brewski08
Well-Known Member
i'll try to keep this as simple as possible without getting too wordy:
-i have an orange rubbermaid 10 galloon cooler with ss braid that i use as a MLT. i mash all my batches at 154 F for 60 minutes. i heat my water using a propane burner and 8 gallon kettle. my rubbermaid cooler serves as both my mash and lauter tun.
i'm pretty good at hitting my mash temps, and living in FL allows me to maintain that temperature pretty easily. however, after my 60 minute mash, i get a little confused...
-i understand the concept of a mash out, but i can't seem to find an answer (that i understand at least) to the specifics. what temperature do i want my wort/grain solution in my MLT to be as a result of the added mash out water? how much water is ideal to use for mash out? do i stir my grain/wort solution with the addition of my mash out water? i've read that you should mash out for 10 minutes.
...and now there's sparging...
-my first AG batch i did a batch sparge. i simply added 180F water to my MLT until i extracted 6.5 gallons of wort from it. however, after a 70% efficiency rating, i tried to do a hybrid batch/fly sparge in hopes that this method will improve my efficiency.
...here's my hybrid batch/fly sparge method...
-after vorlauffing ~0.5 gallons of wort and placing it back into MLT, i take a 0.25 gallon pot with 1 foot handle, collect boiling water from my kettle, and poor it into my MLT, and slowly drain the wort into a bucket (because my kettle currently holds boiling water). i'll continue to do this, constantly keeping an inch of water above the grain bed until i collected my desired pre-boil volume. with this method, i've done 3 batches all ranging in the efficiency range of 66%-72%. at no point during this sparging process do i stir my grains.
i rely on my LHBS to crush my grains.
if anyone can provide any advice on my mashing and sparging process, i'd greatly appreciate it! i'd like to improve my efficiency, and i want to avoid extracting tannins (i noticed a very, very slight astringency in my last couple of batches).
any advice (even from fellow noobs) will be appreciated.
-i have an orange rubbermaid 10 galloon cooler with ss braid that i use as a MLT. i mash all my batches at 154 F for 60 minutes. i heat my water using a propane burner and 8 gallon kettle. my rubbermaid cooler serves as both my mash and lauter tun.
i'm pretty good at hitting my mash temps, and living in FL allows me to maintain that temperature pretty easily. however, after my 60 minute mash, i get a little confused...
-i understand the concept of a mash out, but i can't seem to find an answer (that i understand at least) to the specifics. what temperature do i want my wort/grain solution in my MLT to be as a result of the added mash out water? how much water is ideal to use for mash out? do i stir my grain/wort solution with the addition of my mash out water? i've read that you should mash out for 10 minutes.
...and now there's sparging...
-my first AG batch i did a batch sparge. i simply added 180F water to my MLT until i extracted 6.5 gallons of wort from it. however, after a 70% efficiency rating, i tried to do a hybrid batch/fly sparge in hopes that this method will improve my efficiency.
...here's my hybrid batch/fly sparge method...
-after vorlauffing ~0.5 gallons of wort and placing it back into MLT, i take a 0.25 gallon pot with 1 foot handle, collect boiling water from my kettle, and poor it into my MLT, and slowly drain the wort into a bucket (because my kettle currently holds boiling water). i'll continue to do this, constantly keeping an inch of water above the grain bed until i collected my desired pre-boil volume. with this method, i've done 3 batches all ranging in the efficiency range of 66%-72%. at no point during this sparging process do i stir my grains.
i rely on my LHBS to crush my grains.
if anyone can provide any advice on my mashing and sparging process, i'd greatly appreciate it! i'd like to improve my efficiency, and i want to avoid extracting tannins (i noticed a very, very slight astringency in my last couple of batches).
any advice (even from fellow noobs) will be appreciated.
