extract to all grain - need help

Hey,

Just getting ready to brew my first AG brew.

I like the look of the Mega-Mocha Stout and had beersmith convert it and wanted to make sure it looked good before I brewed it.

Here is the extract recipe:

7 lb Dark Malt Extract Syrup
.5 lb roasted barley
.5 lb black patent malt
.5 lb chocolate malt
2 oz. Fuggles
6 oz cocoa (last 30 minutes of a 45 minute boil)
1 oz. E. Kent Goldings (last 5 minutes)
20 oz Raspberry/Chocolate Coffee (strong)
1 pkg Edme Ale Yeast

Here is what Beersmith said the AG equivalent is:

10.17 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 85.20 %
0.59 lb Black (Patent) Malt (500.0 SRM) Grain 4.93 %
0.59 lb Chocolate Malt (350.0 SRM) Grain 4.93 %
0.59 lb Roasted Barley (300.0 SRM) Grain 4.93 %
0.26 oz Fuggles [4.50 %] (45 min) Hops 3.6 IBU
0.26 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] (5 min) Hops 0.9 IBU
6.00 oz Cocoa (Boil 30.0 min) Misc 
20.00 oz Coffee (Primary 5.0 min) Misc 
1 Pkgs Edme Ale Yeast (Edme #-) Yeast-Ale

My only concern is the fact that it reduced the hops.

Let me know what you think.

John

My assumption on the reduced hops if that AG is typically a full wort boil where extract is often a partial boil.  You need more hops for the partial boil since you will be diluting later to get the full five gallon batch.  However, with a full boil you get greater hop utilization and thus, you need less hops and consequently BeerSmith factors that into the recipe.

Not having done an AG batch yet I'm sure you have no idea what your efficiency will be and I'm not sure what the assumption is for that recipe.  Having said that, my guess is that most new AG brewers usually end up around 65% their first few times until they get their system down and they learn a few things (this is how I did it anyway, I know there are some that are really good right out of the gate but my learning curve is well.....not very steep  ) .  I'm guessing the recipe probably assumes right around that percent as well so the recipe is probably okay.

Good luck and let us know how it turns out

WR

WR, thanks so much for the quick response. I was waiting to place my grain order till I found out if I needed to make any adjustments.

I am going to try and skip the learning curve, and invite a fellow home brewer to help me with the first couple of AG batches.

I am getting excited to have my setup complete. Only need to build a few more things and hope to brew my first batch in 2 weeks!

MM

Good luck MM, make sure you take good notes and lots of measurements.  thats how you'll learn what your system is doing and then you'll learn to make recipe adjustments from there.

mystic,
You seem to be starting a bit bigger that I would have for a first A.G. batch. 
There's a lot of ingredients and variables there so that if something goes wrong it will be more difficult to pin down the source of the problem.
Personally I'd go with something more simple (minus chocolate and coffee) for my first A.G. batch, but that's just me.
Learning to brew A.G. requires trial and error (lost of that), and it is easier to find the error when you start off simple.
I'm not trying to be a jinx or killjoy here, just saying that starting off with something fancy when it is your first time can have unexpected results and problems that are difficult to diagnose.
I'd recommend starting with a basic pale or porter before attempting any special brews, but I'm also cautious by nature.

Best of luck!
John

Keep in mind that this is coming from a person with the title of 'BeerSmith Grandmaster Brewer' who has never used BeerSmith, so take my advice as such.

It's been a few days and you may have already brewed, but for those making a similar leap........in general, I would agree with Maine that when starting out, and perhaps even if AG-experienced, but using new equipment, it is good practice to do a super-simple ale first.  Boil-off rates, wort losses in the mash/lauter tuns, and general efficiency of a system you've never used are more easily determined if the recipe is simple and you can focus on process and taking equipment notes. 

Recipe-wise, that is 15% dark-roasted grains >300 SRM, plus 20 oz coffee.  Is that pre-made liquid coffee or coffee beans?  All that black/choc/roasted plus coffee may turn out fairly strong, especially if you have efficiency/process issues and the gravity/malt presence comes up short. 

Have fun, let us know how it went. 

I am gonna do my first AG in the next couple weeks and I am thinking the same thing.  I'll convert a recipee I know.  But I'm gonna keep it REAL simple.  I'm thinking APA.  A couple guys in my club warned me about low rookie efficiency, so I think I'll probably cheat up the base malt by a pound or so. $2-3 is worth it to have good beer and that "win" feeling versus "ahhh crap things were going well until I started THIS."

Once I saw a few recipees convert out going from 4-5lbs of DME to 10-11lbs base grain and saw the huge cost reduction, I was locked in.  I only need 1 more part for my cool mashtun, then I'll be a fully operational battlestation.

Not only cost savings is drawing me into AG brewing.  "Doing it the right way" has always been my MO on hobbys or home repair.  And of course the chance to scale up to 10gal in a few months sounds great too.  Almost no more effort for double the brewskis.