Doing my first All Grain tomorrow!

[urbrainwashd]

So i have ingredients but Im getting different answer from different calculators and since I dont have beersmith i cant use that. Anyway any help will ummm....help.

7lbs - Rahr 2-Row Pale
0.75lbs - Gambrinus Honey Malt
0.25lbs - Belgian Biscuit Malt

Sacch Rest:150 degrees for 60 mins
Mashout: 170 degrees for 10 mins

Hops: Cascade

I just need to know how much water I need for strike and sparge...also the temps!

ALSO! :rockin: I was wondering...i ordered from northern brewer and it says I need CLUSTER hops and I got CASCADE hops, which is the better of the two and will cascade work?

Thanks for the help!

 

[IvanTheTerribrew]

For your mash you'll want about 1-2 quarts of water per # of grain. Most of the time people settle at 1.33 quarts per #. I don't have access to beersmith atm to give you exact numbers but that's a start. As far as the hop difference it won't make a huge change. Overall you'll be focusing on doing your first allgrain. Just remember. RDWHAHB! Good luck


- ISM NRP

 

[bigdaddybrew]

Try this website...

Http://powersbrewery.com/beer-recipe-calculator/

 

[hopcop]

I would start simple till you get your system dialed in.

Start with 1.25 gallons of water to 1# of grain. You have 8# of grain. That equals to 2.5 gallons of strike water. To hit your mash temp, you need to configure what temp to heat your strike water to. In the winter I need to heat it up 18*F more than my targeted mash temp. In the warmer months I need to heat up 14*F warmer to reach desired mash temp.

You can always adjust your mash temp by with ice cubes if your too hot and stir very good. If your too cool then heat up more water and add till you reach temp.

To Sparge I usually have a pretty good idea how much will be in my first runnings. I know my system will boil off about 1 gallon/hr. So to hit my target pre-boil volume for a 5 gallon batch, I need 6 gallons of wort in the kettle after Sparge and first runnings. With my setup I know I will get roughly 1-1.5 gallons of first runnings. That means I need 4.5-5 gallons of Sparge water. I always have more water for sparging just in case I have more grain absorption. Once you drain the tun, measure your runnings and that will tell you how much water you will need to Sparge with. Heat more than you will need and adjust then. It's only water so it's not an expensive thing to waste.

Good luck.
Cheers


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

 

[madscientist451]

Here's the site I use to figure my mash temps:
http://www.rackers.org/calcs.shtml

Here are some things I've learned, some of these might not be correct, but they seem to work for me.
-Pre heat your cooler with hot water or whatever you are using for a mash tun. My first time, I didn't do this and totally missed my strike temp.
-I stir the mash and check my temp every 10 mins. I find that if I don't stir the mash, I may not hit the OG that I want.
-If the temp falls more than a few degrees, I use the "rest calculator" on the green bay rackers site above, to see how much boiling water to add.
Its usually just a few cups and it brings the temp up perfectly.
--If you are using a pot for a mash tun, I'd avoid heating the pot to increase the temp, its too easy to overshoot your temperature. A mash over 160 or so
will destroy the enzymes that you need for conversion.
-For the mashout, I use the rest calculator and add the appropriate amount of
boiling water, stirred in very well
-I do a batch sparge, and found that splitting the batch sparge water in half
makes it easier to control my temps. Recently, someone said to divide the batch sparge into three parts, I haven't tried that yet.
If you want to do one big batch sparge, its easier and will be fine.
I stir the mash during batch sparging.
--I put my first runnings on to boil while I'm batch sparging, it gets everything
going faster.
--If you miss your temps don't worry, your beer will still be ok, just might
be slightly different, you can dial your technique in next time.
I use hop bags in the boil. I don't get as good utilization, but there's less
crap in the bottom of the kettle to deal with.
So those are just some things I do to adjust for mistakes I've made.
You'll figure out your own way that works for you with your set up, good luck, and just relax and have a good time.

 

[bobeer]

Definitely preheat your mash tun before adding your strike water. I just get my mash water to strike temp and pour in about a half gallon into the mash tun and carefully swirl it around, and let it sit for a minute or so, then dump in the rest of your water, then mash in the grain. I used to heat a separate gallon of water in a different pot, use it to heat up the mash tun, then dump it, but now i just use a little of the strike water and not use another pot/more water.

I've been brewing for a few years, been through a few different setups, and I'm still honing in my sparging. I try to tweak a little something every time to see if I can make it easier since I'm on a shoestring budget for my setup and I'm lacking a 2nd kettle. It still produces fantastic beer so just chill and brew it and get your first ag under your belt. Your beer will be great!