Hi everyone,
I started my first all-grain batch two days ago. I scaled down an oatmeal stout I found on here (I don’t remember who posted it, so please take the credit if it was you!) and it was off to the races! I was shooting for one gallon of wort after the boil, planning to keep some of it aside to use to carbonate the final product.
I made two changes to the recipe. First, I took the advice of some folks in the reply thread to the recipe and added a little black patent malt to make sure I got the color I wanted for the beer, and I substituted rye for the oats. I had flaked rye in the pantry and I wasn’t sure what else I’d do with it, so now it’s beer.
Anyway, It’s been about forty hours since I pitched my yeast, and the airlock has stopped moving. OG was 1.053, and it was 1.025. The 1 gal. jar I’m using to ferment was almost completely full, so I’m wondering if the pressure in the jar would have negatively affected the yeast, even with the airlock. I also may have underpitched. I used one-fifth(ish) of a packet of Safale US05, rehydrated.
Here’s my question: for a batch this size, should I expect yeast to behave significantly differently than it would for a five-gallon batch? I’ve only ever done 5 gal., and I’ve only ever done extract brewing, cider, and mead. In any prior brew, I’ve had quick motion in the airlock for two or three days before any slowing down. My last batch blew through the airlock about ten hours after pitching it. I was thinking of starting a small culture with the leftovers from the packet and some sterile wort, but the progress so far has me thinking I might wait a few more days.
I’m treating this batch as a learning experience, so I’m okay if it’s not a great beer, but it shows some promise, and I’d like to save it if I can. Any advice would be welcome. I’ll include my notes for the batch below so you can follow my process.
Thanks, everyone!
JL
Rye Stout started 8/13
First All-Grain batch! Shooting for one gallon. No promises as to quality!
1#12 Maris Otter malt
2 oz. Munton’s chocolate malt
2 oz. Briess caramel malt 80 lovibond
2 oz. Briess victory malt 28 lovibond
2 oz. Munton’s black patent malt
4 oz. rye flakes
.5 oz. UK Fuggles hops 60 min. boiling
Safale US-05 ale yeast
Ground malts at Sunset Hydro. Kind of dusty, worried it’s a little finer than it should be.
Mashed grain in 3qt. 170F water to balance at 145F for 10 min. Added another 2qt. 175F water to top out at 160. Checked periodically until 60 min total mash time.
I’ve already learned an important lesson: always have more water than you think you need!
Recirculated liquor through grains once, sparged with 1 gal 177F water. 2.25 gal boil volume, 1 gal target volume. Definitely did not get an even sparge. It felt like there was plenty of good stuff left in the grains, but I had the volume I wanted and then some.
Plan is to save some of the wort to use as priming sugar in place of DME.
Reached post-boil volume of 1.375 gal after approx. 90 minutes. Gravity corrected for wort temperature is 1.053. Wort is jet black. Glad I put the black patent malt in the mix at the last second.
Strained 1 gal. into small fermenter, bottled approx. 48 oz. to store for priming. Will need 8 oz. to carbonate 1 gal. in bottles.
Pitched approx. 2-3 g. rehydrated yeast (in approx. 1 c water) into wort. Will check in morning for signs of fermentation. Fermenter is completely full, so I’ve placed it in a plastic bucket to catch the inevitable blowoff. Visible, but slow, fermentation observed 8/14. Yeast may be underpitched, but nothing has blown through the airlock so far. Need to get a smaller scale if I’m going to continue doing this.
Fermentation has slowed down substantially. Three to five pops of the airlock per minute at 1:30 a. 8/15 (~30h). Will take gravity sample in the morning and possibly culture some yeast for a repitch.
Gravity after approx. 40h is 1.025. Thick, dark brown, opaque. Smells like canned brown bread, molasses. Thin mouthfeel, very prominent black malt flavor. Little bit of rye spicy flavor, hop bitterness comes through at the end.
Don’t think it needs more yeast at this point. Will leave alone until Sunday and check again.
