6th Brew Session - 2nd All Grain

Just finished brewing AHS' Oatmeal Stout recipe kit. This was my sixth brew session overall and my second attempt at all grain.

I managed to bork my mash temp. Goal was 150° F, but I must have miscalculated my mash tun temp (I preheated it with 130° F tap water) because I missed my goal by five degrees. After heating and adding some additional strike water, the mash stabilized at the correct temp.

My first attempt at AG resulted in ho-hum efficiency, so this time I tried something a bit different by slowing down how quickly I drained the tun both for my first and second runnings.

First attempt: 72%
Second attempt: 80.2%

Looks like draining more slowly definitely had an effect. Both kits were from AHS so the crush looked about the same. However, base grains and mash temps were different, so those may have contributed as well. Also, the mash had already progressed 10 minutes at the lower temp before getting it back up to my goal. Still trying to get a feel for how all of this works, so forgive my ramblings...

The rest of the brew session was rather uneventful. This was also my second attempt at using my Bayou Classic SP10 propane burner, so I had a better idea of what to expect from it. I had a much easier time getting it to a boil then adjusting the fuel down to maintain that rolling boil.

With the help of my IC, cold ground water and a bit of snow surrounding my kettle, I was able to get to pitching temps in about 10 minutes.

Starting Gravity: 1.057 (kit instructions specified 1.053)
Yeast pitched: WLP005 (used 1.5L starter)

All in all a good day, made even better because I was finally able to brew while enjoying my first bottle of my own homebrew.

What kind of sparging are you doing? Given that you mention first and second runnings, I'm guessing you're batch sparging. If that's the case, I don't think the rate of run-off is the reason for the efficiency bump. My efficiencies were all over the place until I figured out the you need to stir like crazy for both the mash-in (no doughballs!) and each sparge. I normally have the stereo going while I brew, so I make sure I stir fairly vigorously for at least one song. Now I'm pretty reliably in the 74 to 76% range. 80% is pretty good, so I'd just aim for consistency at this point.

Also pretty good: 10 minutes to pitching temps. I wish I could match that.

UtahNate said:

Just finished brewing AHS' Oatmeal Stout recipe kit. This was my sixth brew session overall and my second attempt at all grain.

I managed to bork my mash temp. Goal was 150° F, but I must have miscalculated my mash tun temp (I preheated it with 130° F tap water) because I missed my goal by five degrees. After heating and adding some additional strike water, the mash stabilized at the correct temp.

My first attempt at AG resulted in ho-hum efficiency, so this time I tried something a bit different by slowing down how quickly I drained the tun both for my first and second runnings.

First attempt: 72%
Second attempt: 80.2%

Looks like draining more slowly definitely had an effect. Both kits were from AHS so the crush looked about the same. However, base grains and mash temps were different, so those may have contributed as well. Also, the mash had already progressed 10 minutes at the lower temp before getting it back up to my goal. Still trying to get a feel for how all of this works, so forgive my ramblings...

The rest of the brew session was rather uneventful. This was also my second attempt at using my Bayou Classic SP10 propane burner, so I had a better idea of what to expect from it. I had a much easier time getting it to a boil then adjusting the fuel down to maintain that rolling boil.

With the help of my IC, cold ground water and a bit of snow surrounding my kettle, I was able to get to pitching temps in about 10 minutes.

Starting Gravity: 1.057 (kit instructions specified 1.053)
Yeast pitched: WLP005 (used 1.5L starter)

All in all a good day, made even better because I was finally able to brew while enjoying my first bottle of my own homebrew.

Click to expand...

People say draining slower does not affect efficiency but I disagree. Ever since I started draining more slowly, I have gotten better eff. Congrats on those eff numbers btw, pretty darn good!

I stirred like crazy on both batches, so I don't think that was the issue. I'm still new to this whole thing and trying to figure out what works best for me and my equipment. Probably too many variables between the two batches to be able to point to just one thing as the determining factor for the difference between efficiencies.

Oh well... I'm having fun and learning with each batch and in the end I get BEER!