sundaybrewingco
Well-Known Member
I completed my first all-grain brew yesterday. It was for a Ordinary Bitter recipe I created with BeerTools. As expected, it didn't go as smoothly as I have planned it. I think I know why and learned from my mistakes..maybe some of the seasoned all-grain brewers can chime in..
I couldn't hit my strike mash temperature. I was expecting to mash around 154F and could only get it to 150F. I had to add more water to get it to a steady 150F. I did pre-heat my mash tun, but it didn't help. I think the problem was because I was mashing in a 15 gallon SS kettle for a 5 gallon batch I'm guessing the head space was too large for a 5 gallon mash which caused all the heat loss? Is this too big?
Secondly, I couldn't hit my sparge temperature either.. seeing how much was lost from the strike temps, I heated the sparge water to 190F and batch sparged. I could only get the temperature of the mash to 160F
I do have a 10 gallon cooler set up that I can use to mash in next time.. I just wanted to use my 15 gallon blichmann w/ false bottom.. however, everything else went rather smoothly (after 2 broken pint glasses and a warped water holder). It was a great time and a good learning experience, I just would of hoped it went more smoothly with hitting my temps.
Cheers!
I couldn't hit my strike mash temperature. I was expecting to mash around 154F and could only get it to 150F. I had to add more water to get it to a steady 150F. I did pre-heat my mash tun, but it didn't help. I think the problem was because I was mashing in a 15 gallon SS kettle for a 5 gallon batch I'm guessing the head space was too large for a 5 gallon mash which caused all the heat loss? Is this too big?
Secondly, I couldn't hit my sparge temperature either.. seeing how much was lost from the strike temps, I heated the sparge water to 190F and batch sparged. I could only get the temperature of the mash to 160F
I do have a 10 gallon cooler set up that I can use to mash in next time.. I just wanted to use my 15 gallon blichmann w/ false bottom.. however, everything else went rather smoothly (after 2 broken pint glasses and a warped water holder). It was a great time and a good learning experience, I just would of hoped it went more smoothly with hitting my temps.
Cheers!