First Brew Day! - Paging Dr. Bubra to the ER.

[Dr. Bubra]

Salute BN Army ,

After hyping this up for about a month, I finally carved out the time to get my shit together & get this party started. Today is my first brew day (10/26), time for Dr. Bubra to operate!

First patient is a Mash-Extract kit from 7 Bridges, an Organic Red Ale.

7 Bridges Red Ale: Kit Bill
-2 lbs Gambrinus pale 2 Row malt
-1.25 lbs Gambrinus Munich Malt
-1/2 lb Great Western Crystal 60 *L malt
-1/4 lb Briess Organics caramel 120 *L malt
-1/8 lb Briess Organics chocolate malt
-4.4 lbs Organic Pale Malt Extract

-1/2 oz Organic American Summit pellet hops @ 60 mins
-1 oz Organic Belgian Cascade pellet hops @ 20 mins
-1/2 oz Organic New Zealand Hallertaur pellet hops @ 5 mins

-1/2 tsp Organic Irish Moss @ 20 mins

-Ale Yeast: White Labs #001 California Ale

-Bottling: 5oz Organic corn sugar

Estimated (Using iBrewMaster):
-Preboil OG: 1.045
-OG: 1.051
-FG: 1.012
-ABV: 5.11%

These are my instruments.

Not pictured: Dirty Scalpel, Buckets of StarSan & PBW, Bottle capper and bottle & carboy cleaner. I was lazy & aside from nurses StarSan & PBW I won't need them for a couple weeks. They're all downstairs in the garage!

About 4 hours ago (9pm PST), I finished up my starter & placed it on my stir plate to rock for 18hrs. Nighty night.

Starting at 11 am PST, I have estimated I'll be done with the boil, chill and in the carboy by about 3pm PST (giving myself 4hrs). Lets hope

************YEAST STARTER************
- 1000 ml Water
- 100 g Organic DME
- 1/8 tsp Yeast Nutrient (Fermaid-K)
- 1 vial White Labs #001 California Ale Yeast

* Combine water, DME & nutrient in pot or borosilicate flask.
* Boil 15 minutes
* Cool to 70 *F in sanitized flask
* Pitch yeast at same temp
* Cap flask loosely with sanitized foil
* Set Starter on Stirplate 18 hrs
******************************************

Here's the process I plan to follow. Any feedback or suggestions are entirely welcomed & appreciated.

Boil Size: 6.0 Gal
Batch Size: 5.0 Gal
Boil Time: 60 minutes

****************MINI MASH****************
* Heat 2 gallons of water in the brew kettle to 160-165 *F for the Mash.

* Add 1 tsp Gypsum to the kettle & stir in at 160-165 *F

* Steep Grain Bag for 60 minutes, in 150 *F water.
(Cover & adjust to maintain 150*F temp. Wrap in a towel)

* Heat 2 gallons of water to 170 *F in a separate pot to be used as sparge/rinse water.

* After 60 minutes remove Grain Bag from steeping/mash water & place in colander, rested over the steeping pot, to allow to drain out into the mash.

* Sparge/rinse grains over 10-20 mins with 2 gallons of 170 *F water over steeping pot to be collected with original mash wort.

* Drink a brew.

****************EXTRACT*****************
* Add 2 gallons water to the wort to bring volume up to 6 gallons. **may lose ~1-1.5 gal to boil off?**

*Heat mash wort to almost boiling. Remove from heat and slowly add liquid malt extract, stirring continuously to dissolve extract completely & avoid scorching.

* Return to heat & bring to a boil. Once the wort has reached a rolling boil FOR 5 mins (**Hot Break**), start timers and begin the 60 minute Boil & Hop Addition Schedule. Add Irish Moss at 20 minutes. Add Immersion Chiller at 20 minutes.

* Drink another brew.

*Chill wort down to ~70-75 *F, pour into my primary 6 Gal carboy, top off with previously boiled & cooled tap water to make 5 Gal if necessary, aerate, take an OG reading, pitch the yeast, bung it and attach blow off tube with 2L Mason Jar vessel filled with 1L StarSan.

* Crack many brews, surgery complete!

****************FERMENTATION*****************
Primary: 7 days
Secondary 14 days
Bottle 14 days

Assuming I don't screw up & forget something or leave the dirty scalpel inside the patient, I'm hoping for a relatively smooth run, lots of fun and to have it all sewn up with little chance of a malpractice suit.

Here are some of my questions to you, my esteemed colleagues...

* Based on the grain bill, are my water volumes for mash & "sparge" ok?

* When it comes time to fill to full boil volume I've decided to go with 6 gallons because I'm using a burner & anticipating a boil off of maybe 1 gallon based on what I've read in forums/books (also trub loss?) and because my kettle is 7.5 gal with what I think to be a pretty wide diameter (more squat than tall) & surface area. Unfortunately I don't know what my true boil off will be, as this is my first operation. Do you guys think this is a reasonable assumption?

* When do I take a preboil gravity reading, before or after the addition of LME. Probably a silly question but I'm just not sure.

* As for fermentation, the space where the carboy will reside averages about 63 *F ambient temp with little fluctuation. Im hoping this is acceptable? I'll be using a blowoff tube to start out, just in case.

