All Grain Brewing Session (Back to Basics APA):
I first start to heat my HLT water to about 172 degrees, while this is under way I measured out my malt bill (10.5 lbs Pale Malt 2-Row; 0.5 lbs Biscuit Malt; 0.5 lbs Munich Malt; 0.5 lbs Crystal 45L Malt; and 0.5 lbs Crystal 60L Malt).
Using my Barley Crusher, I milled the grain by hand. My barley crusher can handle about 7 lbs of grain at a time, and I've found that I get better efficiency if I crank it by had vs. using a drill.
What the grain should look like after being milled. The husks should be broken up but not completely pulverized!
Once my HLT water has hit 172 degrees (roughly 3.75 gallons), I add it to my mash tun and thoroughly mix in my milled grain (called doughing in)…it will eventually take on an oatmeal-like consistency. Notice in the pic below, the mash temp is at 152 degrees - mash temps should range between 145 degrees (more fermentables in the wort) to 155 degrees (a maltier finished product) in order for the enzymes in the malt to convert properly. For IPAs and Pale Ales, I usually shoot for something in the range of 150-154, so 152 works and is what I was shooting for.
After the mash is mixed in thoroughly and the temp is where I want it, I cover the mash tun up with some UGLY ass blankets (yes this is required, uglier the better - makes the neighbors look at you funny) and let it sit for an hour for the enzymes to convert. After the hour is complete, I check the temp again to see how many degrees the mash dropped, according to the pic below it only dropped a few degrees. At this point I also add about a gallon of 185 degree water to the mash and mix it up (this addition is to account for the grain absorption that occurred during the mash).
While the mash is in full steam, I measure out my hops (0.5 ounces Magnum - 60 min; 0.5 ounces Cascade - 10 min; 0.5 ounces Centennial -10 min; 0.5 ounces Cascade - 0 min; and 0.5 ounces Centennial - 0 min). I measure them out by time at which they will be added to the boil and put them in foil for easy handling.
Now, since I am batch sparging (and not fly sparging), I will do two run-offs that will eventually make up the wort. Which means that I now must do something called Vorlaufing, or in plain English…clearing the wort before putting it into the boil kettle. I do this by running a few liters of wort into a pitcher and then add it back to the mash tun, until the wort in the pitcher is free of grain husks.
Once the wort coming from the spigot is clear, I run this hose directly into the boil kettle. After the mash tun is drained, I add an additional 4 gallons of 185 degree water to my mash tun, stir it in again, and let it sit for 15 minutes. Then I start the vorlauf process all over again…until I get about 7 gallons of wort in my boil kettle. Once I’ve got 7 gallons, I start the process of boiling the wort. Now up until this point, I've basically shown you the difference between all-grain brewing vs. extract brewing (i.e., extract brewing does not use a mash tun to extract the sugars like in all grain). From this point forward, think of the wort that I just collected as the water/extract mix that is made during extract brewing. Same process from this point forward, but with all grain brewing you have more control over the ingredients that make up the wort, whereas with extract brewing your limited to the extracts available.
The wort will be boiled for 90 minutes total. At the 60 minutes left in the boil, I add my bittering hops (in this case, 0.5 ounces of Magnum). And at 15 minutes left in the boil, I add a clarifying adjunct called Whirlfloc, a tablet which basically helps clear the wort by ‘attracting oppositely charged particles and settling in the boil kettle’…sounds cool huh – not really, it's actually kinda boring.
At 10 minutes left in the boil, I add flavoring hops (0.5 ounces of Cascade and 0.5 Ounces of Centennial hops).
At 0 minutes or flameout, I add aroma hops (0.5 ounces of Cascade and 0.5 Ounces of Centennial hops) and put the lid on the kettle to keep the aroma in. While the aroma hops are steeping, I get the chiller ready so that I can get the wort cooled quickly. Basically the chiller runs water up through the garden hose in the opposite direction the wort is coming out of the spigot (wort actually travels through a copper pipe inside the garden hosing). The wort cools as it travels down through the hosing and out into the carboy (goes from 200+ degrees down to ~70 degrees).
I usually take a gravity reading with my hydrometer at this point to see if I hit my original gravity…1.062, which is exactly what I was shooting for.
The wort is nearly finished draining into the 6 gallon carboy, looks like 5 gallons, give or take.
Time to aerate the wort with my favorite new brewing toy, a wort aerator (highly recommended). Hook it up to a drill and spin away (it creates a vortex and aerates the wort, oxygen is needed for the yeast to do their jobs sufficiently).
Next up, adding the yeast to the wort. I normally make a starter beer but I just got this batch of yeast the day before so I decide to wing it and just hope for the best. It’s an activator pack of Wyeast 1056 American Ale (a very clean, neutral yeast).
Here is the carboy with wort, tons of aeration foam, and happy yeast – who hopefully will get to work sooner than later!
And into the carboy cooler so that I can keep the temps at around 63 degrees...
Yeast Update: Started to see signs of fermentation within 2 hours after pitching the yeast, and this morning the yeast are very active and there is a few inches of Krausen on top of the beer.