Brew Day is on!!!!

Brewing Processes
1

Ok, my next attempt is going to be today.  My recipe is as follows:

5# Pale Malt (Recipe calls for Marris Otter)
3# Vienna Malt
2# Munich malt
1/2# Crystal 20L
1/2# Crystal 60L

Hops are simple, all Cascade full cone

1 ounce at 60
3/4 ounce at 30
1 ounce at 10
1/2 ounce at 5
1/2 ounce at flameout

1 ounce dry hop, will probably wait until fermentation is done and then add them for about 3 or 4 days

Yeast is WLP001 and made a starter of 100g of DME to I litre of water.  Boiled for 5 mins and in a 5 gallon jug when down to 70 degrees.  Shook the heck out of it, then added the yeast and covered.  Shook it a few times last night and it is sitting on the counter now waiting for later today.

Mash will be at 154 or so for 60 mins.  I am going to try and move my burner into the garage to see if I can get a bit better temp control.  Looks like the wind is going to pick up a bit today, so it might be tougher to keep the burner going and keep the temp close outside.  About 4 3/4 gallons of water to mash in, then about 3 gallons of sparge water.  I am going to split that in half I think, and do the dunk in sparge that I read about.  Put the grain bag in a pot with the heated water and stir and try and extract as much as I can that way.  Seems the way I have been sparging isn’t quite working.

60 minute boil, cool to about 70 degrees, aerate as best I can and pitch the starter.  According to the recipe sheet I have, the fermenting will be at about 62 degrees for two weeks.

My hope is that I can get an OG of about 1.054, FG of 1.012 with an ABV somewhere around 5.5%.  Brewfather has the IBU’s at about 46, which will be a lower IBU for me, but what the heck.  I saw the recipe on another forum and thought I would give it a go.  I have not used Marris Otter before, so that should be fun.  Anyway, I won’t be starting for a bit, so any comments would be welcomed.  But, since I already bought all the stuff, it is unlikely I will be changing anything other than maybe having a packet of BRY97 yeast that I can sub for the WLP001 if that makes it better.  Wish me luck.  RR

2

Have fun!

3

Rough start.  Brewfather says I should be at a pre boil of 1.052 and I am at 1.042.  But I am in it now, so we will blaze on.

4

Oops, two things were off.  Brewfather had my efficiency at 75%.  That is a bit high.  I adjusted it down to about 70% and I hit my number just about spot on.  My preboil gravity according to Brewfather was supposed to be 1.046, I was at 1.042.  My OG in Brewfather was 1.056 and I am at 1.052.  I am pretty happy with the way this worked out.  I double sparged the grains, so maybe that helped.  But I know now my efficiency seems to be at about 70% and that is not too bad according to what I have read.  Rock on!!!

5

That sounds great! Good work. Cheers [emoji482]

6

From How to Brew Chap 18: Calculate how efficient your extraction was.

Measure the gravity in the boiling pot and multiply the points by the number of gallons you collected.

Then divide by the number of pounds of grain you used.

The result should be somewhere around 30 ppg.

27 is okay, 29 is good, and over 30 is great.

If it is 25 or below, you are lautering too fast or you are not getting good conversion in the mash, which could be caused by having too coarse a grist, the wrong temperature, not enough time, it got cold, or a pH factor, et cetera.

7

Ok. So going with that lets see.

1.042x5/11?  That gets me .47.  That sounds pretty good to me.  Right?  Or, am I going with this equation?  42X5/11?  If so, that brings me down to 19?  That sure doesn’t sound right  I am hoping it is the first equation to be honest.  Either way, my OG was 1.052 both on my hydrometer and my Ispindel when I put it in the wort in the start of fermentation.  So I am good, at least there.  LOL.

Thanks for the info, I know the efficiency calculation has been explained to me before, but I never had the numbers to actually do it.

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To me the easy way to calculate efficiency is as follows.

  1. Enter your recipe in a recipe calculator. You’ve probably already done this.
  2. Set the volumes to match what you actually got.
  3. Fiddle with the efficiency input until the OG predicted by the software is the OG you actually achieved.

Now you know your efficiency.

9

If you double sparge, pay close attention to your pH.

10

That is pretty much what I did.  LOL.  That is where I got the 70% or so.  Not bad for a BIAB based on what I have read.

11

IF your measurements are correct, the result is 19. You might want to troubleshoot: “you are lautering too fast or you are not getting good conversion in the mash, which could be caused by having too coarse a grist, the wrong temperature, not enough time, it got cold, or a pH factor, et cetera.”

