pfooti
Well-Known Member
I've been reading through a LOT of threads lately, so I apologize if I'm duplicating questions asked. I'm converting from extract to AG brewing, and I have some questions. I feel pretty comfortable with the process and the science behind it, and my experience with extract brewing has helped a lot. But I'm still dealing with some specific mashing issues.
First: Volume. In the stickied thread, it's suggested that I sparge with 1/2 gallon of water per pound of grain. The recipe I'm using to learn on is Yooper's DFH clone, which has 13 pounds of grain. At about 1.25 qt/lb mashing, plus 2 qt/lb sparging, that works out to 10.5 gallons of liquid poured into my mash tun (not all at once). Granted, I'm leaving a fair bit behind in the tun (bottom of the tun, plus stuff stuck to the grains), but that still seems like a lot of liquid. Should I just plan on boiling for an hour or two before I start my hop schedule, to get rid of the extra couple gallons of liquid?
Second: Water chemistry. I am brewing using San Francisco water. With extract brewing, I never did anything to my water, but with AG I am worried about this. According to the PUC, alkalinity is 50 ppm, Calcium is 12 ppm, Magnesium is 4.5. That puts my effective hardness (according to the graph in how to brew) below 10, which is awfully low. My local store suggested about a tablespoon of gypsum per 5 gallons of mash water. Any advice on that front?
Third: Efficiency. Well, this is a more general thing- I've been hitting around 60% efficiency in my first two mashes, which is respectable but not great. I'm worried it might either be a water thing or a crush thing- I've been *trying* to use a homemade pasta mill grain crusher. It seems like my crush has been decent (good husks, lots of crushed grain), but for my next batch I am going to have my homebrew store crush the grain instead. If I can't fix my efficiency problem, I'll have to start mashing around 15-16 pounds of grain to get to my target OG, which will compound my Volume Problem.
Fourth: Sparging. All else being equal, if I gave up on efficency and did a no-sparge batch, would I lose out on flavor? Is the reason why brewers sparge to capture sugars that would otherwise be left behind, improving efficiency? Or is there some other reason (say, some less-soluable sugars that wouldn't be in the first runnings at all) to sparge? I could solve my volume and efficency problem by throwing another five bucks of grain at the situation. That doesn't seem all that elegant, but at this point, I'm just thinking through different possibilities.
Thus far for the two times I've done an AG batch, it has gone like this: single-infusion mash at about 1.25 qt/lb, batch sparge with 1 qt/lb, batch sparge with 1 qt/lb, but cut the second sparge off after I get to about 7.5 gal in the boil vessel. I know I'd get more efficiency if I didn't stop the second sparge, but it seems kind of minor- the gravity of the third runnings isn't all that high anyway.
Any advice or comments are welcome, thanks!
First: Volume. In the stickied thread, it's suggested that I sparge with 1/2 gallon of water per pound of grain. The recipe I'm using to learn on is Yooper's DFH clone, which has 13 pounds of grain. At about 1.25 qt/lb mashing, plus 2 qt/lb sparging, that works out to 10.5 gallons of liquid poured into my mash tun (not all at once). Granted, I'm leaving a fair bit behind in the tun (bottom of the tun, plus stuff stuck to the grains), but that still seems like a lot of liquid. Should I just plan on boiling for an hour or two before I start my hop schedule, to get rid of the extra couple gallons of liquid?
Second: Water chemistry. I am brewing using San Francisco water. With extract brewing, I never did anything to my water, but with AG I am worried about this. According to the PUC, alkalinity is 50 ppm, Calcium is 12 ppm, Magnesium is 4.5. That puts my effective hardness (according to the graph in how to brew) below 10, which is awfully low. My local store suggested about a tablespoon of gypsum per 5 gallons of mash water. Any advice on that front?
Third: Efficiency. Well, this is a more general thing- I've been hitting around 60% efficiency in my first two mashes, which is respectable but not great. I'm worried it might either be a water thing or a crush thing- I've been *trying* to use a homemade pasta mill grain crusher. It seems like my crush has been decent (good husks, lots of crushed grain), but for my next batch I am going to have my homebrew store crush the grain instead. If I can't fix my efficiency problem, I'll have to start mashing around 15-16 pounds of grain to get to my target OG, which will compound my Volume Problem.
Fourth: Sparging. All else being equal, if I gave up on efficency and did a no-sparge batch, would I lose out on flavor? Is the reason why brewers sparge to capture sugars that would otherwise be left behind, improving efficiency? Or is there some other reason (say, some less-soluable sugars that wouldn't be in the first runnings at all) to sparge? I could solve my volume and efficency problem by throwing another five bucks of grain at the situation. That doesn't seem all that elegant, but at this point, I'm just thinking through different possibilities.
Thus far for the two times I've done an AG batch, it has gone like this: single-infusion mash at about 1.25 qt/lb, batch sparge with 1 qt/lb, batch sparge with 1 qt/lb, but cut the second sparge off after I get to about 7.5 gal in the boil vessel. I know I'd get more efficiency if I didn't stop the second sparge, but it seems kind of minor- the gravity of the third runnings isn't all that high anyway.
Any advice or comments are welcome, thanks!