My first all grain attempt

[cadeucsb]

So yesterday was our first all grain attempt. We wanted to use this first attempt to learn the process rather than it being about trying for a solid beer.

We tried a straight forward Odell's Easy Street wheat recipe. We used a converted false bottom Gatorade tun and made a full 6+ gal of wort.

The first problem we encountered was mash temp (mash temp target of 149). We did the dough in method of 105 degree water to start the grains (water just up to the grain height in the cooler). Then added 170 degree water to top up the cooler. The temp ended up rising faster than I thought it should so i supplemented some 105 water. Then due to winter outside temps, I could only get it into the low 140s(started at 146, ended at 140). It probably sat at that temp for about an hour, taking time to drain into account. (Also some stirring). I think next time I won't supplement any 105 water and let the 170 water do its job.

What I didn't expect was the massive amount of water loss. This recipe had a 90min boil and I didn't factor in winter dryness. 8gal pre boil yielded about 4gal. Which is ok because this was a learning batch.

The recipe stated a 1.045 original gravity and we were right around 1.040. So all in all with our temp issues, boil off and original gravity difference, I am not sure how it will come out.

 

[pelipen]

Worst case, you mashed low (not sure what temp was after 170 addition and for how long). It's possible you didn't get full conversion, and the final product might be dry due to low temps, and starchy due to incomplete conversion. But since it's a wheat, that might not be too bad.
Sounds like you had low efficiency too. That's ok. It will improve. Could have been conversion, crush, sparge.
I mash indoors, and carry outside to boil. You can wrap some blankets around it to help with wind chill too.

I would recommend a single temp infusion for now. Be sure to pre-heat your tun. Use the infusion calcs as you seem to have done. Sparge with 170-ish. You know your boil off, so batch sparge to a good starting volume. Take a pre-boil grav reading, to know if you are in the ball park. Your next batch will improve an order of magnitude. 90% of the things I changed came from the first batch or two. Just have to get through some things that reading can't prepare you for.

 

[cadeucsb]

Thanks for the input. I am looking forward to batch 2 now.

What is the easiest way to calculate and judge efficiency?

 

[pelipen]

Thanks for the input. I am looking forward to batch 2 now.

What is the easiest way to calculate and judge efficiency?

There are different times when efficiency can be measured, whether you want to know how you did out of the mashtun or all the way to fermentor.

So, it depends on what efficiency you are interested in knowing. The easiest way to calculate it is to use a site like this, which explains the measuring points
http://www.brewersfriend.com/brewhouse-efficiency/

I generally concern myself with mash efficiency, since everything after that is pretty well constant for me, and I formulate recipes off the mash efficiency since the final volume is predictable base on pre-boil volume.

Once you get consistency going, you can choose to calculate it or not. I don't , I just know my average and use that. I think it's easy to get hung up chasing efficiency points when you're talking about pocket change at our level. Hitting 70% repeatedly is better than cycling between 80 and 90 unpredictably IMO.

If you haven't done so already, start filling your kettle one gallon at a time, and mark off a measuring stick of some kind, like a stainless racking cane, pipe, or hardwood dowel.

 

[cadeucsb]

Why one gallon at a time? I just filled my bottling bucket from the tun. Measuring up to the 5gal mark, then into the kettle. Then got the rest, topped up the kettle and recorded the total volume.

 

[pelipen]

Why one gallon at a time? I just filled my bottling bucket from the tun. Measuring up to the 5gal mark, then into the kettle. Then got the rest, topped up the kettle and recorded the total volume.

That's a fine approach for what you were after.
I marked from 1 gallon to 12, because I measure the first runnings to see how close I am to the calculated value. Then I split my sparge water based on desired pre-boil quantity. Then I use it to measure post boil, and do some wort expansion calcs (4%). So, I use the same stick for a wide range of measurements in the same pot for different batch sizes. It's not necessary, but it is handy.

I also marked all my carboys and buckets the at 1 gallon increments.