Need advice after 1st brew completion!

[siucubfan]

I would like some advice and feedback after my first brew that me and buddy did yesterday. I had some success and some failures and a lot of confusion. I'm going to type my notes that I took below and then ask a few questions after that. I could use as much feed back as possible to help next time go smoother, thanks. This was Ed Wort's Haus Ale recipe.

System: 2 Tier stand, 3 keggles all with ball valves, thermometers and sight glasses. 60 plate wort chiller, 2 better bottle carboys.

Notes:
Heated water in HLT to 162. Added 7 1/2 gal of water 21 lbs of grain in the Mash tun. Had burner on under mash tun and it shot up to 190 pretty quickly on the lower thermometer when we weren't paying attention. It was at 190 for about 2 min. I shut off the flame and stirred and it went down to 155 after just a couple min. I had issues with the temp the entire time the mash was going. The lower thermometer was covered in the grain bed. The lower built in thermometer wasn't dropping. It didn't make sense as we were brewing outside and it was pretty cold outside. I would stir the the mash and the temp would drop 15-20 degrees. I got out my hand held thermometer and after it set the difference between the lower thermometer that was covered with grain and my hand held digital which was at the top was about 20 degrees difference. We weren't sure which we should go off of and struggled with the temp the entire time not knowing which thermometer to go off of. Both thermometers read correctly when it was just boiled water so they are both calibrated.

The total mash was about 1 hour 45 min. It was only suppose to be an hour but I forgot to start heating my sparge strike water until the 1 hour mash was done. It took about 45 min to heat the sparge water to 182.

Did a batch sparge with 2 equal sparges. We had about 12 gallons in the boil kettle. Brought wort to a boil and added hops at correct times 60, 30, 15 and 5 min. Boiled 1 hour and had about 9 gallons after boil.

During boil we sanitized everything we needed that was going to touch the wort post boil. Also brought some more water to boil that we would hydrate the yeast in and then we did hydrate the yeast.

Once boil was completed, we ran wort through the wort chiller into a bucket through a screen strainer. We took a sample to measure gravity. We then transferred to the carboys through a funnel with a screen. We then put it back through the strainer into the bucket then back to the carboy to help aerate the wort. Shook to carboys vigorously for a couple minutes, pitched yeast, attached blowoff tubes and put the end of the tubes in sanitized water.

Post boil gravity was 1.054. Target was 1.055.

Sorry the notes are kinda scattered. They were just chicken scratches we were taking during the brewing process and I am typing them out now all hopped up on NyQuil due to a cold.

The main advice I am looking for is with the mash. Should I got off the lower temp that is submerged in the grain bed to the top of the mash where its just liquid?

The second part is, how in the hell with the mash temp going up and down like it did, mash for 45 min longer than it was suppose to and still the gravity reading? I figured that it would be way off. Also with the longer mash, Am I going to get many off flavors? Or will it create any other problems?

Other than that, if there is any other pointers or advice you can give me it would be greatly appreciated. I am new to this and I would love all the feedback I can get, good or bad. If there is any other info you need to help answer any of these question just ask and I will give you what I know. I hop to be enjoying my first homebrew in about 6-7 weeks. Thanks for all the help in advance.

 

[mike20793]

I personally use a cooler as a mash tun and my temps are fine. I have seen people use keggles as mash tuns and only wrap insulation around it. You do not need to add heat to it to keep it at the appropriate temp. Try that and see how it works. You are also going to want to be concerned with the temperature of the grain bed during mash and sparge. It will take a couple sessions before you calibrate your equipment for the proper temps. It gets easier with time. Good luck and cheers!

 

[LowNotes]

As far as hitting the OG almost spot on, despite mash temps possibly being varied, I would say the only possible concern is what types of sugars you got from the grain. Slightly lower temps will bring out more fermentables (resulting in a lower FG and drier beer) while slightly higher temps will bring out more non-fermentables (resulting in a higher FG and a sweeter beer). This is my understanding anyway, though I am pretty new to this as well.