I started my first all-grain batch two days ago. I scaled down an oatmeal stout I found on here (I don’t remember who posted it, so please take the credit if it was you!) and it was off to the races! I was shooting for one gallon of wort after the boil, planning to keep some of it aside to use to carbonate the final product.
I made two changes to the recipe. First, I took the advice of some folks in the reply thread to the recipe and added a little black patent malt to make sure I got the color I wanted for the beer, and I substituted rye for the oats. I had flaked rye in the pantry and I wasn’t sure what else I’d do with it, so now it’s beer.
Anyway, It’s been about forty hours since I pitched my yeast, and the airlock has stopped moving. OG was 1.053, and it was 1.025. The 1 gal. jar I’m using to ferment was almost completely full, so I’m wondering if the pressure in the jar would have negatively affected the yeast, even with the airlock. I also may have underpitched. I used one-fifth(ish) of a packet of Safale US05, rehydrated.
Here’s my question: for a batch this size, should I expect yeast to behave significantly differently than it would for a five-gallon batch? I’ve only ever done 5 gal., and I’ve only ever done extract brewing, cider, and mead. In any prior brew, I’ve had quick motion in the airlock for two or three days before any slowing down. My last batch blew through the airlock about ten hours after pitching it. I was thinking of starting a small culture with the leftovers from the packet and some sterile wort, but the progress so far has me thinking I might wait a few more days.
I’m treating this batch as a learning experience, so I’m okay if it’s not a great beer, but it shows some promise, and I’d like to save it if I can. Any advice would be welcome. I’ll include my notes for the batch below so you can follow my process.
Thanks, everyone!
JL
Rye Stout started 8/13
First All-Grain batch! Shooting for one gallon. No promises as to quality!
1#12 Maris Otter malt
2 oz. Munton’s chocolate malt
2 oz. Briess caramel malt 80 lovibond
2 oz. Briess victory malt 28 lovibond
2 oz. Munton’s black patent malt
4 oz. rye flakes
.5 oz. UK Fuggles hops 60 min. boiling
Safale US-05 ale yeast
Ground malts at Sunset Hydro. Kind of dusty, worried it’s a little finer than it should be.
Mashed grain in 3qt. 170F water to balance at 145F for 10 min. Added another 2qt. 175F water to top out at 160. Checked periodically until 60 min total mash time.
I’ve already learned an important lesson: always have more water than you think you need!
Recirculated liquor through grains once, sparged with 1 gal 177F water. 2.25 gal boil volume, 1 gal target volume. Definitely did not get an even sparge. It felt like there was plenty of good stuff left in the grains, but I had the volume I wanted and then some.
Plan is to save some of the wort to use as priming sugar in place of DME.
Reached post-boil volume of 1.375 gal after approx. 90 minutes. Gravity corrected for wort temperature is 1.053. Wort is jet black. Glad I put the black patent malt in the mix at the last second.
Strained 1 gal. into small fermenter, bottled approx. 48 oz. to store for priming. Will need 8 oz. to carbonate 1 gal. in bottles.
Pitched approx. 2-3 g. rehydrated yeast (in approx. 1 c water) into wort. Will check in morning for signs of fermentation. Fermenter is completely full, so I’ve placed it in a plastic bucket to catch the inevitable blowoff. Visible, but slow, fermentation observed 8/14. Yeast may be underpitched, but nothing has blown through the airlock so far. Need to get a smaller scale if I’m going to continue doing this.
Fermentation has slowed down substantially. Three to five pops of the airlock per minute at 1:30 a. 8/15 (~30h). Will take gravity sample in the morning and possibly culture some yeast for a repitch.
Gravity after approx. 40h is 1.025. Thick, dark brown, opaque. Smells like canned brown bread, molasses. Thin mouthfeel, very prominent black malt flavor. Little bit of rye spicy flavor, hop bitterness comes through at the end.
Don’t think it needs more yeast at this point. Will leave alone until Sunday and check again.