by any means.  If you have brewing software, I recommend simply putting the ingredients into the software with their percentages and then scaling the recipe for your setup to reach the desired OG and BU/GU ratio.  This would be the easiest way to do it.  Otherwise you'll have to do some math, and lets face it, no one likes to do math!  Basically you keep the percentages the same (ratio of grist) and adjust to get to the gravity in the volume you want. I hope this makes some sense to you.

c) The dry hopping assumption you made is correct.  Wait until terminal gravity is reached, then add your first (5 day dry hops) then after three days, add your 2 day hops.  Then it's time to rack to keg/bottle and pull the dry hops bag.  Also, don't forget to add your blueberry puree BEFORE doing this dry hop schedule to allow fermentation to kick off again and reach terminal gravity.  I would be very careful about handling the puree and maintain a sanitary environment.  If you're worried about it, you can always pasteurize your blueberry puree with some gentle heat or use some campden tablets to stabilize the puree. 

Good luck, you've got your work cut out for you for your first brew, but it should be rewarding! 

[mainebrewer]

Have fun, keep good notes so you'll know what you may want to do differently next time. Your end product may not be exactly what you expected but it's hard to screw up beer so badly that it's not drinkable. 

[Scott Swetz]

Thank you so very much, you basically answered every question I had. Really appreciate it! Good luck today!

[goose]

Happy brewing, Scott. All grain is not that hard to do although i admit i was very apprehensive when I did my first one 20+ years ago (I brewed extract beers for the first 5 years of homebrewing).

Let us all know how it comes out and like mainebrewer said, keep good notes so you can either replicate it again or make tweaks to improve it!

[juggabrew303]

If you decided to not get the pump. You could just stir with a spoon/paddle after adding whirlpool hops every few minutes.  Good luck


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