SteinBrew
Member
I have been brewing all-grain for a couple years now. After a multitude of batches - spent learning and experimenting - I have reached the point where I am ready to gain understanding and insight into every aspect of the beer-making process. Simply, I have become a proud lover of everything beer and I hope to make consistently-delicious all-grain home-brews. And I cannot stress enough the importance of - and my personal desire for - consistency.
As I continue on my quest, I have learned and fully realized that beer-making is a science. There are numerous equations, methods and techniques to the madness. Clearly, brewing beer can be explained in simple terms and executed with relative ease (heck, there are only 4 basic ingredients). However, for those, like myself, who strive for perfection: Brewing beer is an (often sticky) web of variables that go on, and on, and on...
The speckle along the path to beer enlightenment which I need to tackle quickly, and efficiently, is the process of Mashing and Sparging. I cannot count the number of batches of beer I have made, but for one thing I am certain - my mash is never consistent and always lacking in efficiency. I am sure there are many reasons why this is the case, including my custom-made mash/sparge system which eventually needs to be replaced. However, the most important thing that I admittedly lack is - understanding.
A semi-brief description of my mash/sparge system:
I currently use an Igloo "Icecube Maxcold" 15 gallon square roller cooler as my mashtun. I attached a spigot at the bottom of the cooler for drainage. Inside the cooler, and connected to the spigot, is a cpvc manifold with holes drilled in it, also used for drainage. This is the forum I originally got the idea from: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/60qt-ice-cube-mash-tun-build-cheap-simple-144475.
So, I first get my hot liquor up to temp (~165-170 F) while meanwhile preparing and grinding the grains. Once the hot liquor is ready, I pour it quickly into the mashtun with the grains, trying my best to pour the water and grains at the same rate to get a good mix. After this transfer, and some gentle mixing with a brew spoon, the temperature of the mash is typically around 152-156 degrees. I close up the cooler and let it sit for an hour. During that hour it just sits - no recirculating, no mixing. When the hour is up, I open up the spigot at the bottom of the mashtun and fill up a bottling bucket with about 2.5 gallons of wort. I briefly close the spigot on the mashtun, connect a hose to the bottling bucket, and begin draining the 2.5 gallons of wort back on the top of the grain bed. At this point I re-open the spigot on the mashtun and begin filling another bucket with wort. Since the mashtun is draining while wort is being recirculated back on top of the grain bed, a vacuum-like force is created, pulling the wort downwards in hopes of enhancing the grain bed and possibly enhancing the rinse as well. I repeat this "recirculating" process, anywhere from 3 to 6 times, so in the end I will have recirculated about 7.5 to 15 gallons of wort.
At this point I begin my sparge. I drain directly from my hot liquor tank over the grain bed, usually through a 3/4" hose which flows on top of an upside down colander. The colander is used to get a more evenly distributed and slower stream of hot liquor over the grain bed. As I am sparging, wort is being drained out of the bottom of the mashtun into the brew kettle. I try to keep the liquid level in the mashtun within an inch above the top of the grain bed. So, I'll adjust the flows on both the hot liquor tank and the mashtun accordingly until I reach the right balance of flow. This way the grain bed is neither over-saturated or too dry. I am not sure if this technique, or my reasoning, is correct, but nonetheless, this is what I do (and please correct me if I'm wrong). So, I continue sparging until I reach my target pre-boil volume. By this time, I hope and pray that (mostly) everything I need out of the grains was rinsed through the grain bed and into the brew kettle.
And finally, some specific questions:
1. Is it okay that my mash is just sitting without any mixing or recirculating for the entire hour? Any recommended techniques to mix or recirculate during mash using my current igloo cooler setup?
2. Why recirculate the mash? Is it simply to achieve better clarity of the wort, or are there other reasons such as creating a better grain bed or mash temperature control?
3. Does my post-mash recirculating make sense? Will this help the grain bed or help rinse the sugars? A part of me finds it difficult to pour the fresh wort back on top of the grain bed because I would think that the first 10 gallons of wort is already full sugars, body, and flavor and you are risking the chance of losing them by pouring it back on top of the grain bed.
4. When sparging, is the velocity of the flow and the overall time it takes to sparge important? What is better - slower or faster?
5. Does my reasoning make sense to keep the water level right above the top of the grain bed during sparging?
6. At any point during the sparge, should I stop the flow of hot liquor, let the mashton run dry, and then continue the flow of hot liquor over the now dry grain bed? I can see a benefit to this, getting a full drain of the mash, but at the same time I am not sure if drying out the grain bed causes problems with the sparge.
