Eskimo Stout - Firstt All Grain

[Niall K]

Going to try my first all grain this Saturday. Trying eskimobob's stout. I have all the ingredients ready and will take pictures of my first all grain and post them up. Here is the recipe:


2500g Pale malt
400g Roasted Barley
1000g Flaked Barley
57g Fuggles (for last 60 mins)
5g Irish Moss (for last 15 mins)

Mash for 90 mins at about 64C
Boil for 90 mins
Original gravity 1038
Final Gravity 1012
IBU 32
Efficiency 85%
White Labs (WLP004) liquid yeast

Firstly, what amount of water do I need to add to the mash and what is the best way of working out the strike temp? Also how much do I need to collect before boiling to achieve a 19liter batch at the end?

[Frothy]

There is an enthalpy calculation you can use to work out the strike temp but convention is 2.5L/kg @ 71-74oc to achieve a 64-67oc strike temp. The mash temp' and duration has an effect on the body or dryness of the finished beer, with a stout you may be as well to aim for the higher end to give the beer more body.

As for how much evaporation you'l experience during the boil this will depend on your boiler. With a big propane burner I loose anywhere between 20 & 30% of the boil volume over an hour. It's a good idea to collect the runnings to 1.005 and use any excess to top up the boil at the end.

EB's efficiency there is pretty optimistic at 85%. I'll only achieve 65% usually and so would adjust the recipe accordingly.

Frothy

[retourrbx]

http://www.tastybrew.com/calculators/infusion.html is this what you mean?

This may be better http://www.bayareamashers.org/content/g ... trike1.asp

[notassuch]

Hi Niall,

I completely agree with Frothy on the efficiency.
85% is for the tried and tested brewhouse. My first brew was EB Stout and I adjusted the bill, guessing
that I'd hit much lower than this. I got 69% by fly sparging with a watering can rose.
If you go for Frothy's suggested 65% then BeerSmith scales it as follows;

Pale Malt - 3269g
Roasted Barley - 523g
Flaked Barley - 1308g

The one thing I would change with my first brew would be to top-up the volume lost to evaporation
with wort, rather than water. So aim the efficiency as low as you like. The grain is the cheapest
part of your whole setup.

Oh, and get your camera out on Saturday, or you'll upset Max.

[SteveD]

With a big propane burner I loose anywhere between 20 & 30% of the boil volume over an hour.

Bloody hell! Why don't you...er....just....turn it down?....a bit?

[SteveD]

The one thing I would change with my first brew would be to top-up the volume lost to evaporationwith wort, rather than water.

Or..if you had a big boiler, you'd just sparge down till you had the preboil volume you needed, or down to 1010-1006, and not to have to top up at all.

...........runs away!

[Frothy]

Why don't you...er....just....turn it down?....a bit?

That is turned down I read in some sci' paper that the optimum boil reduction is 10% of the wort volume, this allows for sufficient coagulation of proteins and dispersal of some undesirable aromatic compounds.

Frothy

[notassuch]

just sparge down till you had the preboil volume you needed

Oh yeah, there is that...... trouble maker!

[iowalad]

I have to work on tuning my down as well - same 20% problem. Nice tip on the top up.

[Niall K]

Thanks for all the replies. Cant wait until tommorrow.

Oh, and get your camera out on Saturday, or you'll upset Max.

Dont worry, I will have all the pictures of my day

With regards to sparging, I have a insulated mash tun with a sparge arm. I have read that sparging should take anywere up to 40 min to 1 hour. Surely when I fill up my boiler with sparg water, it takes only the time for the sparg water to fully empty through the sparge arm. If this takes 15 min will that be ok or do you have to adjust the tap of the boiler to release less sparge water to give it more time to run through

[bitter_dave]

With regards to sparging, I have a insulated mash tun with a sparge arm. I have read that sparging should take anywere up to 40 min to 1 hour. Surely when I fill up my boiler with sparg water, it takes only the time for the sparg water to fully empty through the sparge arm. If this takes 15 min will that be ok or do you have to adjust the tap of the boiler to release less sparge water to give it more time to run through

You don't want the sparge arm to rotate too quickly. If the boiler you're using as a hot liqor tank has an adjustable tap you can adjust the flow to slow it down. If, like mine, it doesn't - i.e. it's either 'on' or 'off' you can adjust the flow by adding pegs to the plastic tubing. I got this tip off road runner

here. Works a treat

Obviously you need to use your judgement, and I would only adjust the flow if it was spinning like crazy. I find I add pegs at the beginning and remove them as the flow slows a bit, but the flow obviously depends on the height of the hot liquor tank etc. so you may not need to.

Anyway, good luck

[SteveD]

If pegs are an alien item in your house as they are in mine, hose clamps are available for a few pence and are useful for stemming the flow.

Or a minature vice, which which you can regulate the flow very precisely

[eskimobob]

EB's efficiency there is pretty optimistic at 85%. I'll only achieve 65% usually and so would adjust the recipe accordingly.

Yes, I would definitely not expect you to get 85% on your first brew I do seem to find that stouts achieve a higher efficiency for me though than bitters - probably to do with my water chemistry.

Or a minature vice, which which you can regulate the flow very precisely

Exactly what I use - works perfectly.

Best of luck Niall - looking forward to the Pics tomorrow