First AG underway

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Just a simple Pilsner. So far nothing out of the ordinary is happening.

One odd thing I noticed is that I mashed at 147, and then began fly sparging with 168 water and my mash temp dropped to 144.

This will be my first time doing AG, first use of my 2 electrically heated coolers and first use of my new keggle. Plus my first time not using any extract.

I have a few drips to seal up on the cooler fittings, I broke my autosiphon, bought a new one and didn't realize they made them bigger so my hose doesn't fit. I can make the old one work for now.

I'm watching my 1 year old and baby sitting the neighbors 4 year old so I had to make a 3 tier structure in the kitchen, not ideal but it's working.

Oh yea, it's a german pilsner out of the new Brewing Classic Styles book.

Linc
 
I'm boiling outside and it is sleeting. The cold humid air is making it so there is tons of steam coiming out of the brew pot. I can't see the wort to tell if it is boiling or not. I could see the hot break and added my hops. I turned the burner down a bit and my temp dropped below 210 so I turned it back. Seems weird to balance a boil using the temps. THe more I stare in the pot the less I see and the back of my neck gets covered in ice.

Such fun this hoby is.

Linc
 
AG brewing while watching kids is a very advanced move. Sounds like you're pulling it off tho. Way to go!
 
broadbill said:
What temps are you referring to? The OP mash temps or the other person's boil temp?

His mash and sparge temps were much lower than anything I have done, but I guess they are within the right range.
 
The mash temp sounds quite low, and the sparge temp is really low as well. The problem with fly sparging (which I do) is that most sparge arms leave the top of the MLT open during the sparge. That 168F water gets dripped or sprayed (which increases the surface area, cooling it quickly) and then you have a 12" gaping hole in the top of your tun releasing all of that heat. This was my solution

DSCN0457.jpg
 
cheezydemon said:
His mash and sparge temps were much lower than anything I have done, but I guess they are within the right range.

I think you mis-understood my post.

I mashed at 147 per the book and sparged at 168. Normal mash is 152 and sparge is usually in the 168 range.

I thought you were saying my boil temp was to low.

According to Beer smith I got 73.5% efficeincy on my first try.

One mistake I made is I was originally going to batch sparge because I was missing a fitting for my fly sparge gadget. After draining most the water from the mash, I figured out how to make the fly sparge work. Filled the mash tun with sparge water to 1 inch over the grain bed and sparged for an hour.

I was aiming for 1.039 into the kettle pre-boil and got 1.040 so it must have worked.

Linc
 
Again with this hour long sparging.

I did my first all grain a few weeks ago, and the fly sparging took like 15 minutes. My efficiency ended up at about 71%. Did I shortchange myself by sparging too fast? I managed to get the flows out of the HLT and MLT working nicely, and just decided to leave it.
 
15 mins is fast for fly sparging, but 71% efficiency isn't bad. If you want to bump that up, you'll have to sparge slower (or keep your sparge at 15 mins and switch to batch sparging ;)).
 
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