Joe.Conley
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- Joined
- Aug 13, 2020
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- 21
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Was a battle this weekend to get 6+ gallons of wort to ~1.080 for this Pliny clone using all grain and without extract in my 10 gal anvil foundry. Had to double mash because I couldn't fit all the water & grain in for a 5 gal batch, and it was such a low water-to-grain ratio that each mash took 2 hours to get decent extraction, but got reasonably close. Pretty expensive between all the malts and hops, but it already tastes pretty good.
In the past I've had trouble getting decent utilization out of the grain, and I was noticing the problem seems to get worse the lower the water-to-grain ratio is:
In listening to an old episode of Brew Strong, they mentioned that you might have to increase the mash time to get the same mash efficiency if you have a lower water-to-grain ratio, so this time I did 2 hours instead of one for each mash, and I was definitely going up significantly in gravity well after the 60 min mark. As an aside, I'm curious how people measure the mash gravity in the foundry, because I get very different readings depending on where I take a sample due to stratification and higher gravity wort settling to the bottom, and the liquid in the grain basket having a presumably inflated gravity. I found if I took a sample from the recirculation pump and from the top outside the grain basket, I would get wildly different numbers for most of the mash:
At 15 min top outside grain basket was .8 °P, from recirculating pump was 12.3°P (6.55°P avg)
30 min: 1.3°P, 12.9°P (7.1°P avg)
45 min: 6.8°P, 12.8°P (9.8°P avg)
60 min: 9.2°P, 12.8°P (11°P avg)
75 min: 11°P, 12.2°P (11.6°P avg)
90 min: 12°P, 12.4°P (12.2°P avg)
105 min: 12.6°P, 12.6(12.6°P avg)
End first mash before sparge: 1.046 at 66°F
After sparge: 1.044 at 76°F
Second mash:
15min: 15.2°P, 16.8°P (16°P avg)
30 min: 14.6°P, 17.6°P (16.1°P avg)
45 min: 17.2°P, 17.6°P (17.4°P avg)
60 min: 18°P, 18°P (18°P avg)
75 min: 18.2°P, 18.2 (18.2°P avg)
90 min: 18.2°P, 18.2°P ( 18.2°P avg)
105 min: 18.2°P, 18.6°P (18.4°P avg)
120 min: 18.4°P, 18.6°6 P (18.5°P avg)
End second mash 1.069@60°F
After noticing this, partway through the first mash I started running the recirculation pump outside the grain basket when stirring the top of the grain basket every 15 min, and also using a long skinny spoon to stir outside of the grain basket at the same time, which made the numbers converge quicker.
Anyway, I'm not sure what you guys do to get high gravity on the foundry. A lot of the recipes I want to make require more than the Foundry's 16 lb grain limit. I could make less beer, but in really high gravity situations that means only a 3 or 4 gallon batch with 16lbs of grain, which not only means it's getting to the point where there's so little beer it seems maybe not worth the effort, but the water-to-grain ratio gets really low, meaning at least super long mash times, and perhaps over extraction of tannins from the grain hulls.
I'm using the 120v mode (which I would think would be more of a concern for boil than mash). 240 would mean more boil off and thus more concentrated, higher gravity wort, but you still have the water/grain capacity limits in the mash.
Anyway, curious what tips anyone might have, and what the highest gravity they are able to achieve from a single mash in the foundry is.
Thanks for any advice.
In the past I've had trouble getting decent utilization out of the grain, and I was noticing the problem seems to get worse the lower the water-to-grain ratio is:
In listening to an old episode of Brew Strong, they mentioned that you might have to increase the mash time to get the same mash efficiency if you have a lower water-to-grain ratio, so this time I did 2 hours instead of one for each mash, and I was definitely going up significantly in gravity well after the 60 min mark. As an aside, I'm curious how people measure the mash gravity in the foundry, because I get very different readings depending on where I take a sample due to stratification and higher gravity wort settling to the bottom, and the liquid in the grain basket having a presumably inflated gravity. I found if I took a sample from the recirculation pump and from the top outside the grain basket, I would get wildly different numbers for most of the mash:
At 15 min top outside grain basket was .8 °P, from recirculating pump was 12.3°P (6.55°P avg)
30 min: 1.3°P, 12.9°P (7.1°P avg)
45 min: 6.8°P, 12.8°P (9.8°P avg)
60 min: 9.2°P, 12.8°P (11°P avg)
75 min: 11°P, 12.2°P (11.6°P avg)
90 min: 12°P, 12.4°P (12.2°P avg)
105 min: 12.6°P, 12.6(12.6°P avg)
End first mash before sparge: 1.046 at 66°F
After sparge: 1.044 at 76°F
Second mash:
15min: 15.2°P, 16.8°P (16°P avg)
30 min: 14.6°P, 17.6°P (16.1°P avg)
45 min: 17.2°P, 17.6°P (17.4°P avg)
60 min: 18°P, 18°P (18°P avg)
75 min: 18.2°P, 18.2 (18.2°P avg)
90 min: 18.2°P, 18.2°P ( 18.2°P avg)
105 min: 18.2°P, 18.6°P (18.4°P avg)
120 min: 18.4°P, 18.6°6 P (18.5°P avg)
End second mash 1.069@60°F
After noticing this, partway through the first mash I started running the recirculation pump outside the grain basket when stirring the top of the grain basket every 15 min, and also using a long skinny spoon to stir outside of the grain basket at the same time, which made the numbers converge quicker.
Anyway, I'm not sure what you guys do to get high gravity on the foundry. A lot of the recipes I want to make require more than the Foundry's 16 lb grain limit. I could make less beer, but in really high gravity situations that means only a 3 or 4 gallon batch with 16lbs of grain, which not only means it's getting to the point where there's so little beer it seems maybe not worth the effort, but the water-to-grain ratio gets really low, meaning at least super long mash times, and perhaps over extraction of tannins from the grain hulls.
I'm using the 120v mode (which I would think would be more of a concern for boil than mash). 240 would mean more boil off and thus more concentrated, higher gravity wort, but you still have the water/grain capacity limits in the mash.
Anyway, curious what tips anyone might have, and what the highest gravity they are able to achieve from a single mash in the foundry is.
Thanks for any advice.
