Earlier today I did my 3rd all grain batch and I seem to be learning a ton each time. With that said, I need some advice from the all grain gurus out there. I missed my numbers big time today and I think it has to do with my crush, sparge method, and water volume issues.
First potential issue - the crush. When comparing my crush to the recommended crush pics that I found on this site, I feel like my crush looks really comparable. I think this is a good thing, but I seem to be extracting a ton of sugar from the grain. I'm using a corona mill. The beer that I was brewing today was a chocolate milk stout from northern brewer that was supposed to have a OG of 1.049. I mashed with ~3 gallons of water (9.75lbs of grain) and held at 152°F for 60 min and my first runnings came in at 1.090 - is that good/normal?
The second potential issue are my sparge methods. I'm still in the process of figuring this all grain thing out and attempted to fly sparge my first two batches, which didn't turn out so well. The beers are ok, but very astringent. I think I over sparged and released a ton of tannins, plus I wasn't monitoring ph at all. So, today I decided to give batch sparging a try because it seems to be a little easier (faster and don't need to monitor ph as closely/at all) and more forgiving (less likely to release tannins). My first impression is that batch sparging is the sh*t! The wort didn't have that grainy/astringent taste that my first two batches had. As mentioned above, my first runnings (i.e. - got back 2 out of 3 gallons, so I lost 1 gallon to grain absorption) came in at 1.090, second (i.e. - added 3 gallons) at 1.030, and the third (i.e. - added 1 gallon) at 1.020. I hit each of them with 180°F sparge water and held them for 10 minutes each. So, my preboil volume was 6 gallons.
Which brings me to the third thing that I'm possibly messing up - water volumes. Today I used brewheads.com, which was spot on from what I can tell. My preboil volume was 6 gallons and I had a SG of 1.082 (the OG of this brew is supposed to be 1.049). Long story short, I basically ended up doing a longer boil (~90 min) and topped everything off with an extra 1.5 gallons to reach about 5.5 gallons and an OG of 1.056 - so I missed the OG by 7 points and that's after cheating by adding an extra 1.5 gallons to dillute it, which isn't very good - right? Or should I be happy that my efficiency was pretty good?
Lastly, I think these all grain kits from northern brewer are supposed to be 5 gallon batches, right? If so, I missed that too, because I ended up with 5.5 gallons.
So, where am I going wrong here? Why were my numbers so off? Any feedback would be greatly appreciated - cheers!
First potential issue - the crush. When comparing my crush to the recommended crush pics that I found on this site, I feel like my crush looks really comparable. I think this is a good thing, but I seem to be extracting a ton of sugar from the grain. I'm using a corona mill. The beer that I was brewing today was a chocolate milk stout from northern brewer that was supposed to have a OG of 1.049. I mashed with ~3 gallons of water (9.75lbs of grain) and held at 152°F for 60 min and my first runnings came in at 1.090 - is that good/normal?
The second potential issue are my sparge methods. I'm still in the process of figuring this all grain thing out and attempted to fly sparge my first two batches, which didn't turn out so well. The beers are ok, but very astringent. I think I over sparged and released a ton of tannins, plus I wasn't monitoring ph at all. So, today I decided to give batch sparging a try because it seems to be a little easier (faster and don't need to monitor ph as closely/at all) and more forgiving (less likely to release tannins). My first impression is that batch sparging is the sh*t! The wort didn't have that grainy/astringent taste that my first two batches had. As mentioned above, my first runnings (i.e. - got back 2 out of 3 gallons, so I lost 1 gallon to grain absorption) came in at 1.090, second (i.e. - added 3 gallons) at 1.030, and the third (i.e. - added 1 gallon) at 1.020. I hit each of them with 180°F sparge water and held them for 10 minutes each. So, my preboil volume was 6 gallons.
Which brings me to the third thing that I'm possibly messing up - water volumes. Today I used brewheads.com, which was spot on from what I can tell. My preboil volume was 6 gallons and I had a SG of 1.082 (the OG of this brew is supposed to be 1.049). Long story short, I basically ended up doing a longer boil (~90 min) and topped everything off with an extra 1.5 gallons to reach about 5.5 gallons and an OG of 1.056 - so I missed the OG by 7 points and that's after cheating by adding an extra 1.5 gallons to dillute it, which isn't very good - right? Or should I be happy that my efficiency was pretty good?
Lastly, I think these all grain kits from northern brewer are supposed to be 5 gallon batches, right? If so, I missed that too, because I ended up with 5.5 gallons.
So, where am I going wrong here? Why were my numbers so off? Any feedback would be greatly appreciated - cheers!