For example, I mash for 90 minutes, I closely control mash pH, I mill based on a sieve test coupled with lauter flow, use a computer to control temp, control recirculation/lautering speed at .5-.6 gpm, etc.

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While that’s great that you’ve figured out what works for you, it’s not necessarily the case for everyone. For years with much cooler system, for instance, I averaged 80+ % efficiency with far less control. While I love my GF system for the additional control it provides, that kind lof control isn’t always necessary. Why matters is knowing whatever system you use and the influence various processes have.

13

Whatever…

The OP seemed concerned so I offered a simple calculation and some ideas to improve along with an example of how I used the same information.

Sorry you disapprove …but I really don’t care. Argue with someone else.  I’m over it.

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I don’t disapprove at all. I’m sorry if it seemed like I was arguing. Just providing another point of view. Your information was valuable, but I wanted to point out that there’s more than one way of doing things.

15

Easy there guys.  We are all here for the love of beer.  Let’s all pop one open and drink to the hobby and the place where we can all learn a bit.

So, while I know I have a lot to learn, this last brew day taught me a few things.

  1. Don’t be in a hurry to get it done.  I had an appointment that I wanted to keep, so I started early.  Rushed thru it and made a mess in the garage.  I cleaned it up, but lesson learned.  Plan a whole day.  If it takes less time, then more time for a beer.  LOL

  2. It seems the dunks in the sparge water got me a much better result than just pouring water over the grains.  It seemed that the dunks, both of them, yielded some more “stuff” as the water was still amber in color.

  3. I think, with this brew anyway, I was somewhere in the 70% efficiency based on fooling around with BrewFather and coming up with darn near the OG I had in the fermenter before the yeast went in.  As confirmed by my Ispindel as well.  So, going forward, I will change BrewFather to show 70% efficiency and go from there.

4.  I learned that a few ice packs taped to the side of the fermenter bucket will cool things off considerably.  I went from 73 to 68 inside temp by just doing that.  Next up, a insulated sleeve or bag that my wife has that I will put the bucket in and line with ice and water.

So, all in all, not a bad day.  Now, I just hope the beer comes out tasting good.  LOL.

Anyway, enjoy the day all, and let’s just raise a glass and toast that we are all still on this side of the dirt.

Cheers.

RR

16

Cheers [emoji482]

For my dunks I set the bag full of grain in the sparge water bucket. I open it up and stir enough to get the all the grain wet again. I then let it sit 5 minutes and pull the bag and drain the sparge water. While I am doing this the first runnings are heating to boil.

17

I did pretty much the same thing.  Only I let it sit in the water closer to 10 mins, stirring constantly.  I was having issues with my burner, so it took a bit longer to get to a boil, but I was ok with it.  I did two dunks, both about 8 to 10 mins and both stirring every minute or so.

18

I think I have a hold on the temp now.  I put a second fan in and it dropped it down to anywhere between 68 and 70.  I found a keg sleeve on amazon for about 15 bucks that I can put ice packs into and wrap it around the bucket, so I might give that a try.  Numbers according to the Ispendel have been doing ok.  Temp is in the high 60’s to about 70 inside the bucket.  My OG started at 1.054 on Friday mid day when it went into the bucket, and I am now at 1.023.  Per Brewfather I should get down to about 1.012 or so, and according to the recipe I am to ferment for 14 days.  My attenuation on the yeast is at 57.41 percent, and as I have read it, that should top out at about 80%, so I think we have a bit more to go there as well.  My ABV is sitting at 4.0% and that is supposed to get to about 5.3 or so.  All these numbers are based on Brewfather once I adjusted my efficiency, so I am anxious to see how close I can get.

I only post this to update and to get any feedback you all may have.  I am very new to all the numbers and what they mean, but I am getting there.  I like to analyze things and am very AR about numbers and process.  This has been fun, but difficult for me because I am not hitting the numbers the recipe says I should.  But once I realized those numbers are simply guides that made a huge difference.

Thanks to all who have replied to this and my other posts.  I appreciate it.  RR

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I’ll be sure to add this disclaimer in future posts.

Disclaimer: Any comment I add is simply the way I brew beer. There are certainly other ways that can be equally effective which other brewers may contribute. This is what I’ve found that works for me using my equipment and processes so I offer this for your consideration. YMMV

20

I could probably post the same thing!  We are simply illustrating that there’s more than one way to brew. Again, I apologize if I came off as rude.