dzlater
Well-Known Member
This is kind of long but I wanted to include as much info as possible.
I brewed up a batch of Austin Home brew Newcastle clone mini mash kit yesterday. It went pretty well but I have a few questions.
I made a mash tun out of a 5 gallon cooler by removing the spigot and just jamming a 3/4" cpvc pipe through the hole, and screwing on a bottle bucket spigot. I filled this with water the night before and it didn't leak. Then I took a aluminum veggie steamer that fit snugly in the cooler and slid it down inside the cooler making a false bottem. I put grains in grain bag and placed on top. I also made a lid out of foam board covered in foil I could slide down inside closer to the mash to take up air space to help maintain mash temp better.
The grains were:
1/8 lb chocolate
1/8 lb crystal
2 1/4 lb pale malt
Heated 2.5 gall. water to 160 f dumped it in. Temp came down to about 155f
stirred it around poked and prodded grain bag and covered it. Let it stand for 45 minutes. I did open it a couple times to stir it and check the temp. Don't think the temp dropped below 153f. I ran off about a quart and recirced it, it was very clear.
Heated 2.5 quarts to 170 and gently poured this on top of grains. It was actually a bit more then 2.5 q because it got too hot so added a bit too cool it down.
I drained off about a quart again it was very clear recirced that and drained it all to kettle.
I took a gravity reading and it only 1.022 which I thought was pretty low.
So the question is what can I do next time to get better efficiancy? Keep recircing the wort. Or sparge again with more 170f water, slow the runoff?
I assume the mini mash should provide about half the fermentables so I was bit concerned about hitting my gravity after adding the extract. so i threw in a extra half lb. of DME and hit the OG after the boil.
Which leads me to this ..
When took the hydro sample from the fermenter I let it sit a a while and there must a been almost an inch of trub or break material in the bottom of the sample. I tried whirl pooling but it didn't work too well. I siphoned from kettle to fermenter and tried to be careful about suckin up the sludge but it must have had a lot in suspension.
So what willl all this break material in the fermenter do too my beer? I think I might use a secondary to help clear it up a bit.
Any tips or critiques would be appreciated.
thanks
I brewed up a batch of Austin Home brew Newcastle clone mini mash kit yesterday. It went pretty well but I have a few questions.
I made a mash tun out of a 5 gallon cooler by removing the spigot and just jamming a 3/4" cpvc pipe through the hole, and screwing on a bottle bucket spigot. I filled this with water the night before and it didn't leak. Then I took a aluminum veggie steamer that fit snugly in the cooler and slid it down inside the cooler making a false bottem. I put grains in grain bag and placed on top. I also made a lid out of foam board covered in foil I could slide down inside closer to the mash to take up air space to help maintain mash temp better.
The grains were:
1/8 lb chocolate
1/8 lb crystal
2 1/4 lb pale malt
Heated 2.5 gall. water to 160 f dumped it in. Temp came down to about 155f
stirred it around poked and prodded grain bag and covered it. Let it stand for 45 minutes. I did open it a couple times to stir it and check the temp. Don't think the temp dropped below 153f. I ran off about a quart and recirced it, it was very clear.
Heated 2.5 quarts to 170 and gently poured this on top of grains. It was actually a bit more then 2.5 q because it got too hot so added a bit too cool it down.
I drained off about a quart again it was very clear recirced that and drained it all to kettle.
I took a gravity reading and it only 1.022 which I thought was pretty low.
So the question is what can I do next time to get better efficiancy? Keep recircing the wort. Or sparge again with more 170f water, slow the runoff?
I assume the mini mash should provide about half the fermentables so I was bit concerned about hitting my gravity after adding the extract. so i threw in a extra half lb. of DME and hit the OG after the boil.
Which leads me to this ..
When took the hydro sample from the fermenter I let it sit a a while and there must a been almost an inch of trub or break material in the bottom of the sample. I tried whirl pooling but it didn't work too well. I siphoned from kettle to fermenter and tried to be careful about suckin up the sludge but it must have had a lot in suspension.
So what willl all this break material in the fermenter do too my beer? I think I might use a secondary to help clear it up a bit.
Any tips or critiques would be appreciated.
thanks