NervousDad
BFM
I followed Beersmith which said to drain the mash tun and sparge with 5 gallons of water @ 168. I also forgot stir when I sparged. Should I just toss this batch? The wort has a grainy smell to it?
That's good to hear, thanks! I was reading that you need to sparge with water @ 185 to compensate for the mash temp. It's fermenting nicely this morning so I'm hoping in a few weeks I'll has some ok beer
ArcaneXor said:You can sparge with 32 degree water if you want to - it's just not going to be as efficient and the beer will be drier (part of the reason for the 168-degree grain bed is to denature the enzymes).
I sparge with cold tap water about half of the time and hit efficiency numbers within 1% every single brew. Old wives tale?
My OG was pretty high before I pitched my yeast. I had a small boil over and had to top off the wort with a gallon of water and it was still ~1.055 for an American cream ale that should have been 1.041. I measured with a refractometer.
You can sparge with 32 degree water if you want to - it's just not going to be as efficient and the beer will be drier (part of the reason for the 168-degree grain bed is to denature the enzymes).
32 degree water would be a block of ice. but your point is taken.
It was a Cream Ale kit from NB
http://www.northernbrewer.com/documentation/allgrain/AG-CreamAle.pdf
8 pound grain
my grain and mash tun were both (53 degrees)
Beersmith recopied steps.
Pre boil volume needed was 6.78 Gallons I only ended up with approximately 6 gallons.
Should have Mashed in @ 152 (I was at 151.2) I let it sit for one hour. When I opened up the cooler I was still at the same temp.
I did my vorlof (about 8 quarts before is ran clear) I drained into my Kettle. I added the sparge water in @ 168.2 and didn't stir. I stopped sparging because my runnings where at ~1.001 and it was very light. (I read that if you keep sparging this low you'll have pH problems, not sure if that's correct or not)
I boiled for 1 hour and had a small boil over, less than a gallon I think.
I made up the lower water volume with 1 gallon of mineral water to = 5 gallons.
That's good to hear, thanks! I was reading that you need to sparge with water @ 185 to compensate for the mash temp. It's fermenting nicely this morning so I'm hoping in a few weeks I'll has some ok beer
Are you sure you didn't misread? Popular wisdom says that a sparge above 170 F can extract tannins from the grain husks.
Are you sure you didn't misread? Popular wisdom says that a sparge above 170 F can extract tannins from the grain husks.
NervousDad said:I stopped sparging because my runnings where at ~1.001 and it was very light. (I read that if you keep sparging this low you'll have pH problems, not sure if that's correct or not)
Tannins are an illusion for the homebrewer, only keeping you from no fear brewing.
Tannins are an illusion for the homebrewer, only keeping you from no fear brewing.
That's good to hear, thanks! I was reading that you need to sparge with water @ 185 to compensate for the mash temp. It's fermenting nicely this morning so I'm hoping in a few weeks I'll have some ok beer
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