Toecutter
Well-Known Member
Its rainy here in So Cal, and i'm off for the holidays, so i thought i would brew today and try out some of the equiptment i got for christmas.
i have been struggling with my efficiencies so i had been compensating by using more grain. Still, I could not get my SG over 1.045-1.050 for say 13 lbs of grain for a 5 gallon batch I normally have my grain crushed at my LHBS,so I have been at the mercy of their mill.
I have been brewing about 6 months now, and adding equiptment as I go along.
So last night i milled my grain with my new 3 roller Monster Mill. I was fooling with the adjustmentsm and first pass, it looked like i may have not crushed all the kernals. i ajusted it again, and milled the grain a second time. this time it looked real good.
So this morning I heated my water to start my mash. i was anxious to try my new chugger pump, to pump my water and wort instead of bucketing. I had built a rolling tool box this week with my pump attached from a thread i found on here.
So i mashed in for an hour, then recirculated the wort for 10 minutes using the pump, while my sparge water was heating. then i sparged using the pump and copper sparge manifold i made. this pump and camlock setup sure made things easier.
i noticed right off that the wort looked different, thicker. I pumped the wort to the kettle, brought it to a boil, then pulled a sample, chilled to 65dg and tested SG. wow, 1.062 !! this was with 26 lbs of grain for a 10 gallon batch (preboil 12 gallons) of APA, best i could due with the same grain bill was 1.050.
Not sure if this was due to the Monster Mill, pump, or combination of all, but looks like I can cut down on my grain
Anyhoo, I dropped this onto a Nottingham yeast cake in the fermenter, as i just finished kegging some Bee Cave HPA. This is my first attemp at reusing a yeast cake, we will see how it turns out.
i have been struggling with my efficiencies so i had been compensating by using more grain. Still, I could not get my SG over 1.045-1.050 for say 13 lbs of grain for a 5 gallon batch I normally have my grain crushed at my LHBS,so I have been at the mercy of their mill.
I have been brewing about 6 months now, and adding equiptment as I go along.
So last night i milled my grain with my new 3 roller Monster Mill. I was fooling with the adjustmentsm and first pass, it looked like i may have not crushed all the kernals. i ajusted it again, and milled the grain a second time. this time it looked real good.
So this morning I heated my water to start my mash. i was anxious to try my new chugger pump, to pump my water and wort instead of bucketing. I had built a rolling tool box this week with my pump attached from a thread i found on here.
So i mashed in for an hour, then recirculated the wort for 10 minutes using the pump, while my sparge water was heating. then i sparged using the pump and copper sparge manifold i made. this pump and camlock setup sure made things easier.
i noticed right off that the wort looked different, thicker. I pumped the wort to the kettle, brought it to a boil, then pulled a sample, chilled to 65dg and tested SG. wow, 1.062 !! this was with 26 lbs of grain for a 10 gallon batch (preboil 12 gallons) of APA, best i could due with the same grain bill was 1.050.
Not sure if this was due to the Monster Mill, pump, or combination of all, but looks like I can cut down on my grain
Anyhoo, I dropped this onto a Nottingham yeast cake in the fermenter, as i just finished kegging some Bee Cave HPA. This is my first attemp at reusing a yeast cake, we will see how it turns out.
I keep it updated all year long.
