First all grain yesterday

[Chris_J]

What a shit show. To begin with it was about -12C. So me being an idiot I try to mash outdoors. My mom said "Why not do that part in doors so it stays warm?" So I mashed at about 150 instead of 154, ok I can live with that. Then when I was planning my brew I was watching total mash volume instead of water volume in promash and ended up with nearly 5 gal to begin with. I figured I'd better sparge with 2 gallons. Well I also didn't figure the grain would soak in water (I knew it would but forgot). So I ended up with very little wort, I said the hell with it, I should be fine. I boiled it down and put it in the fermenter. Nearly 1 gallon of trub and 2 gallons of wort......this is going to be so hoppy it will peel the paint off concrete. So much for Denny's rye.... Anyway, I'm really discouraged about this one but I have all the ingredients for my next batch so I'm going to brew it before drinking this batch to make sure I don't get too discouraged. Wish me luck.....

[teamtom]

How did you only get 3 gallons..using just 5 gallons of water? I'm sure everyone would be glad to help with the next batch, just need a little bit more information.

[Chris_J]

Well the grain absorbed a lot more water than I thought and it's really cold and really dry outside so my evaporation rate was probably higher. There seems to be about 3-4 inches of trub on the bottom of the carboy now so I figure about 2-3gallons of beer.

edit: I also didn't add nearly enough sparge water.

[teamtom]

What kind of sparging? (batch or fly). As you are finding out, the mash absorbs about 1 gallon for every 9 lbs of grain. So account for that as well as evaporation from boil. I generally shot for 7.5 gallons of preboil wort, and have 1-1.25 evaporation, that leaves me with about 6.5 in kettle at end of boil, (beer purists quit listening now) and I leave about 3/4 of a gallon in kettle of trub and cold break. I try for 5.5-5.75 in fermenter and pull out 5 gallons into the keg. That's the usual plan, but results can and do vary.

[Thirsty Mallard]

Well that is a bummer, but don't get discouraged. At least you have 2 gallons of beer! Best of luck next time!

[Chris_J]

Thanks for the words of encouragement. I was batch sparging. I've done it before while doing a mini mash (once) but never all grain. It was definately the grain absorbtion that threw me off. I thought to myself there was no way that all that water could be for one run off not realising that the grain would soak in so much. I'm really hoping the 2 gallons will be drinkable.

[teamtom]

I'm sure it will be fine, remember it's all beer!

[Brancid]

Chris_J,

Don't let it get you down bratha. That sounds almost identical to my first all-grain batch. Trust me, It gets better. I started out the way you did and now I pretty much run the same system as teamtom, only I'll chill everything first and pull the wort off the cold break and boil trub. There is another topic about boil off rates that I started the other day that you may find helpful.

http://www.thebrewingnetwork.com/phpBB2 ... php?t=4136

Also, check out the Honesty & All Grain Show...It always make's me feel better to listen to that one. Just to know there is someone,(Justin), out there just as dumb as me, and if he can do it, we surely can.

http://www.thebrewingnetwork.com/archiv ... -23-06.mp3

Hang in there Chris_J. I'd say the best thing to do is try it again as soon as possible while everything is still fresh in your mind.