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Right now doing my first brew. Thank you Kal.

 
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Laminarman




Joined: 24 Aug 2019
Posts: 5
Location: Upstate NY


PostLink    Posted: Sat Aug 24, 2019 9:16 pm    Post subject: Right now doing my first brew. Thank you Kal. Reply with quote


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I hope it's drinkable. I have done extract, small batch (1 gallon) stove top all grain, BIAB and finally, after a year of part time building my system, today is the day. It's boiling right now. A blonde ale. By way of confession, I didn't use everything Kal said to, partly due to cost, and partly due to the fact I built a 5 gallon system due to space concerns and I knew I wouldn't have a dedicated area with a sink. I need to be able to pick these kettles up and move them. So my systems rolls out onto the patio where I have 220 and can brew, then hose stuff off. And this was a good move after I burned dry extract onto our new Wolf range last year....still looks terrible. So my wife booted me.

I did a few things different. I used a different mash setup (I sourced parts all over and used some stuff I had) but basically followed Kals incredible guide. I did put a whirlpool arm in from Brewershardware and will use that today to whirlpool hops. I'm using two RipTide pumps, God are they quiet. I built the BrewBuddy II controller from Auber which I got when they first came out and for the price I'm quite pleased but there is a learning curve. For sure.

I did a dumb thing. I mashed at 148 for an hour INSTEAD of the 154 the recipe called for. Brain fart? WTH?? How did I do that? Mashed out at 168. I was totally completely surprised I didn't get a stuck sparge or issues, but it worked like a charm. I nominate Kal for the Nobel Peace prize for this guide and his tutorial. I also made the mistake of buying pH test strips which I might as well have just used my tongue. There's no registering pH at all. I used 2.5 gallon (x4) spring water until I get this first electric brew under my belt then will tighten up water, pH (meter) etc. Our well water varies way too much and there is no RO water near me. My local homebrew shop said not to chuck a messed up batch as "there's no such thing as bad beer since you're gonna learn from it..." So I'll ferment it and see what gives.

I'm new here, and thank you to everyone as I browse these threads.
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jcav




Joined: 21 Sep 2011
Posts: 205
Location: Central Florida


PostLink    Posted: Sat Aug 24, 2019 10:47 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Congrats on the maiden voyage! Lots of luck with the brew!

John

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"Perfection is unobtainable, but if you chase perfection you can catch excellence"- Vince Lombardi
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Laminarman




Joined: 24 Aug 2019
Posts: 5
Location: Upstate NY


PostLink    Posted: Sat Aug 24, 2019 11:21 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Well thank you : ) We shall see. The recipe calls for an OG of 1.48 I got 1.52 but I got less volume than I was hoping for (I always do no matter what the heck system I've tried). Usually I am under OG (not usually...always..) So that was a pleasant surprise. I was shooting for 5.25 gallons into fermenter got 4.75.
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kal
Forum Administrator



Joined: 12 Dec 2010
Posts: 11116
Location: Ottawa, Canada

Drinking: Pub Ale, Electric Creamsicle, Mild, Pliny the Younger, Belgian Dark Strong, Weizen, Russian Imperial Stout, Black Butte Porter


PostLink    Posted: Sat Aug 24, 2019 11:57 pm    Post subject: Re: Right now doing my first brew. Thank you Kal. Reply with quote

Welcome to the forum and glad to hear you're licking your new brewing setup. Congrats on the build!

Laminarman wrote:
I did a dumb thing. I mashed at 148 for an hour INSTEAD of the 154 the recipe called for. Brain fart? WTH?? How did I do that?

I'm sure it'll be fine! Maybe slightly dryer than you wanted but still very drinkable. In fact, most people may prefer dryer anyway so assume you did this because you knew better! Wink

Cheers!

Kal

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jcav




Joined: 21 Sep 2011
Posts: 205
Location: Central Florida


PostLink    Posted: Sun Aug 25, 2019 11:48 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Just a thought. You say you always get less volume no matter what system you tried. There are losses in the hoses, and you will boil off a certain amount of wort depending on your kettle design, and brewing outside on the porch like I do the humidity will play a part as well. You could up your pre boil volume a half a gallon more since you are a half gallon short. I boil off one gallon an hour, plus the losses in the hoses and chiller do add up. In my system my pre boil volume is 13.5 gallons on a 60 min boil and 14 gallons on a 90 min boil for an 11 gallon batch. In both situations this will leave me with 11 gallons of wort in the fermentor. After fermentation I can reliably fill two 5 gallon corny kegs to get a full 10 gallon batch out of it.

You could make stick from a dowel and then put a gallon of water (I did by weight which is 8.34 pounds) in the boil kettle and mark the stick. Keep doing this until you make a stick with enough markings for the volume you brew. You could also mark your sight glass if you have one on your kettle with each accurate mark ( I did this as well). On brew day fill the kettle with your pre boil volume and put the stick in your kettle and fill to the gallon level that you need on the stick and every time this will now be accurate. Then after the boil is over you will now know how much you boiled off on your system. This will tell you how much wort you boil off, so you can calculate how much pre boil wort to collect. Also you need to boil the wort with the same amount of intensity. So If you boil at 60% percent intensity (or whatever percent you use) you should do it the same every time. As an example you might need to collect 2 gallons more wort than your final desired batch size on your system to get the final volume into your fermentor, to then get the final desired amount into your kegs or bottles. After you figure this out and dial this in, you will never miss your target amount when you brew.

Hope this helps,

John

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"Perfection is unobtainable, but if you chase perfection you can catch excellence"- Vince Lombardi
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Laminarman




Joined: 24 Aug 2019
Posts: 5
Location: Upstate NY


PostLink    Posted: Sun Aug 25, 2019 2:18 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Thank you John. I think I underestimated losses to hoses and pumps and the boil was very vigorous and I boiled at 90%. Now I'll up it next time and hope I hit the gravity I need to. I did notice that when I transferred water to the MLT that my 10 gallon LT was empty after losses and grain absorption right when I hit that 7 gallon pre boil volume after sparging. So I'm thinking after I transfer water to the MLT I might need to add more to the HLT and let it come back up to temperature. I'm sure I had other losses due to the new nature of the hoses and spillage and at one point I didn't turn a valve off and spilled hot wort onto my leg. That was awesome. That had to be good for a quart of lost volume and more than a few four letter words.
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