Good Day

Mashing
1

Today, I brewed my first all grain beer (BIAB). I started out with the Northern Border Cream Ale all grain kit. The kit contains everything that you need and is a real bargain. Everything went very well and the brewing proceedure couldn’t have been easier. The only problem that I had was that my brew pot isn’t big enough for a 5 gallon batch. I added water and then the grain after reaching 160 degrees. After adding the grain, I was right at 150 degree which I kept it at for an hour and then 170 degree for ten minutes. When I added the grain it took the level right to the top of the pot and when I put the lid on it overflowed a little bit. The pre-boil quantity that I had was right at 5 gallons but by the time it boiled for an hour, I only had a little over 4 gallons to add to the fermenter. Original gravity hit right at 1.040 and I am extremely Happy with that and if it tastes anything like it smelled while brewing, I will be a happy camper.

A question that I have is would I be better off going with a 10 gallon brew pot or could I use make-up water or Ice as I have done with some of my past extract brews. Also if you were to add a gallon of make-up water to a brew that hit the suggested O.G. of 1.040, won’t that adversely affect your Original Gravity?

2

Yes your OG will be effected by adding additional water. This site has many calculators.

http://www.brewheads.com/calc.php

Your OG should have been higher than that stated on the kit, being the kit is for 5 gallons and you ended with 4.

Did you dunk the bag in a 2nd pot with hot water to get more sugars out of them?

A 7-10 gallon pot would be better.

3

I Said that I had 4 gallons, what I meant was that I had 4 gallons that ended up in the fermenter. When I did my S.G, test out of the cooled brew kettle to determine the O.G. I believe that the amount of wort was close to 5 gallons or should you disregard the volume of the Hops that are in suspension at the bottom of the kettle for determining the O.G.

4

Ahh, gotcha.

You are still leaving a good amount of sugar behind in the grain. As you would normally start with 6+ gallons in the boil pot. You can boil more wort in a 2nd pot and add it to the fermenter. Until you purchase a larger pot.

5

Yes - and many brewers have to top off with water in the fermenter. So you make sure it is well mixed, and then take the OG.

When I top off, I add the water, then mix while aerating by pouring back and forth between 2 sanitized buckets. Then I take the OG, though there is foam to deal with.

Congrats on the AG brew.