Joined: Sun Oct 17, 2004 5:22 am Posts: 1603 Location: Buffalo
You can just do one big batch sparge and heat it up to 195-200 to bring the goods up to 170, then recirculate and drain. It lowers your efficiency but it's easier. A 7 gallon boil usually gives me about 6 gallons left in my kettle and then 5.5 into the fermenter after trub losses. The more hops the more loss. The software, at least for me, is awesome for figuring water volumes and infusion temps. I usually hit my mash temp easily. For my Imperial Stout and other big beers I actually do a mash out (adding a certain amount of boiling water to stabilize the mash at 170). Then I do a continuous sparge and got close to 80% efficiency. This is basically constantly adding small amounts of water and keeping the mash draining slowly at the same rate. It's like fly sparging but without the sparge arm setup. You get the most out of your grain that way but it takes forever. I drink a lot if I go this route.
Joined: Fri Jan 28, 2005 1:04 am Posts: 2057 Location: The end of the spiral...
vegman wrote:
You can just do one big batch sparge and heat it up to 195-200 to bring the goods up to 170, then recirculate and drain. It lowers your efficiency but it's easier. A 7 gallon boil usually gives me about 6 gallons left in my kettle and then 5.5 into the fermenter after trub losses. The more hops the more loss. The software, at least for me, is awesome for figuring water volumes and infusion temps. I usually hit my mash temp easily. For my Imperial Stout and other big beers I actually do a mash out (adding a certain amount of boiling water to stabilize the mash at 170). Then I do a continuous sparge and got close to 80% efficiency. This is basically constantly adding small amounts of water and keeping the mash draining slowly at the same rate. It's like fly sparging but without the sparge arm setup. You get the most out of your grain that way but it takes forever. I drink a lot if I go this route.
Cool...looks like my next project is building a mash tun. The great thing about brewing is that everyone does it a little bit different and, either which way, you end up with tasty beer!
Joined: Sun Oct 17, 2004 5:22 am Posts: 1603 Location: Buffalo
Cpt. Murphy wrote:
vegman wrote:
You can just do one big batch sparge and heat it up to 195-200 to bring the goods up to 170, then recirculate and drain. It lowers your efficiency but it's easier. A 7 gallon boil usually gives me about 6 gallons left in my kettle and then 5.5 into the fermenter after trub losses. The more hops the more loss. The software, at least for me, is awesome for figuring water volumes and infusion temps. I usually hit my mash temp easily. For my Imperial Stout and other big beers I actually do a mash out (adding a certain amount of boiling water to stabilize the mash at 170). Then I do a continuous sparge and got close to 80% efficiency. This is basically constantly adding small amounts of water and keeping the mash draining slowly at the same rate. It's like fly sparging but without the sparge arm setup. You get the most out of your grain that way but it takes forever. I drink a lot if I go this route.
Cool...looks like my next project is building a mash tun. The great thing about brewing is that everyone does it a little bit different and, either which way, you end up with tasty beer!
Joined: Sun Oct 17, 2004 5:22 am Posts: 1603 Location: Buffalo
Labor day weekend coming up! My favorite brewing weekend. This year I'm going with Jamil's Raspberry Robust Porter from Brewing Classic Styles and, if I have time, another batch of my ESB.
Joined: Fri Jan 28, 2005 1:04 am Posts: 2057 Location: The end of the spiral...
vegman wrote:
Labor day weekend coming up! My favorite brewing weekend. This year I'm going with Jamil's Raspberry Robust Porter from Brewing Classic Styles and, if I have time, another batch of my ESB.
I have almost everything I need to build my mash tun, so I ordered the ingredients for my first all-grain batch! I'm doing a vanilla stout. I brewed this same beer as a partial a while back and it tastes awesome. I'm going to make a few tweaks this time around.
I've got an ESB ready to brew too, but I just went with a partial mash kit. Anything special about yours? Care to share a recipe?
Joined: Sun Oct 17, 2004 5:22 am Posts: 1603 Location: Buffalo
This is my ESB recipe. It's my favorite house session beer. I look forward to the day that I can keg it but it's great out of the bottle too. I mash at 151 for an hour. Basic double batch sparge, nothing fancy. I do two weeks primary, two weeks in secondary to clear it a bit. Bottle condition for a month.
Type: All Grain Batch Size: 6.00 gal Boil Size: 7.00 gal Boil Time: 60 min Brewhouse Efficiency: 70.0
Ingredients
9 lbs 8.0 oz Pale Malt, Maris Otter (3.0 SRM) Grain 88.4 % 8.0 oz Aromatic Malt (26.0 SRM) Grain 4.7 % 8.0 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt -120L (120.0 SRM) Grain 4.7 % 4.0 oz Special Roast (50.0 SRM) Grain 2.3 % 1.20 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00%] (60 min) Hops 22.4 IBU 0.50 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00%] (20 min) Hops 3.1 IBU 0.50 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00%] (1 min) Hops 1.6 IBU 1 Pkgs SafAle English Ale (DCL Yeast #S-04) Yeast-Ale
Beer Profile
Est Original Gravity: 1.047 SG Est Final Gravity: 1.012 Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 4.5 % Bitterness: 27.1 IBU Calories: 43 cal/pint Est Color: 11.2 SRM Color: Color
Joined: Sun Oct 17, 2004 5:22 am Posts: 1603 Location: Buffalo
Cool, let me know how it comes out. I'm thinking of trying it as a no-sparge brew since I like malty beers. You basically increase your grain to the point where you're extracting enough wort from your mash at the right gravity without having to sparge. It's supposed to give you a nice, rich malty wort. I'm just trying to figure out how much extra malt to add and also whether I have to increase the specialty grains. Maris Otter is so delicious that I want to give it a shot.
