Long brewing day but way more relaxed as things were a little more organized. The grain bill was a total of 12.4lbs of Grouse Millet and 2lb's of Eckard Rice Malt. I did one pass using a Monster Mill 2 roller at .63mm and 2lbs of rice at .70mm. My last gravity reading was 1.023 pre-boil collected from roughly 7 1/2 gallons. Post boil with with 1lb of D-45 beet sugar it was 1.034
Here are my notes
Grist/Mill
I spoke with Jim from Eckard and based on the pictures I sent him the Monster Mill 2-roller at .70mm produced the optimal grist. It was a pain to grind the rice, I found having to do short spurts in order to get it done, haha. I guess next time I could start at .80 and then step it down. I did one pass this time at .60mm for the millet as last batch I did a second pass. I thought this was a good blend of finer particulate and whole hulls.
Water Treatment
Using my tap water, I ran it through a carbon conical filter at 1 hour and collected 10 gallons. Based on the results of the Lamotte Brewlab I had the water was treated with .5g of NAHCO3, 6g of CaSO4 and 8g of CaCl2 and 6g of MgSO4
Mash
17.5qts of 152f water we're added to reach a target of 140f of which we got 143.5f. After 30 minutes 5.8qts of boiling water were added bringing the mash to 156 for 60 minutes. 4.2 quarts of boiling water were
added bring the mash to 160 for 60 minutes.
Mash notes
This time I covered the rubbermaid mash tun and found that to be a huge help, very little temperature changes during the 60 minute rests I lost 1-2 degree's. I noticed there was one section of the mash tun that was consistently 2 degrees lower then the rest, which I ended up moving around the mash to balance that out. Starch conversion test showed all no starches present. For batch #4 I am going to purchase a PH meter to take the guess work out of where I may be for my mash PH
Sparge
I set the grain bed with a series of vorlauf's and let it take between 30-45min drain. I had 1.5 gallons of sparge available to use. I completed one sparge, reason is I liked having the strike water cover the bed from top to bottom. I stirred the mash thoroughly and set it with a series of vorlauf's. One thing I noticed is that I must have agitated the bed a lot because the first couple of vourlauf's were a milky color that eventually dissipated. The temperature of the spare water was in the 170f's. A little over 7 gallon's was collected at 1.021.
Misc
I though based on the grains I used the SRM would be much lower than what I see. It looks almost like a burnt orange and I was thinking it would be a lot lighter. I am still trying to improve my efficiency before I bring in enzymes. I want to push the grain as far as I can before I add anything additional.
Boil
The boil was 60 minutes with a total of 4oz's of hop addition, grapefruit peel, yeast nutrient and 1lb of D-45 beet sugar. I was happy with the whirlpool at the end of the boil, very little sediment made it into the carboy.
Cooling
Using a counterflow chiller I was able to get a 1.5:1 spent water to beer ratio cooling 5 gallon's of beer down to 102f. I want to continue to be more efficient and use less water. Trying to figure out how to reuse spent water. Ice bath in my kettle brought the carboy down to 78f. During this time I used a airstone for a total of 15min to oxygenate the wort.
Yeast
Fermentis Safale-05 was rehydrated at 80f in 6oz's of water. Using a stir plate it was agitated for 120 min. Before pitching the yeast the stir plate was stopped for a total of 45min. The yeast was pitched in the wort that was reading 78f. The chest freezer is set for 65f and I am planning to step it to 72 over the next 2-3 days
Very happy with the day, I am hoping to understand why my OG is low. The good thing is that it is consistent with my last batch, so somewhere I can improve.
Here are my notes
Grist/Mill
I spoke with Jim from Eckard and based on the pictures I sent him the Monster Mill 2-roller at .70mm produced the optimal grist. It was a pain to grind the rice, I found having to do short spurts in order to get it done, haha. I guess next time I could start at .80 and then step it down. I did one pass this time at .60mm for the millet as last batch I did a second pass. I thought this was a good blend of finer particulate and whole hulls.
Water Treatment
Using my tap water, I ran it through a carbon conical filter at 1 hour and collected 10 gallons. Based on the results of the Lamotte Brewlab I had the water was treated with .5g of NAHCO3, 6g of CaSO4 and 8g of CaCl2 and 6g of MgSO4
Mash
17.5qts of 152f water we're added to reach a target of 140f of which we got 143.5f. After 30 minutes 5.8qts of boiling water were added bringing the mash to 156 for 60 minutes. 4.2 quarts of boiling water were
added bring the mash to 160 for 60 minutes.
Mash notes
This time I covered the rubbermaid mash tun and found that to be a huge help, very little temperature changes during the 60 minute rests I lost 1-2 degree's. I noticed there was one section of the mash tun that was consistently 2 degrees lower then the rest, which I ended up moving around the mash to balance that out. Starch conversion test showed all no starches present. For batch #4 I am going to purchase a PH meter to take the guess work out of where I may be for my mash PH
Sparge
I set the grain bed with a series of vorlauf's and let it take between 30-45min drain. I had 1.5 gallons of sparge available to use. I completed one sparge, reason is I liked having the strike water cover the bed from top to bottom. I stirred the mash thoroughly and set it with a series of vorlauf's. One thing I noticed is that I must have agitated the bed a lot because the first couple of vourlauf's were a milky color that eventually dissipated. The temperature of the spare water was in the 170f's. A little over 7 gallon's was collected at 1.021.
Misc
I though based on the grains I used the SRM would be much lower than what I see. It looks almost like a burnt orange and I was thinking it would be a lot lighter. I am still trying to improve my efficiency before I bring in enzymes. I want to push the grain as far as I can before I add anything additional.
Boil
The boil was 60 minutes with a total of 4oz's of hop addition, grapefruit peel, yeast nutrient and 1lb of D-45 beet sugar. I was happy with the whirlpool at the end of the boil, very little sediment made it into the carboy.
Cooling
Using a counterflow chiller I was able to get a 1.5:1 spent water to beer ratio cooling 5 gallon's of beer down to 102f. I want to continue to be more efficient and use less water. Trying to figure out how to reuse spent water. Ice bath in my kettle brought the carboy down to 78f. During this time I used a airstone for a total of 15min to oxygenate the wort.
Yeast
Fermentis Safale-05 was rehydrated at 80f in 6oz's of water. Using a stir plate it was agitated for 120 min. Before pitching the yeast the stir plate was stopped for a total of 45min. The yeast was pitched in the wort that was reading 78f. The chest freezer is set for 65f and I am planning to step it to 72 over the next 2-3 days
Very happy with the day, I am hoping to understand why my OG is low. The good thing is that it is consistent with my last batch, so somewhere I can improve.