Mash

  • Heat 1 quart of water per pound of grain to 180°F and add to mash tun/cooler.
  • Let stand 10 minutes, check temperature until it falls to 170°F.
  • Add grain slowly and mix well, cover and let stand for 10 minutes. *Check temperature, which should be between 149°F and 156°F.
  • Replace lid and let stand for 1 hour or as directed by recipe.
  • Heat enough sparge water for boil size to 200°F in kettle.
  • Remove a sample of wort to a white saucer, and a drop of iodine.
    • If it quickly disappears or remains red, the mash is complete
    • If it turns black, the mash is incomplete. Re-test every 10 minutes until iodine does not turn black.

Wort Collection

  • Collect 2 quarts of wort and pour back on top of mash until it is free of grain or cloudiness.
  • Slowly collect wort in fermenting bucket (for accurate measurement) while pouring 200°F sparge water over mashed grains.
  • Add sparge water at the same rate as wort collection, to keep grain submerged.
  • Wort collection should take about 1 hour to get correct gravity.
  • When 5 gallons of wort are collected and the kettle is empty, pour wort into kettle and collect final 2 gallons.

Boil

  • Bring wort to boil. Add hops and other kettle additions:
    • 60 minutes bittering hops
    • 15 minutes flavor hops and Irish Moss
    • 5 minutes aroma hops and wort chiller
  • Check gravity and dilute to specified original gravity.
  • Chill wort until temperature falls to room temperature.

Fermentation

  • Siphon bitter wort to sterile fermenting bucket.
  • Pitch yeast, stir well and seal lid with airlock.
  • The airlock should show bubbling about 24 hours after pitching yeast.
  • After a few days, bubbling should slow down to an occasional bubble.
  • Check gravity every day, and bottle when final gravity is reached, or when gravity stops falling.

Bottling

  • Use a priming sugar calculator to figure out how much sugar to use
  • Dissolve priming sugar in 2 cups of water and boil for 5 minutes, then cool to room temperature.
  • Add sugar solution to bottling bucket and then siphon beer to bottling bucket.
  • If not using a bottling bucket, add sugar solution to beer, stir gently, and let beer sit for 30 minutes to settle.
  • Siphon beer to sterile bottles and cap.  Let sit at room temperature for 2 weeks to carbonate.

Source: http://www.homebrewing.org/All-Grain-Homebrewing_ep_47-1.html

2/13/2022 brew day schedule

batch: Black is Beautiful (~16 lbs. mash)
kettle: 9 gal digiboil (110v/1500w)
other: all-gravity transfers, passive chilling in bathtub

  • 6am: wake up have breakfast
  • 8am: gather equipment
  • 9am: start heating mash water
  • 10am: mash in
  • 11am: start fly-sparging and collecting wort
  • 12:15pm: flame on
  • 1pm: boil
  • 2pm: flame out
  • 4pm: main cleanup done, bitter wort chilling
  • 10pm: bitter wort room temp, pitch yeast

summary: 1 hour prep, 5 hours active, 2 hours cleanup, 6 hours chilling