First All Grain - Chinook IPA

[McKraken]

Chinook IPA
Brewer   
Date   
Batch Size   5.226 gal   Boil Size   6.976 gal
Boil Time   60.000 min   Efficiency   72%
OG   1.061   FG   1.015
ABV   6.0%   Bitterness   85.6 IBU
Color   9.5 srm   Calories (per 12 oz.)   202

Fermentables
Total grain: 12.250 lb
Name   Type   Amount   Mashed   Late   Yield   Color
Pale Malt (2 Row) US   Grain   10.000 lb   Yes   No   79%   2.0 srm
Corn Sugar (Dextrose)   Sugar   1.000 lb   No   Yes   100%   0.0 srm
Cara-Pils/Dextrine   Grain   12.000 oz   Yes   No   72%   2.0 srm
Caramel/Crystal Malt - 120L   Grain   8.000 oz   Yes   No   72%   120.0 srm
Hops

Name   Alpha   Amount   Use   Time   Form   IBU
Chinook   13.9%   0.500 oz   Boil   60.000 min   Leaf   19.6
Chinook   13.9%   1.000 oz   Boil   25.000 min   Leaf   27.2
Chinook   13.9%   2.000 oz   Boil   15.000 min   Leaf   38.8
Chinook   13.9%   1.500 oz   Flame out   10.000 min   Leaf   0.0
Chinook   13.9%   2.500 oz   Dry Hop   5.000 day   Leaf   0.0

Wyeast 1056 - 1L Starter in a Growler   

Tgt Mash Temp 151.000 F   60.000 min

Brew Date 2013-03-22

Pre-Boil
SG   1.051   Volume into BK   6.875 gal
Actual Mash Temp   152.000 F

Postboil
OG   1.072   Postboil Volume   5.5 gal
Volume Into Fermenter   4.600 gal (Leaf Hops absorbed a lot of wort)


So for my first all-grain, everything went really well.  After reading enough horror stories about other people's first times, I expected to overlook something in my setup.  There were two things I missed, the first was I underestimated my efficiency.  My tgt OG was 1.061 with 1lb of Dextrose in it to dry it up (1.053 without the sugar), which I was planning to add a few days after fermentation started to let the yeast work on the malt sugars first.  I ended up hitting 1.072 without the sugar, so I probably won't add it.  I think it might end up too malty without it though, since the grain bill has so much caramel malt to counteract some of the dryness.  Should I add it anyway?

The second thing was that I didn't realize how much wort would be absorbed by the 5oz of leaf hops.  It ended up being close to a gallon all said and done.  I got 4.5 gal into the fermenter, and pitched my starter which brought me up to 5 gal.

I was also pretty impressed with my ghetto MLT (read: free).  It's a 5 gal igloo water cooler, that had no lid so it was free.  I just bought a sheet of 2" rigid foam and cut it to fit tight in the top.  It worked pretty well too, I only lost 1*F throughout the mash.  With a sheet of foam, I have enough material to make 16 lids too, so who cares if it breaks.

This post was a lot longer than I expected, sorry.

Kevin

[McKraken]

Ghetto Mash Tun

[Jake]

Congrats on the first AG batch ... it went a hell of a lot smoother than my first from the sound of it. Nothing better than working with free materials and if you only lost a degree, I woulnd't change a thing!

[chrismccull]

You should bump up your 60 min addition next time, try 1 oz next time, Magnum works well.

[McKraken]

You should bump up your 60 min addition next time, try 1 oz next time, Magnum works well.

I actually thought about bumping it, but I'm trying to baby step my Heineken drinking friends into hoppier beers.  I was thinking lots of late additions would be a good start.

[Chris Craig]

You should think about wrapping the foam board in plastic or foil to prevent little bits falling into your mash when you open/close it.  Smart idea though.

[Fhilo]

The foil tape used on duct work would work really well to cover it...

[Chris Craig]

Good idea!  Expensive, but good.

[JohnQ]

Expensive,

Not when you buy it at the right place, right Fhilo!

Happens to be one of those products that is waaay more expensive at the big box stores I've found.

If you want to do that, bring your lid to the Mash Occur and I probably have enough to fit you up here so you don't have to buy more than you need...

Or, go to Fhilo's place of work and get a roll for a reasonable price.
i've used it in all sorts of surprising places.

JQ

[Richard]

i've used it in all sorts of surprising places.

Kevin: Congrats on the AG. The IPA will likely not be 85 IBUs as the calculations suggest, but rather more like 50-60. Regardless, I'm sure it'll be an excellent example of a single-hop IPA.

[McKraken]

i've used it in all sorts of surprising places.

Kevin: Congrats on the AG. The IPA will likely not be 85 IBUs as the calculations suggest, but rather more like 50-60. Regardless, I'm sure it'll be an excellent example of a single-hop IPA.

Is 75% hop utilization ballpark of what is to be expected? I'm using Brewtarget and I guess default is 100.

Here's what they say:"Correction for hop utilization. Typically 100 percent in homebrew systems, somewhat more than 100 percent for larger systems"

Doesn't make sense at all; how can you get more than 100% utilization?  I guess that's what you get for free software.

Anyway, I really hope it turns out; this is going to be my first kegged beer in my (under construction) new keezer (more to follow).  It already smells really nice.  I put a blowoff tube in last night, since my airlock was getting murky.  My empty PB jar looked like it had peanut butter in it again instead of sanitizer this morning!

And JQ, I'll take you up on that if you don't mind.  It shouldn't need too much tape, it's for a pretty small MLT.

[fakr]

Congrats man!  Sounds like you really did your homework before venturing into AG.  

Sounds like a great IPA.  I personally don't think you put too much crystal malt in the recipe.  Should be balanced nicely.

[Richard]

Here's what they say:"Correction for hop utilization. Typically 100 percent in homebrew systems, somewhat more than 100 percent for larger systems"

I think that's a very apt summary of the IBU estimation - generally all the formulas start to shit the bed after 60 or so IBUs, in my experience. "More than 100%" would indicate more than the model suggests, which gives you an idea of how good the models are

I'm sure it'll be fine

[McKraken]

I kegged this today.  I couldn't resist sneaking a taste too.  It ended up at 1.009 FG, so it's at about 8.7% ABV.  It's definitely the best beer I've ever made (that might be because of the whole all-grain thing).  I'm not used to having a beer so fresh that was just racked off the dry hops a few hours earlier, and I  can definitely get used to it!

Thanks go out to the club for helping me along, and to make the switch to all grain!

[Richard]

Congrats, and you're welcome