Joined: Fri Jan 28, 2005 1:04 am Posts: 2057 Location: The end of the spiral...
Interesting. I'm not exactly sure how you'd go about doing it, but wouldn't it just be a matter of tweaking the proportion of water/grain and going for more volume? It might be a bit of trial and error.
I finished up the mash tun over the weekend. I had to slightly deviate from the instructions I found online in order to get the valve installed properly. I've had it full of water since mid-day yesterday and she appears to be 100% water tight!
Joined: Sun Oct 17, 2004 5:22 am Posts: 1603 Location: Buffalo
Awesome, happy brewing! The mash tun makes a great cleaning soak tub too. I run the water from my chiller into it, add PBW and soak all my tools in it.
Joined: Fri Jan 28, 2005 1:04 am Posts: 2057 Location: The end of the spiral...
I did just that as I was brewing last night. I need to rinse the cooler out before I do a mash in it anyways to minimize any plastic taste seeping into my precious brew.
I think I'm going to order up a double batch of your ESB. I killed off a keg last night, and replaced it with an IPA I brewed a while back, but my second keg in the fridge is nearly done as well, which leaves me only the batch I made last night, so I need to get my ass in gear (I have 6 kegs!). I have everything I need to handle a batch of that size, so I may as well get 2 kegs out of the deal!
Joined: Sun Oct 17, 2004 5:22 am Posts: 1603 Location: Buffalo
Cpt. Murphy wrote:
I did just that as I was brewing last night. I need to rinse the cooler out before I do a mash in it anyways to minimize any plastic taste seeping into my precious brew.
I think I'm going to order up a double batch of your ESB. I killed off a keg last night, and replaced it with an IPA I brewed a while back, but my second keg in the fridge is nearly done as well, which leaves me only the batch I made last night, so I need to get my ass in gear (I have 6 kegs!). I have everything I need to handle a batch of that size, so I may as well get 2 kegs out of the deal!
Awesome, let me know how that turns out. You should do something different with the two kegs, like use a different yeast strain for each and compare. I use the US-04 dry because it's easy and I buy bulk 10 packs of it but you could try two different liquid strains or something. Remember to go easy on the CO2. ESB's should be light on the carbonation.
Joined: Fri Jan 28, 2005 1:04 am Posts: 2057 Location: The end of the spiral...
vegman wrote:
Cpt. Murphy wrote:
I did just that as I was brewing last night. I need to rinse the cooler out before I do a mash in it anyways to minimize any plastic taste seeping into my precious brew.
I think I'm going to order up a double batch of your ESB. I killed off a keg last night, and replaced it with an IPA I brewed a while back, but my second keg in the fridge is nearly done as well, which leaves me only the batch I made last night, so I need to get my ass in gear (I have 6 kegs!). I have everything I need to handle a batch of that size, so I may as well get 2 kegs out of the deal!
Awesome, let me know how that turns out. You should do something different with the two kegs, like use a different yeast strain for each and compare. I use the US-04 dry because it's easy and I buy bulk 10 packs of it but you could try two different liquid strains or something. Remember to go easy on the CO2. ESB's should be light on the carbonation.
Yeah, I was actually going to get your thoughts on doing just that. I'll look into a few different strains. I suppose I could dry hop one too. I've been doing natural carb in my kegs, so I'll make sure to dial that back a bit.
Joined: Sun Oct 17, 2004 5:22 am Posts: 1603 Location: Buffalo
Cpt. Murphy wrote:
vegman wrote:
Cpt. Murphy wrote:
I did just that as I was brewing last night. I need to rinse the cooler out before I do a mash in it anyways to minimize any plastic taste seeping into my precious brew.
I think I'm going to order up a double batch of your ESB. I killed off a keg last night, and replaced it with an IPA I brewed a while back, but my second keg in the fridge is nearly done as well, which leaves me only the batch I made last night, so I need to get my ass in gear (I have 6 kegs!). I have everything I need to handle a batch of that size, so I may as well get 2 kegs out of the deal!
Awesome, let me know how that turns out. You should do something different with the two kegs, like use a different yeast strain for each and compare. I use the US-04 dry because it's easy and I buy bulk 10 packs of it but you could try two different liquid strains or something. Remember to go easy on the CO2. ESB's should be light on the carbonation.
Yeah, I was actually going to get your thoughts on doing just that. I'll look into a few different strains. I suppose I could dry hop one too. I've been doing natural carb in my kegs, so I'll make sure to dial that back a bit.
