Brewing today

Brewing a Sam Adams Summer Ale Clone today. I am doing an All-grain batch on my revamped home made system. Hopefully it will turn out great!

Slmauran said:

Brewing a Sam Adams Summer Ale Clone today. I am doing an All-grain batch on my revamped home made system. Hopefully it will turn out great!

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Feels good huh. Something satisfying about going from grain to glass

Varmintman said:

Feels good huh. Something satisfying about going from grain to glass

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Brew went well but I was a bit disappointed with the O.G. The O.G. was supposed to be 1.048 but turned out to be 1.034 so it is gonna be a light beer. The only difference I made was I switched from batch sparging to continuous sparging. I don't have a handle on how to do this and get the grains rinsed thoroughly.

Well, with a lower OG, that means you can drink more at each sitting

The trick to fly/continuous sparging is going sloooooow and keeping the liquid just above the grain bed (which is something I am still working on).

wSelwyn said:

Well, with a lower OG, that means you can drink more at each sitting

The trick to fly/continuous sparging is going sloooooow and keeping the liquid just above the grain bed (which is something I am still working on).

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Do you sprinkle over the whole grain bed or do you just keep adding water slowly to keep the water level where you want it? I found if I try to sprinkle the entire grain bed I end up adding too much water. If I slow it down I don't get coverage over the grain bed. Not sure how much this matters.

For me, I have an old (already warped from time) Tupperware lid that I throw in right before sparging. I then take my sparge water in a pitcher and slowly add it over the lid each time it looks like it needs it. The lid floats right on top. I only fill the tun enough to bring the liquid ~1-2 inches over the grain bed. After a few times of doing this, you'll be able to see the grain bed (since the water is at a lower density.

Again, this is what I have been using and I havn't been doing AG for a long while, so I have yet to experiment that much. Some people use aluminum foil w/ holes punched in it, others have a spiggot system, and some use a pasta strainer. The trick is to not poke a hole in your grain bed.

I aim to take at least an hour draining the mash tun, as to not drain too quickly and leave sugars behind.

Yea, I think I just need to slow it down. All the things you mentioned I pretty much did except I think I only spent about 30 min. from start to finish. I also need to take gravity readings at different times of the process.