My first all-grain brew – Simple Cascade Pale
So last Thursday, I brewed my first all-grain batch of beer! I decided to make a simple pale ale, keep it simple for the first run.
My ingredients:
- 8lb American Pale Malt (2-row)
- 1lb Cara-Pils
- 1oz Cascade – 60 min
- 1/2oz Cascade – 30 min
- 1 tsp Irish Moss – 15 min
- 1/2oz Cascade – Flameout
- WL East Coast Ale Yeast
Mashed at 152ºF for 60 minutes
OG: 1.055
The biggest problem I encountered was getting my mash temp correct. I did all the math correctly, had my strike temperature correct, but I forgot to include the 1/2lb or so of husks I added to ensure a good sparge. (The brew store gave me a bag of husks to aid in sparging for my first few runs.)
My initial mash temp was about 146ºF. I added more hot water to achieve 152ºF, but I ended up with a pretty wet mash.
I’m using Gatorade coolers for the mash tun, and my water level + grains was nearly at the top of the cooler. I know this has some effect on the mash, but you gotta start somewhere, right?
I decided not to filter the cooled wort, as the guy at my LHBS doesn’t bother with filtering. So I wanted to give this a shot, since filtering even 3 gallons through a funnel and strainer takes so long. So I whirlpooled, waited a bit, then siphoned into my carboy. But I left the little tip on the end of my racking cane, so I only ended up with about 4 gallons in my carboy. I wasn’t thinking clearly, I suppose, since whirlpooling left a nice mound of sediment in the kettle.
In the future, I’m going to whirlpool again, and just leave the tip off the racking cane, hopefully getting a yield of 5+ gallons.
After pitching the yeast (no starter), within 24 hours the yeast were absolutely rocking! I’ve never seen such an active fermentation with any of the extract brews. I’m not sure if it’s due to the yeast or to it being an all-grain brew. But I think I like this yeast so far. No off-scents, no trace of hydrogen sulfide to my nose.
I’m planning on getting a keg set up within the next couple weeks, which should work out perfectly for this batch, since I’ll be racking to secondary in the next couple days. Might be a good draft for Christmas or New Years!
