Obese Chess
Well-Known Member
Hello again!
Okay. I'm one of those people who has to write things out in my own words to fully understand them, so I am cobbling this together from How to Brew and Beersmith's instructions.
Tomorrow is my first brew day, and, because I'm insane, I'm doing an all-grain porter.
It's a 5-gallon batch with a 13.15lb grain bill (was supposed to be 13lbs but I got a little heavy with the scoop on a few things).
All of my gear is clean, will be sanitized before use, thermometers/hydrometers/etc are all calibrated, everything is tested and leak free, grains are crushed.
So, let's make sure I've got this right!
1. Preheat mash tun with hot water. Heat appropriate amount (looks like 4.9 gal) of strike water to 164 (source: beersmith) to mash at 152.
2. Stir water and grains into mash tun. Keep some extra hot water around in case temperature drops too low.
3. While mashing (single step infusion, one hour) heat 4.8 gal sparge water to 170.
4. After one hour, drain fluid from mash tun, one quart at a time, into a pitcher and gently pour that back over the grainbed. Repeat process until fluid coming from mash tun is transparent.
5. Once clear, start to gently drain wort into 10-gal brew kettle, about 1qt/minute. Once water is approx 1" over the grain bed, gently begin pouring sparge water over grain. Continue to add sparge water until runoff gravity is 1.060 (Beersmith's "Estimated Pre-Boil Gravity").
6. Add water if needed to achieve pre-boil volume of about 7.5 gallons (forgot to write this one down but I think it's 7.5ish).
7. Once gravity is reached, boil wort in 10-gal brew kettle and add hops according to schedule.
8. After boil is finished, cool with immersion chiller. I realize that many things say to start cooling the wort with 15 minutes remaining in the boil but 1. this doesn't make a lot of sense to me and 2. isn't entirely feasible as I'm running the wort chiller through the garden hose spigot and brewing in the kitchen, not sure I'm gonna be able to get away with bringing the garden hose through the house into the kitchen
9. Once wort is cooled to about 80, dump kettle into bucket for primary fermentation. I have been advised to use a (sanitized) paint bucket filter to catch hot break, hops, and other types of goop out of the fermenter, and to dump to get a head start on aerating the wort.
10. Add water if needed to reach 5 gallons. Take gravity reading. Stir, pitch yeast according to directions. Seal bucket, attach airlock. I do not think I will need a blow off tube in an 8 gallon bucket for a 5 gallon batch but I'm willing to be wrong.
11. Let sit in dark, safe temperature controlled area (aka under something in my garage). Take gravity readings after a few days. When final gravity (estimated 1.017) is reached, you're done. May rack into secondary depending on how I feel, and bottling I will get to when I come to it.
Do I have this right? Any glaring errors or omissions?
Thanks y'all. I can't begin to tell you how much I appreciate how cool and supportive everyone has been and the amount I've learned over the past few weeks (just enough to know I know nothing).
Okay. I'm one of those people who has to write things out in my own words to fully understand them, so I am cobbling this together from How to Brew and Beersmith's instructions.
Tomorrow is my first brew day, and, because I'm insane, I'm doing an all-grain porter.
It's a 5-gallon batch with a 13.15lb grain bill (was supposed to be 13lbs but I got a little heavy with the scoop on a few things).
All of my gear is clean, will be sanitized before use, thermometers/hydrometers/etc are all calibrated, everything is tested and leak free, grains are crushed.
So, let's make sure I've got this right!
1. Preheat mash tun with hot water. Heat appropriate amount (looks like 4.9 gal) of strike water to 164 (source: beersmith) to mash at 152.
2. Stir water and grains into mash tun. Keep some extra hot water around in case temperature drops too low.
3. While mashing (single step infusion, one hour) heat 4.8 gal sparge water to 170.
4. After one hour, drain fluid from mash tun, one quart at a time, into a pitcher and gently pour that back over the grainbed. Repeat process until fluid coming from mash tun is transparent.
5. Once clear, start to gently drain wort into 10-gal brew kettle, about 1qt/minute. Once water is approx 1" over the grain bed, gently begin pouring sparge water over grain. Continue to add sparge water until runoff gravity is 1.060 (Beersmith's "Estimated Pre-Boil Gravity").
6. Add water if needed to achieve pre-boil volume of about 7.5 gallons (forgot to write this one down but I think it's 7.5ish).
7. Once gravity is reached, boil wort in 10-gal brew kettle and add hops according to schedule.
8. After boil is finished, cool with immersion chiller. I realize that many things say to start cooling the wort with 15 minutes remaining in the boil but 1. this doesn't make a lot of sense to me and 2. isn't entirely feasible as I'm running the wort chiller through the garden hose spigot and brewing in the kitchen, not sure I'm gonna be able to get away with bringing the garden hose through the house into the kitchen
9. Once wort is cooled to about 80, dump kettle into bucket for primary fermentation. I have been advised to use a (sanitized) paint bucket filter to catch hot break, hops, and other types of goop out of the fermenter, and to dump to get a head start on aerating the wort.
10. Add water if needed to reach 5 gallons. Take gravity reading. Stir, pitch yeast according to directions. Seal bucket, attach airlock. I do not think I will need a blow off tube in an 8 gallon bucket for a 5 gallon batch but I'm willing to be wrong.
11. Let sit in dark, safe temperature controlled area (aka under something in my garage). Take gravity readings after a few days. When final gravity (estimated 1.017) is reached, you're done. May rack into secondary depending on how I feel, and bottling I will get to when I come to it.
Do I have this right? Any glaring errors or omissions?
Thanks y'all. I can't begin to tell you how much I appreciate how cool and supportive everyone has been and the amount I've learned over the past few weeks (just enough to know I know nothing).