Essentially, I would say hitting you OG so accurately is a sign your mash efficiency was right on target, but you won't know what the impact of the temperature swings until you take a FG.

My first AG batch had temperatures in the mash swing from 155 at mash in, 140 at the end of the mash, to 190 at mash-out because my process needed some tweaking. The beer fermented fine, and is in bottles now. It is still aging so the flavors aren't quite right (only been in bottles a week) but it appears to be turning out okay.

 

[siucubfan]

I personally use a cooler as a mash tun and my temps are fine. I have seen people use keggles as mash tuns and only wrap insulation around it. You do not need to add heat to it to keep it at the appropriate temp. Try that and see how it works. You are also going to want to be concerned with the temperature of the grain bed during mash and sparge. It will take a couple sessions before you calibrate your equipment for the proper temps. It gets easier with time. Good luck and cheers!

Did some searching on the insulation. Definitely going to invest in that. Thanks for the advise.

 

[siucubfan]

As far as hitting the OG almost spot on, despite mash temps possibly being varied, I would say the only possible concern is what types of sugars you got from the grain. Slightly lower temps will bring out more fermentables (resulting in a lower FG and drier beer) while slightly higher temps will bring out more non-fermentables (resulting in a higher FG and a sweeter beer). This is my understanding anyway, though I am pretty new to this as well.

Essentially, I would say hitting you OG so accurately is a sign your mash efficiency was right on target, but you won't know what the impact of the temperature swings until you take a FG.

My first AG batch had temperatures in the mash swing from 155 at mash in, 140 at the end of the mash, to 190 at mash-out because my process needed some tweaking. The beer fermented fine, and is in bottles now. It is still aging so the flavors aren't quite right (only been in bottles a week) but it appears to be turning out okay.

I was kinda of in the same range, just at different times. Was at 190 close to the start and 140ish towards the end. The beer is fermenting and bubbling like crazy and has been for about 36 hours. I'm going to leave it for about 3 weeks and the bottle condition for about 3 weeks. Hopefully it won't be too sweet with the higher temps. But it is what it is. I like both sweeter and drier beers so it should be okay either way hopefully.

 

[weirdboy]

Maybe a stupid question, but do you have a cover for the mash tun? If not, get one.

1. Stir in your strike water. Stir thoroughly for a few minutes to make sure the temperature is equalized, and make sure you are at your target mash temp.

2. Put the cover on, wrap insulation around it (even a towel, blanket, or sleeping bag is better than nothing).

3. Leave it alone for the entire mash. Do not open it up to "check on it". I kept losing 5-10 degrees over an hour long mash for my first several batches. The reason was because every time I opened the damn thing up it was dropping a couple of degrees. If I leave it alone I lose maybe 1-2 degrees.


Generally speaking, so long as you are getting full conversion, the length of the mash and the temperature of the mash do not affect your OG. What they change is the body of the finished beer, and the attenuation you get.

 

[siucubfan]

Maybe a stupid question, but do you have a cover for the mash tun? If not, get one.

1. Stir in your strike water. Stir thoroughly for a few minutes to make sure the temperature is equalized, and make sure you are at your target mash temp.

2. Put the cover on, wrap insulation around it (even a towel, blanket, or sleeping bag is better than nothing).

3. Leave it alone for the entire mash. Do not open it up to "check on it". I kept losing 5-10 degrees over an hour long mash for my first several batches. The reason was because every time I opened the damn thing up it was dropping a couple of degrees. If I leave it alone I lose maybe 1-2 degrees.


Generally speaking, so long as you are getting full conversion, the length of the mash and the temperature of the mash do not affect your OG. What they change is the body of the finished beer, and the attenuation you get.

I don't have a cover for the mash tun. I thought I read somewhere that the condensation that builds on the lid and drips into the wort would cause infection. However, as I type this that doesn't make much since since it's going to boil after the mash and would kill any infection. I feel like an idiot. I will try to find or make a lid for it. Thanks for the advice. Definitely going to try it next time with the insulation and then not bother it for the full hour. Thanks.