SamuraiSquirrel
Well-Known Member
So I brewed my first all grain this past Sunday. For the most part everything went according to plans. I just missed my targets by a little but it should still be a good beer. Just looking for some advice and thoughts as to where I might have gone wrong.
Equipment:
10 gallon mega pot & 10 gallon igloo cooler with copper manifold.
Ingredients:
10 lbs American pale two row
1 lb Munich
½ lb Belgian caramunich
½ lb Briess carapils
.75 oz Columbus @ 60
.75 oz Centennial @ 45
.25 oz Centennial @ 30
.25 oz Centennial @ 15
.25 oz Centennial @ 5
.25 oz Centennial @ 2
.5 oz Columbus dry hop 14 days
.5 oz Centennial dry hop 7 days
Safale 04 yeast
Mash:
Mash in 15 quarts at 155 degrees for 60 minutes
Sparge with 4.83 gallons of water @ 170 degrees (I split in half and sparged twice)
Projections vs actual
Preboil gravity 1.054 projected, 1.038 actual
Preboil volume 6.64 gallons projected, 6.5 actual
Original gravity 1.065 projected, 1.055 actual
Volume into fermenter 5.0 gallons projected, 4.0 actual
My thoughts:
My newly built mash tun seemed to work flawlessly. Then I took my pre boil gravity and was horrified when I saw that it was 1.038 @ 60 degrees F when I was expecting 1.055. I am attributing this horrible efficiency to the mill at my LHBS (any other thoughts?). I looked at a handful of grains and noticed a good number of grains that looked untouched by the mill. I will be looking at getting my own mill as soon as possible.
Pre-boil volume was nearly dead on so I did not add any additional water at this point.
In order to compensate for my lower than expected gravity I figured I would boil the hell out of my brew to get a little more evaporation which would give my O.G a little boost. It did just that and more. I kept the boil at 60 minutes but as rapid as possible without boiling over. I only ended up with 4 gallons left in the end and an O.G of 1.055 @ 60 degrees. I was really surprised that I boiled off 2.5 gallons (of 6.5) in an hour.
I put my disappointing 4 gallon yield into fermenter without adding any water to top off as I did not want to decrease my gravity since it was already on the low end for what I was hoping to hit.
Does anyone else use this pot? And if so what evap rate do you use for it?
Equipment:
10 gallon mega pot & 10 gallon igloo cooler with copper manifold.
Ingredients:
10 lbs American pale two row
1 lb Munich
½ lb Belgian caramunich
½ lb Briess carapils
.75 oz Columbus @ 60
.75 oz Centennial @ 45
.25 oz Centennial @ 30
.25 oz Centennial @ 15
.25 oz Centennial @ 5
.25 oz Centennial @ 2
.5 oz Columbus dry hop 14 days
.5 oz Centennial dry hop 7 days
Safale 04 yeast
Mash:
Mash in 15 quarts at 155 degrees for 60 minutes
Sparge with 4.83 gallons of water @ 170 degrees (I split in half and sparged twice)
Projections vs actual
Preboil gravity 1.054 projected, 1.038 actual
Preboil volume 6.64 gallons projected, 6.5 actual
Original gravity 1.065 projected, 1.055 actual
Volume into fermenter 5.0 gallons projected, 4.0 actual
My thoughts:
My newly built mash tun seemed to work flawlessly. Then I took my pre boil gravity and was horrified when I saw that it was 1.038 @ 60 degrees F when I was expecting 1.055. I am attributing this horrible efficiency to the mill at my LHBS (any other thoughts?). I looked at a handful of grains and noticed a good number of grains that looked untouched by the mill. I will be looking at getting my own mill as soon as possible.
Pre-boil volume was nearly dead on so I did not add any additional water at this point.
In order to compensate for my lower than expected gravity I figured I would boil the hell out of my brew to get a little more evaporation which would give my O.G a little boost. It did just that and more. I kept the boil at 60 minutes but as rapid as possible without boiling over. I only ended up with 4 gallons left in the end and an O.G of 1.055 @ 60 degrees. I was really surprised that I boiled off 2.5 gallons (of 6.5) in an hour.
I put my disappointing 4 gallon yield into fermenter without adding any water to top off as I did not want to decrease my gravity since it was already on the low end for what I was hoping to hit.
Does anyone else use this pot? And if so what evap rate do you use for it?