Thanks in advance for any shared insight.
--
David J. Stein
As I continue on my quest, I have learned and fully realized that beer-making is a science. There are numerous equations, methods and techniques to the madness. Clearly, brewing beer can be explained in simple terms and executed with relative ease (heck, there are only 4 basic ingredients). However, for those, like myself, who strive for perfection: Brewing beer is an (often sticky) web of variables that go on, and on, and on...
The speckle along the path to beer enlightenment which I need to tackle quickly, and efficiently, is the process of Mashing and Sparging. I cannot count the number of batches of beer I have made, but for one thing I am certain - my mash is never consistent and always lacking in efficiency. I am sure there are many reasons why this is the case, including my custom-made mash/sparge system which eventually needs to be replaced. However, the most important thing that I admittedly lack is - understanding.
A semi-brief description of my mash/sparge system:
I currently use an Igloo "Icecube Maxcold" 15 gallon square roller cooler as my mashtun. I attached a spigot at the bottom of the cooler for drainage. Inside the cooler, and connected to the spigot, is a cpvc manifold with holes drilled in it, also used for drainage. This is the forum I originally got the idea from: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/60qt-ice-cube-mash-tun-build-cheap-simple-144475.
So, I first get my hot liquor up to temp (~165-170 F) while meanwhile preparing and grinding the grains. Once the hot liquor is ready, I pour it quickly into the mashtun with the grains, trying my best to pour the water and grains at the same rate to get a good mix. After this transfer, and some gentle mixing with a brew spoon, the temperature of the mash is typically around 152-156 degrees. I close up the cooler and let it sit for an hour. During that hour it just sits - no recirculating, no mixing. When the hour is up, I open up the spigot at the bottom of the mashtun and fill up a bottling bucket with about 2.5 gallons of wort. I briefly close the spigot on the mashtun, connect a hose to the bottling bucket, and begin draining the 2.5 gallons of wort back on the top of the grain bed. At this point I re-open the spigot on the mashtun and begin filling another bucket with wort. Since the mashtun is draining while wort is being recirculated back on top of the grain bed, a vacuum-like force is created, pulling the wort downwards in hopes of enhancing the grain bed and possibly enhancing the rinse as well. I repeat this "recirculating" process, anywhere from 3 to 6 times, so in the end I will have recirculated about 7.5 to 15 gallons of wort.
At this point I begin my sparge. I drain directly from my hot liquor tank over the grain bed, usually through a 3/4" hose which flows on top of an upside down colander. The colander is used to get a more evenly distributed and slower stream of hot liquor over the grain bed. As I am sparging, wort is being drained out of the bottom of the mashtun into the brew kettle. I try to keep the liquid level in the mashtun within an inch above the top of the grain bed. So, I'll adjust the flows on both the hot liquor tank and the mashtun accordingly until I reach the right balance of flow. This way the grain bed is neither over-saturated or too dry. I am not sure if this technique, or my reasoning, is correct, but nonetheless, this is what I do (and please correct me if I'm wrong). So, I continue sparging until I reach my target pre-boil volume. By this time, I hope and pray that (mostly) everything I need out of the grains was rinsed through the grain bed and into the brew kettle.
And finally, some specific questions:
1. Is it okay that my mash is just sitting without any mixing or recirculating for the entire hour? Any recommended techniques to mix or recirculate during mash using my current igloo cooler setup?
2. Why recirculate the mash? Is it simply to achieve better clarity of the wort, or are there other reasons such as creating a better grain bed or mash temperature control?
3. Does my post-mash recirculating make sense? Will this help the grain bed or help rinse the sugars? A part of me finds it difficult to pour the fresh wort back on top of the grain bed because I would think that the first 10 gallons of wort is already full sugars, body, and flavor and you are risking the chance of losing them by pouring it back on top of the grain bed.
4. When sparging, is the velocity of the flow and the overall time it takes to sparge important? What is better - slower or faster?
5. Does my reasoning make sense to keep the water level right above the top of the grain bed during sparging?
6. At any point during the sparge, should I stop the flow of hot liquor, let the mashton run dry, and then continue the flow of hot liquor over the now dry grain bed? I can see a benefit to this, getting a full drain of the mash, but at the same time I am not sure if drying out the grain bed causes problems with the sparge.
Thanks in advance for any shared insight.
--
David J. Stein