Brew day checklist
The following is a cheat sheet for tomorrow's brew day (and, if all goes well, future brew days as well):
1. Add hot water after cleaning mash tun and leave closed until ready to mash in.
2. Make sure to cover mash tun manifold with water before adding grain.
3. After mash-in, after mash has stood undisturbed for five minutes, check pH. Should be at range of 5.2-5.6.
4. Check mash temp. every 15 minutes. Stir mash at 30 minutes.
5. Before sparging, make sure pH is in range of 5.2-5.6 (for Chicago water, add 1/4 tsp. acid blend per 4 gallons sparge water).
6. For recirculation, run off 0.5 qt/min. Should take around 15 min.
7. For run-off, reduce rate to ~0.33 qt./min. Start sparge when water gets to 1-2 inches above grain bed. Should take 10-20 min.
8. Begin sparge; slowly increase rate of run-off to .5-.6 qt./min. Should take around an hour.
9. Don't let run-off drop below gravity of 1010; also avoid a pH of above 7 (adjust sparge water pH if necessary).
Okay, that should be good for now. Just some guidelines to keep in mind for the whole all-grain process. For anybody else reading this, I would recommend checking out this site instead of relying on these notes, as these are just things that I'm likely to forget or overlook.
1. Add hot water after cleaning mash tun and leave closed until ready to mash in.
2. Make sure to cover mash tun manifold with water before adding grain.
3. After mash-in, after mash has stood undisturbed for five minutes, check pH. Should be at range of 5.2-5.6.
4. Check mash temp. every 15 minutes. Stir mash at 30 minutes.
5. Before sparging, make sure pH is in range of 5.2-5.6 (for Chicago water, add 1/4 tsp. acid blend per 4 gallons sparge water).
6. For recirculation, run off 0.5 qt/min. Should take around 15 min.
7. For run-off, reduce rate to ~0.33 qt./min. Start sparge when water gets to 1-2 inches above grain bed. Should take 10-20 min.
8. Begin sparge; slowly increase rate of run-off to .5-.6 qt./min. Should take around an hour.
9. Don't let run-off drop below gravity of 1010; also avoid a pH of above 7 (adjust sparge water pH if necessary).
Okay, that should be good for now. Just some guidelines to keep in mind for the whole all-grain process. For anybody else reading this, I would recommend checking out this site instead of relying on these notes, as these are just things that I'm likely to forget or overlook.
posted by Chibe at 5:47 PM
3 Comments:
Thanks for the cheat sheet. I'm not tackling all grain yet, but, I like read about it and eventually I'll tackle it.
Hope it went well.
Just to follow up on Adam's comment, I'll be posting a full wrap-up later today (or possibly tomorrow) but I would omit preheating the mash tun from the list. I don't know anybody else who does that and have only come across it from one reference (Dave Miller's Homebrewing Guide); it did nothing to help my mash temp but did waste about an hour of brew time.
I'll be reading :-)
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