I don't know that I would personally dry hop that recipe. It's not an Extra Strong/Special Bitter (higher gravity) and you really want a balance between the malt and bittering hops with the natural estery nose shining through. Then again, experimenting is what homebrewing is all about so WTF?
Joined: Fri Jan 28, 2005 1:04 am Posts: 2057 Location: The end of the spiral...
Hey Vegman, I have a quick question for you. Over the weekend I brewed my first all-grain batch. It went pretty well and I learned a good deal about how my setup impacts strike temp, etc. Anyways, I had input my recipe into iBrew (it's an iPad app) and assumed 70% efficiency, which was the default of the app. My initial OG reading was a fair amount higher than what the app indicated it should be (on the partial mash brews I've been doing, the app is usually accurate within 2-3 points @ 70%). I was brewing a rather low grav beer anyways, so it didn't cause a problem, but am I correct in assuming that the higher gravity indicates a higher efficiency? I gradually changed the efficiency setting in the app until it reflected the OG I achieved in my brew, and it put me somewhere around 84%! I'd be pretty stoked if I end up getting that sort of efficiencies out of my system.
Also, I wanted to run my process by you to see what you think:
My strike temp was 156 degrees, and I ended up having to pull some water out of my cooler and re-boil it to get my temps up. I didn't realize the impact the empty cooler would have on my water temps. No big deal, as I hadn't added the grain yet. Anyways, my mash (1 hour) went well, and I only lost a few degrees. I recirculated about 1/2 gallon and let it sit just a bit and then infused the mash with enough water (@ 170degrees) to approximately replace the water that was absorbed by the grain (I'd run a calculation beforehand). I let that sit about 15 minutes, recirculated, and drained. I ended up with slightly less wort than I had hoped, but not by a huge amount (maybe 2 quarts). I compensated by increasing the water for my second infusion (200 degrees). I let the 200 degree water rest for another 15 minutes, recirculated, and drained. I was a tad nervous with the 200 degree water (I've heard about the tannin issue), but my resting temp ended up being closer to 170 which, I assume, is the whole idea. I ended up very close to my overall boil target and everything else seemed to go very well.
This batch was version 2 of the vanilla stout I made a few months ago (partial mash), and I was going for a bit more body. I tasted a bit after I took my OG reading, and it sure seemed to me like it was a bit more full.
Joined: Sun Oct 17, 2004 5:22 am Posts: 1603 Location: Buffalo
Cpt. Murphy wrote:
Hey Vegman, I have a quick question for you. Over the weekend I brewed my first all-grain batch. It went pretty well and I learned a good deal about how my setup impacts strike temp, etc. Anyways, I had input my recipe into iBrew (it's an iPad app) and assumed 70% efficiency, which was the default of the app. My initial OG reading was a fair amount higher than what the app indicated it should be (on the partial mash brews I've been doing, the app is usually accurate within 2-3 points @ 70%). I was brewing a rather low grav beer anyways, so it didn't cause a problem, but am I correct in assuming that the higher gravity indicates a higher efficiency? I gradually changed the efficiency setting in the app until it reflected the OG I achieved in my brew, and it put me somewhere around 84%! I'd be pretty stoked if I end up getting that sort of efficiencies out of my system.
Also, I wanted to run my process by you to see what you think:
My strike temp was 156 degrees, and I ended up having to pull some water out of my cooler and re-boil it to get my temps up. I didn't realize the impact the empty cooler would have on my water temps. No big deal, as I hadn't added the grain yet. Anyways, my mash (1 hour) went well, and I only lost a few degrees. I recirculated about 1/2 gallon and let it sit just a bit and then infused the mash with enough water (@ 170degrees) to approximately replace the water that was absorbed by the grain (I'd run a calculation beforehand). I let that sit about 15 minutes, recirculated, and drained. I ended up with slightly less wort than I had hoped, but not by a huge amount (maybe 2 quarts). I compensated by increasing the water for my second infusion (200 degrees). I let the 200 degree water rest for another 15 minutes, recirculated, and drained. I was a tad nervous with the 200 degree water (I've heard about the tannin issue), but my resting temp ended up being closer to 170 which, I assume, is the whole idea. I ended up very close to my overall boil target and everything else seemed to go very well.
This batch was version 2 of the vanilla stout I made a few months ago (partial mash), and I was going for a bit more body. I tasted a bit after I took my OG reading, and it sure seemed to me like it was a bit more full.
Any thoughts? Thanks for your insight!
Cool man, sounds like a successful first all grain. Mine was full of fuck-ups. A couple of thoughts:
About the higher than expected gravity. What was your expected pre-boil volume? Were you short? I doubt you hit 84% efficiency but if you did, congrats!
About the strike water temp and cold cooler, pre-heat your cooler with a gallon of superhot tap water. Just let it sit in therer while youre heating your mah watert and dump it before you add your grain.
Also, I never replace my water absorbed by grain. I just use more sparge water and also tend to use a bit more mash water than some. (1.4 quarts/lb). Seems like an unecessary step and may lead to heat loss.
Anyway, fucking cool man. I'm drinking a Breakfast stout and then racking my porter onto some raspberry puree.
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