After my first Partial Mash, any advice???

[jwheelz]

So I've got 8 extract with specialty grain steeps under my belt and decided it was time to move up to Partial mash.

I've always brewed partial boil's inside the house on my stove. As I try to progress this fascinating hobby, I decided it was time to try a full boil and partial mash outside in my garage.

My grain bill was 7.75 lbs and 3lbs LME. I'm using a new propane burner and a 30qt SS kettle. I heated my strike water up to 165 (knowing it would drop once I added my grains) shooting for 155.

Mistake#1- My grain bag had elastic around the top of it, and it fit nicely over the edge of my brew kettle. however, it was touching the bottom of my kettle and even though when I put the grain bag in the kettle the burner was off, I still got several holes burned in my bag and allot of loose grain in my mash water. (this also left nice scorch burns on my bran new kettle)

Mistake#2- I had a very hard time trying to keep an even 155 once I dumped my grains in. Even after stirring and mixing it all up, every place I would stick my thermometer gave drastically different readings, anywhere from 135-175 degrees. I'm hoping maybe this was just a bad thermometer. (crapy little digital probe type) I used 1.25qts/lb for water to grain ratio. maybe I should beef that up to 1.50qt/lb next time?

I tried the batch sparge method and it seemed to work well. While I waiting for my mash time, I heated some water up in a 20qt kettle I had and just t-bagged my mash bag in that a few times and then let it sit in there for 10 minutes and then combined the two pots for my full boil.


Mistake#3- I used 2.5gal of water for my mash and 2.5gal for sparge, I knew I'd have to add some, but was surprised at how little I actually did have to add while using the marks on the side of my kettle. Turns out those are way off and I didn't continue to watch it during my boil. I had to top off with 1.5gal once it was chilled and in my fermenter.

Mistake#4- while doing partial boils in my kitchen it was easy to chill in my sink with some ice water. For my first full boil, I purchased a coil immersion chiller. Once I got the hose ran from the front of my house to my chiller, and the output hose close enough to the corner of my garage (to dump the exit water out into my grass) I turned my faucet on and blew the hose and clamp right off the chiller. Water went everywhere! (I'm guessing in the future I need to just barely turn on my water faucet so we are dealing with much less psi when it reaches the chiller?)

Mistake#5- I was so frustrated with everything that I completely forgot to take a post boil gravity reading, so I have no idea what kind of efficiency I got, or if I got any at all! (This was just a bonehead move, don't need any advice on this one )

All and all, it was quite an unpleasant experience. I've gotten to where I was very comfortable with my set up, and my routine was getting to be easy and fast. I am committed though to stick to this and tweak my system to make it better and better. My goal is to one day (hopefully soon) to move up to 10gal All grain batches.

I would welcome any advice or suggestions, or any related comments.

 

[gregpio85]

AG can be tricky. Like going into an open heart surgery without taking an anatomy class. Seems like you've got a pretty idea what needs to happen for your next batch though.

I've never had problems with burnt bags, but I know your plight. My first AG was a train wreck. The one thing that helped out the most for me was sticking my kettles (2 x 5g) in the oven turned off at 170 just to keep up the temp which tends to not do too much damage to the bag (I also suffered from varying temps which this remedied). Not sure if your oven could handle a thirty quart kettle.

One idea would be to buy some insulation from the home supply store to fit around your kettle. You might be able to just turn off your burner and keep enough heat. Then with your bag wrapped around the kettle you'd be touching the cooler outside of the insulation.

 

[Coldies]

Get a 5 or 10 gal drink cooler from Home Depot. One of your problems solved.

 

[jwheelz]

Thank you for the feedback!

Any advice on the coil immersion chillers? Do you usually hook them up to your outside water spigot? or do yo find an adapter to use a sink?

Anyone else had the problem of to much water pressure blowing the hose off the chiller?

 

[ShakerD]

My $.02

1. I switched my BIAB fabric to voile. It works much better and has a tighter weave. I also use a veg steamer that I throw on the bottom of the keggle so the bag won't touch the bottom.

2. Have you thought about putting more volume in your 30 qt kettle. The more volume you have the better heat retention you will have. It sounds like you may have had a bad thermometer or maybe it just needed some more mixing? Was your burner on? I dunk sparge and get excellent efficient.

3.Sounds like you got that figured.

4.My experience was that the water didn't have to be full blast and that stirring actually made a bigger difference. I also have really cold tap water.

5. It's happened to me before on a brew day where nothing worked out right. Don't feel bad.

Cheers

 

[jwheelz]

Hey, thanks alot Shaker! Those are two great tips, I hadn't thought of. I will take your advice on the bag and the strainer. Thanks!

 

[starrfish]

My first partial was an absolute train wreck. stuck sparge, slow conversion. It took me a long time to try again. Now that I have it down I wish I hadn't given up so easily the first time back in the mid 90s

 

[starrfish]

My $.02

1. I switched my BIAB fabric to voile. It works much better and has a tighter weave. I also use a veg steamer that I throw on the bottom of the keggle so the bag won't touch the bottom.

Nice tip on the Veg steamer I was going to try a brew in the bag directly in the pot but was worried about scorching bag. that's a perfect solution!

 

[ShakerD]

I think it was pretty cheap at walmart. I put it in before I mash in and take it out after I take out the bag.

The BBQ tongs I have don't work to get it out but the dual prong BBQ fork does. I do brew 10s and if you are brewing 5s it would be probably easier to get out.

Cheers

 

[starrfish]

I have a veggie steamer I picked up at walmart... it was only a few bucks... under $5 if I remember correctly. I may give that a shot this weekend. not sure if I'm doing a hefe or a mild but either will be a BIAB