2nd AG brew day: OG and Sparge problems :(

Hello all!

My friend and I had an interesting brew day yesterday; a few newbie mistakes and 1 equipment casualty (burned our digital thermometer probe), but otherwise we are getting better. Recipe was Jamil's Evil Twin from NorthernBrewer.

First problem: 1st attempt at Fly sparge
Water level in the HLT was below the thermometer, so while we thought we had our sparge water at 170 it was closer to 210. Sparged with at least 2 gallons of nearly boiling water. What sort of effect will this have? Also, what temperatures are appropriate for batch & fly sparging?
Also, while attempting to fly sparge, we collected nearly 4 gallons in 5 minutes. So we called it a batch sparge instead and grabbed 2 more gallons of runnings after 15 minutes or so. O.G. was actually spot on as per the included recipe sheet: 1.064 Pre-boil OG.

Second problem: Post boil OG way too high
We think we know what happened here, just not sure. Post boil OG was 1.090. The wort had a ton of "floaters" in it. We did not whirlpool and we did not strain. I had every intention of whirlpooling, but got sidetracked with the yeast/pouring another beer/setting up the plate chiller. So, I'm guessing our beer is full of hop pellet leavings and protein.

Thoughts? If we get the hops & protein to settle, this should turn out alright, right?

Type: All Grain
Date: 11/17/2009
Batch Size: 5.00 gal
Brewer: CNote, Dano
Boil Size: 6 gal
Boil Time: 90 min
Equipment: Synergy 15.5 Gallon
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.0 (have not tested)

Ingredients

10 lbs Pale Malt, Maris Otter (3.0 SRM) Grain 78.4 %
1 lbs Munich Malt (9.0 SRM) Grain 7.8 %
12.0 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L (40.0 SRM) Grain 5.9 %
6.1 oz Victory Malt (25.0 SRM) Grain 3.0 %
6.0 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt -120L (120.0 SRM) Grain 2.9 %
4.0 oz Chocolate Malt (350.0 SRM) Grain 2.0 %

0.25 oz Columbus (Tomahawk) [14.00%] (60 min) Hops 11.1 IBU
0.50 oz Columbus (Tomahawk) [14.00%] (20 min) Hops 13.5 IBU
0.75 oz Centennial [10.00%] (10 min) Hops 8.6 IBU
0.75 oz Amarillo Gold [8.50%] (10 min) Hops 7.3 IBU
1.00 oz Amarillo Gold [8.50%] (0 min) Hops
1.00 oz Centennial [10.00%] (0 min) Hops

1 Pkgs Dry Ale Yeast (Safale #US-05)

Est Original Gravity: 1.071 SG (1.064 as per instructions)
Measured Original Gravity: 1.010 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.020 SG
Measured Final Gravity: 1.005 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 6.6 %
Actual Alcohol by Vol: 0.6 %
Bitterness: 40.5 IBU
Calories: 43 cal/pint
Est Color: 19.4 SRM


Cheers!

Clint81 said:

First problem: 1st attempt at Fly sparge
Water level in the HLT was below the thermometer, so while we thought we had our sparge water at 170 it was closer to 210. Sparged with at least 2 gallons of nearly boiling water. What sort of effect will this have? Also, what temperatures are appropriate for batch & fly sparging?

Click to expand...

I'll answer what I have experience with here. I only batch sparge. I aim for 168-172 so have to pour in 190 water.

Regarding pouring in 210 water...not sure. I have never done this but believe that Ph is more important when it comes to leaching tannins.

Clint81 said:

Second problem: Post boil OG way too high
We think we know what happened here, just not sure. Post boil OG was 1.090. The wort had a ton of "floaters" in it. We did not whirlpool and we did not strain. I had every intention of whirlpooling, but got sidetracked with the yeast/pouring another beer/setting up the plate chiller. So, I'm guessing our beer is full of hop pellet leavings and protein.

Thoughts? If we get the hops & protein to settle, this should turn out alright, right?

Click to expand...

Regarding the question of too hign an OG. If your BG was where you wanted it, all that could have happened to get your OG off target was that you boiled too long or too hard. As a reference point, I start with seven gallons and end a little over six. The wort just has to be turning over, not leaping out of the pot.

Regarding having hops, etc in the fermentor...some people make no effort to avoid doing that. You'll be fine. You've got a pretty big beer going there and any unwanted flavor contributions (if any) should be pretty well masked.

In any case, all you can do now is wait and let the yeasties do their thing! Though I do understand wanting to get wagers on how things will turn out. I've done that many times myself. Good luck!

Dan

Thanks, Dan

Temps in the mash tun were 182 when we realized how hot our sparge water was, so I think we were definitely higher than optimal there. We're not checking Ph yet, so I'm not sure where we were pre boil.

I feel pretty confident that we are boiling to hard. I turned the heat down with about 30 minutes left, but before that the gas was nearly all the way on.

Still, I know we had more than 4 gallons in fermenter post boil. And we added 3/4 gallon of filtered water to the wort after cooling, and our SG only dropped 2 brix (21-22 brix!!! Yikes!)

Yeast is doing it's thing, can't wait to see where the FG ends up!