lemmiwinks
Well-Known Member
Brewed my second AG recipe this weekend.
Recipe consisted of 15lbs of 2 Row, 2 lbs Flaked Oats and 1 lb Crystal 20
I have a Home Depot cooler conversion as my MLT with a steel braid as the filter.
My mash got stuck I'm guessing during my lautering and I thought it was just done draining because when I added my sparge water, my cooler nearly overflowed. At this point it took about an hour to drain my sparge water after I was finally able to mix up the grains to un-stuck (word?) the sparge. I'm guessing the braid (water hose with the tubing removed) may have been part of the problem. When I dumped the grains out the thing was crushed and had some of the grains (I think it was the oats) stuck in it at the ends.
My efficiency was crap - came out at about 54% as my OG was 1.074 and should have been 1.093.
My process was:
Transferred 5.5 gallons of 180° water to the MLT.
Waited for it to cool to 162° and added first, 2 lbs of oats and then dumped the rest of the grains in. Held temp at 150° for the hour of mashing and that's where the problems started.
Can the stuck mash cause such a low efficiency or might there be a problem elsewhere?
I don't think it's the crush. My first brew was EdWort's Hefe and I got 74% efficiency on the same crush from my LHBS.
Recipe consisted of 15lbs of 2 Row, 2 lbs Flaked Oats and 1 lb Crystal 20
I have a Home Depot cooler conversion as my MLT with a steel braid as the filter.
My mash got stuck I'm guessing during my lautering and I thought it was just done draining because when I added my sparge water, my cooler nearly overflowed. At this point it took about an hour to drain my sparge water after I was finally able to mix up the grains to un-stuck (word?) the sparge. I'm guessing the braid (water hose with the tubing removed) may have been part of the problem. When I dumped the grains out the thing was crushed and had some of the grains (I think it was the oats) stuck in it at the ends.
My efficiency was crap - came out at about 54% as my OG was 1.074 and should have been 1.093.
My process was:
Transferred 5.5 gallons of 180° water to the MLT.
Waited for it to cool to 162° and added first, 2 lbs of oats and then dumped the rest of the grains in. Held temp at 150° for the hour of mashing and that's where the problems started.
Can the stuck mash cause such a low efficiency or might there be a problem elsewhere?
I don't think it's the crush. My first brew was EdWort's Hefe and I got 74% efficiency on the same crush from my LHBS.