* Finally, should I keep it in the primary the whole time? If so, once fermentation has pretty much visibly halted, should I still leave it be for the duration of the 3 weeks before taking the FG reading, or go ahead and take one at the halt?

Long post & a lot of questions, I know, so apologies in advance & thanks endlessly for any suggestions, comments or corrections!

I hope to provide more brew day photos & comments this weekend.

Thirsty,
Dr. B

[siwelwerd]

* Based on the grain bill, are my water volumes for mash & "sparge" ok?

Your mash is on the thin side (2 qt/lb), but it will be okay.

* When it comes time to fill to full boil volume I've decided to go with 6 gallons because I'm using a burner & anticipating a boil off of maybe 1 gallon based on what I've read in forums/books (also trub loss?) and because my kettle is 7.5 gal with what I think to be a pretty wide diameter (more squat than tall) & surface area. Unfortunately I don't know what my true boil off will be, as this is my first operation. Do you guys think this is a reasonable assumption?

Yep, just take notes on what it actually is, that way you'll know for sure next time.

* When do I take a preboil gravity reading, before or after the addition of LME. Probably a silly question but I'm just not sure.

In principle, after, but it is likely better to do it before because if the LME is not stirred well, you will get an inaccurate reading. Take it before, and add the sugar contribution from the LME to get the true number.

* As for fermentation, the space where the carboy will reside averages about 63 *F ambient temp with little fluctuation. Im hoping this is acceptable? I'll be using a blowoff tube to start out, just in case.

Sounds perfect to me. What you really want is for the temp of the fermenting beer to be around 67-70 degrees. Fermentation is exothermic, so this will always be a bit above ambient. Keep an eye on it, and if it creeps above 70 wrap the fermenter in a wet towel.

* Finally, should I keep it in the primary the whole time? If so, once fermentation has pretty much visibly halted, should I still leave it be for the duration of the 3 weeks before taking the FG reading, or go ahead and take one at the halt?

Yes, the secondary would be a waste of your time. Once all visible signs of fermentation have ceased, take a gravity reading. Wait two or three days, and take another one. If they match, it's done and you can bottle. Be sure and give it a couple days after reaching terminal gravity so that the yeast have time to clean up any nasty byproducts like diacetyl and acetaldehyde.

Also, every time you take a gravity sample, taste it.

[Dr. Bubra]

Thanks siwelwerd, for taking the time to look over my process & help me out. Really appreciate it! I'll be sure to follow all your suggestions. I'm just getting things set up and ready to roll now.

I hear what you're saying about the water to grain ratio here:

* Based on the grain bill, are my water volumes for mash & "sparge" ok?

Your mash is on the thin side (2 qt/lb), but it will be okay.

So, if my ratio of 2qt/lb is a bit thin, what would you say should be the proper ratio?

Thanks!

[snowcapt]

1.3 to 1.5 qts/lb is pretty common.
Take notes and write it all down. Thatz the only way to dial your system in.
You should have a good idea of its capabilities by the 4th brew or so, granted you dont change anything.
All in all, your process looks pretty solid.

[siwelwerd]

what would you say should be the proper ratio?

That's something of a loaded question, with the only "right" answer being "It depends." Snowcapt has it right, most people on most brews are in the 1.3 to 1.5 qts/lb range. I wouldn't worry too much about this as you are getting started, anything within 1-2 will make you beer, and you can worry about fine tuning once you get your process down and repeatable. The thinner mash will make it easier for you to maintain your mash temp due to the extra water.

[Dr. Bubra]

Thanks guys. For this round then I'm sticking with my original plan & then, like you say, I'm taking notes and I'll fine tune with the next few batches. So far for the most part things are runnin smooth! I was able to keep my mash temp somewhat consistently close to my target of 150 (+ or - about 2 to 3 degrees). I see why it's a lot easier to use coolers Now, I'm getting ready to rinse the grains with my "sparge" water at 170.

siwelwerd, I will be taking 2 preboil Gravity readings like you mentioned:

* When do I take a preboil gravity reading, before or after the addition of LME. Probably a silly question but I'm just not sure.

In principle, after, but it is likely better to do it before because if the LME is not stirred well, you will get an inaccurate reading. Take it before, and add the sugar contribution from the LME to get the true number.

Just for clarification for the pre-LME reading will I take that reading from the wort before sparging with my 2 Gal of sparge water or after? Thanks!

[siwelwerd]

Just for clarification for the pre-LME reading will I take that reading from the wort before sparging with my 2 Gal of sparge water or after? Thanks!

After.

The reason why you want a pre-boil gravity reading is solely so you can predict the post-boil gravity reading (which is different solely due to boil off). This gives you a chance to adjust (with a little extra DME, for instance) to be sure you hit your gravity spot on at the end of the boil. Mashing and sparging can collectively be thought as the "Sugar gathering" step of making beer. Mashing produces sugars, and the sparging rinses them off the grain and into your kettle. This is a variable process depending on roughly 2 million different factors. After this point, everything is pretty consistent--boiloff behaves in a very predictable way, and extract adds a very certain amount of sugars. So the idea is to take the gravity reading as soon as all the variable stuff is done, at which point we can predict fairly accurately what our post-boil gravity is going to be, and make any necessary adjustments to be sure we hit our target.

[Dr. Bubra]

Yes, thank you for the great explanation. I understand now & it all makes perfect sense!