Man, I think I was getting a little too confident in my abilities. My first AG batch went pretty well, considering it was the first time. My 2nd batch was almost flawless. This time, well...
First of all, I was brewing a hefeweizen, and was going for a lighter body, so decided to mash at 150.0 F. After mixing everything in, I was getting temp reading of 158. I decided to add 1.5 qts of cold tap water to bring the temp down a bit. I mixed it in, closed the lid, and 5 minutes later, I was getting readings of 140 F. WTF??? So, then I added 1 gal. of near boiling water to bring the temp to about 148. At this point, I thought my water to grain ration was too high, so I skipped the "mashout" step.
I still didn't get the 3.36 gallons of first runnings I wanted. I don't know what I'm doing wrong, but I never get the amount of wort out of a running that I calculate. The Coleman Extreme should drain beautifully with the recessed drain, but I always find pockets of liquid after the runnings stop. I obviously have to adjust my deadspace in my calculations, which I have at close to zero now.
So, I sparged with one more gallon of water than I calculated, to make sure I got enough in my 2nd runnings to acheive my preboil target of 6.72 gallons, which I did get. I boiled for 41 minutes, at which point I was already below my final target of 5 gallons. It was supposed to be a 60 minute boil to get the IBU, but whatever. It's a hefe, bitterness isn't my biggest concern.
After chilling, and getting everything in the carboy, I was at about 4.5 gallons. And, wouldn't you know it, I forgot to take a hydrometer reading before aerating and pitching
, so I have no idea what my efficiency was. I added 5.2 buffer to my process as well, so I was really interested to see what kind of boost it would provide. Well, maybe after all the other SNAFUs of the day, the buffer will counteract all my screwups!
Anyway, it does look like I did get a substance resembling Bavarian hefeweizen in my carboy. And, it's already starting to bubble in the airlock, after two hours! I also reasoned that having a little less wort in the carboy would be a good thing with this yeast, because I heard it can get very, very active during primary. I'm guessing it will taste pretty good.
One quick question, for the hefe brewers out there, is secondary necessary? I'm thinking the cloudier, the better. My plan is to bottle this stuff in about a week, or when fermentation is done, without any conditioning in secondary.
First of all, I was brewing a hefeweizen, and was going for a lighter body, so decided to mash at 150.0 F. After mixing everything in, I was getting temp reading of 158. I decided to add 1.5 qts of cold tap water to bring the temp down a bit. I mixed it in, closed the lid, and 5 minutes later, I was getting readings of 140 F. WTF??? So, then I added 1 gal. of near boiling water to bring the temp to about 148. At this point, I thought my water to grain ration was too high, so I skipped the "mashout" step.
I still didn't get the 3.36 gallons of first runnings I wanted. I don't know what I'm doing wrong, but I never get the amount of wort out of a running that I calculate. The Coleman Extreme should drain beautifully with the recessed drain, but I always find pockets of liquid after the runnings stop. I obviously have to adjust my deadspace in my calculations, which I have at close to zero now.
So, I sparged with one more gallon of water than I calculated, to make sure I got enough in my 2nd runnings to acheive my preboil target of 6.72 gallons, which I did get. I boiled for 41 minutes, at which point I was already below my final target of 5 gallons. It was supposed to be a 60 minute boil to get the IBU, but whatever. It's a hefe, bitterness isn't my biggest concern.
After chilling, and getting everything in the carboy, I was at about 4.5 gallons. And, wouldn't you know it, I forgot to take a hydrometer reading before aerating and pitching
, so I have no idea what my efficiency was. I added 5.2 buffer to my process as well, so I was really interested to see what kind of boost it would provide. Well, maybe after all the other SNAFUs of the day, the buffer will counteract all my screwups! Anyway, it does look like I did get a substance resembling Bavarian hefeweizen in my carboy. And, it's already starting to bubble in the airlock, after two hours! I also reasoned that having a little less wort in the carboy would be a good thing with this yeast, because I heard it can get very, very active during primary. I'm guessing it will taste pretty good.
One quick question, for the hefe brewers out there, is secondary necessary? I'm thinking the cloudier, the better. My plan is to bottle this stuff in about a week, or when fermentation is done, without any conditioning in secondary.
