hfk2
Well-Known Member
Continuing with my brew day. Mash is complete. You can't tell from photo but wort is very clear.
I decided to use the pump and counter circulate the wort back through the grain bed so I could sparge and not loosen the bed and get grains in the wort. I gently ran the pump and left the strainless screen and cloth in place to evenly distribute the water.
I sparged with just under 3 gallons, which was too much. I have to adjust my numbers in BeerSmith. I figure I ended up with about 7 gallons of preboil wort. The malt pipe with spent grains is easily lifted out of the pot to be disposed of, however the first lift is a little heavy until the suction is broken.
This is where the problems came in. Up until now the machine performed exceptionally. Temperature and times were right on target, gravities were exactly as wanted. I found I couldn't get a strong rolling boil.
I decided to use the pump and counter circulate the wort back through the grain bed so I could sparge and not loosen the bed and get grains in the wort. I gently ran the pump and left the strainless screen and cloth in place to evenly distribute the water.
I sparged with just under 3 gallons, which was too much. I have to adjust my numbers in BeerSmith. I figure I ended up with about 7 gallons of preboil wort. The malt pipe with spent grains is easily lifted out of the pot to be disposed of, however the first lift is a little heavy until the suction is broken.
This is where the problems came in. Up until now the machine performed exceptionally. Temperature and times were right on target, gravities were exactly as wanted. I found I couldn't get a strong rolling boil.