While I am sure this site has quite a few begginers asking the question of "did i screw up my first batch?", and I have read all of those threads, but did not see the answer to my question. i am mashing not using extract. And making and belg-amero triple hop. Trying to clone the Ursel Hop-It ale. Anyway, I heated water to 169, added grain, let mash for 47 min, then heated twice 18 quarts at 168 and began sprinkling this water to my mashing cooler, while opening the spicket, low flow to dump into my kettle. First off the grain did not seem to "roll" or rise to the top, and a massive clog at the spicket prevented the mixture to drain into my kettle. As time was ticking by, i began taking scoops out of mashing bucket, passing through a screen directly into the kettle, the rest of the operation continued as normal, but it has been over 24 hours with no bubbles? What might have happened, and will the beer still do its thing?
I'm sure you have very low efficiency doing it that way but there still should be some sugars that made their way through. Of course the big question is if you took a SG?
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I guess I have some more reading to do, because I was under the impression that I take an SG further along in the fermentation process, is this incorrect?
My set up is two gatoraid coolers with spickets (one gatoraid cooler has a screenabove the spicket on the inside, to filter, the other does not. My process was this.
1) Bring 9 qrt water to 168 deg, dump in Gatoraid cooler with bottom filter. Stir in Grain to prevent clumping, once temp is between 151-155 deg put top on and allow mashing for 45 min.
2) After 45 - 50 min have second Gatoraid cooler filled with 18 qrt of water at 168 degrees and begin slowly showering the 1st cooler (mashing cooler) with this water while at the same time allowing the mashing cooler to very slowly drain into kettle.
3) This will cause grain to roll and rise. After initial rise, the filtered spicket from the mashing cooler became completely clogged and thus began to fill up rapidly, yet was able to accomidate the full18 qrts from cooler #2, brimming at the top. With the mash water mixture still very hot it was impossible to release the clog, so I had to begin scooping out the water by hand, filtering the grain out with a screen over the kettle. Eventually the entire mashing cooler contents were strained through screen allowing the liquid to go into the kettle, but leaving the grain.
This kettle was brought to a boil with adding the sugar (molasses cube?) then the first round of hops after 5 min.
Amarillo hops were added after about 45 min and 5 min left boiling.
Then the kettle was brought down to 70 degress over about 25 min, agitated, then poured into the fermenting bucket, liquid yeast added, sealed and the airlock fastened.
There was no other measurments take, and thats where we are now, 24 hours laterm no bubbling in airlock,
Good news is, you should make beer.
Your efficiency will be lower than planned but no biggie.
Just because there is no airlock activity, does not mean your yeast is not working. Give it 3 days, then check under the lid and see if there is any signs of fermentation.
If there is not, the post again. I am sure all will be well.
Tim
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Thank you for your quick reply. it is great to hear that I am actually making Beer! Also, about 5 min ago my roomate called to tell me that "WE HAve Bubbles!" so i think all will work out, and I will attend to my filter prior to my next batch to prevent this from happening. Is there anyway to increase efficiency at this point, and additives or anything? also as far as I understand I dont really have to do much of anything for around 3 weeks, true or false?
About your stuck sparge; did you cruch the grain your self? And is the screen a homemade job, or did you buy it? If you crushed the grain yourself, it might be to fine of a crush?
Tim
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I guess I have some more reading to do, because I was under the impression that I take an SG further along in the fermentation process, is this incorrect?
If you do a search on "SG" (Starting gravity) or "OG" (Original Gravity), you'll find that this takes place just before you pitch the yeast. It'll tell you how good of an efficiency you achieved based on what the projected SG or OG your recipe says you should have. An "FG" (Final gravity) occurs after the wort (now beer) has fermented out. Together you can calculated Alcohol content. Clear as mud right?
__________________ Primary - Midwest's Hophead double IPA Conditioning - Empty Drinking - Midwest's Big River Brown Ale Next up - Bottingtons Clone
What effect will this have ?
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