tripwood
Apprentice
- Joined
- Apr 7, 2014
- Messages
- 11
- Reaction score
- 0
Hello everyone,
I just had my first brew with my new setup. I do all-grain and I am equiped with a well loved 5 gallon mash-tun I was given, a 7 gallon brewing kettle and a passion for brewing. I brewed before with friends but I wanted to be able to brew whenever I wanted solo.
I had some issues.
I used Beersmith to calculate how much water I would need (14,5L for mashing in and 13L for sparging) and I ended up with 5L less then expected (15L). I am guessing this is because of evaporation and I would need more sparging to make up for it, right? Can I add cool sterile water to my fermenter to make up the volume? When is the better time for this? I am going to transfer to secondary in a week to dry-hop so would that be a good time? I heard the water has to be de-oxygenated beforehand, how do I do that?
The gravity was also much less then expected (got 1,031 instead of 1,056) but I expected that is because the grain wasn't properly milled. My GF did it previously at a friend's house using a mill that was not perfect for malt. I was wondering if I can add some honey to my fermenter to kick up the alcohol a little. I was thinking of 500ml of honey. When should I add it?
Phew that was a lot of questions. But I'm not worried, I'm sure my red IPA will turn out good with all the good hops I put in. I love to brew, I have much to learn.
I just had my first brew with my new setup. I do all-grain and I am equiped with a well loved 5 gallon mash-tun I was given, a 7 gallon brewing kettle and a passion for brewing. I brewed before with friends but I wanted to be able to brew whenever I wanted solo.
I had some issues.
I used Beersmith to calculate how much water I would need (14,5L for mashing in and 13L for sparging) and I ended up with 5L less then expected (15L). I am guessing this is because of evaporation and I would need more sparging to make up for it, right? Can I add cool sterile water to my fermenter to make up the volume? When is the better time for this? I am going to transfer to secondary in a week to dry-hop so would that be a good time? I heard the water has to be de-oxygenated beforehand, how do I do that?
The gravity was also much less then expected (got 1,031 instead of 1,056) but I expected that is because the grain wasn't properly milled. My GF did it previously at a friend's house using a mill that was not perfect for malt. I was wondering if I can add some honey to my fermenter to kick up the alcohol a little. I was thinking of 500ml of honey. When should I add it?
Phew that was a lot of questions. But I'm not worried, I'm sure my red IPA will turn out good with all the good hops I put in. I love to brew, I have much to learn.