Another 1st All Grain - Urgent question

[shlap]

I'm in the middle of my first all grain batch right now. I ended up with a mash temp of 140 degrees. So far I've ended up heating 3.25 more quarts of water to 210 degrees to try and bring the temp up and I'm only at 148 degrees! I'm heating another couple of quarts up now to try and get it up around 152-154.

My question is, if I used 1.25qt/lb, (i used 14.5 lbs grains). How will adding almost 5 quarts extra of hot water affect the mash?

Simpler, how does a really thin mash effect the brew?

PS I'm using a cooler converted MT.

 

[Ivan Lendl]

I'm in the middle of my first all grain batch right now. I ended up with a mash temp of 140 degrees. So far I've ended up heating 3.25 more quarts of water to 210 degrees to try and bring the temp up and I'm only at 148 degrees! I'm heating another couple of quarts up now to try and get it up around 152-154.

My question is, if I used 1.25qt/lb, (i used 14.5 lbs grains). How will adding almost 5 quarts extra of hot water affect the mash?

Simpler, how does a really thin mash effect the brew?

148 is fine, just leave it for an hour....what was the initial strike temp?
Im gonna do a 14 lbs beer tommorow and at around 1.5 qt/lb (5 gallon strike h20)im setting my strike temp @ 163F to hit 150.

You can go as high as 2 qt/lb and still be in normal mash range(1-2 qts/lbs)

 

[shlap]

Thanks for the quick reply! My strike temp was 170 but the grains where probably cold from sitting in my garage. After adding all of my extra hot water I got it to 152 degrees. I'm at about 1.77qt/lb now. Thanks a lot for your help!

 

[Ivan Lendl]

Thanks for the quick reply! My strike temp was 170 but the grains where probably cold from sitting in my garage. After adding all of my extra hot water I got it to 152 degrees. I'm at about 1.77qt/lb now. Thanks a lot for your help!

Crikey thats high! (170)
The hardest variable to determine is the grain temp, I just assume 70 degrees for mines, i leave them in my room.

Also make sure you pre-heat the mash tun. I simply fill mine with about 4-5 gallons of the hottest tap water and let it sit covered untill just before I mash then I drain it.

 

[shlap]

Yeah, I think another part of it was that I mixed the stike water in with the grain so slowly. Add a little grain, add a little strike water, stir; going back and forth took about 15 minutes and I think my strike water cooled quite a bit in the mean time. How do you guys mix the water in with the mash? Dump it all in at once and stir?

 

[Ivan Lendl]

If you are worried about thinning the mash you could always do a baby decoction to raise the temp. Just pull out a percentage of grain and liquid and boil it for ten minutes then add it back to the mash. Ive done this for a mash out and its really easy and fun too. (you feel like a REAL brewer brewing in Germany or something)

When doughing in I just add enough water to the mash mash tun to cover the false bottom, then add maybe 1/4 of the grain, then more water, then grain, then water, etc...stirring each time.

 

[Denny's Evil Concoctions]

A thin mash will benifit a beta amylase conversion (at least my rusty memory thinks it's beta not alpha). You will likely have a brew with less body but you should still be fine. What style is this?

If you are wooried about conversion due to a thin mash, just leave it for longer. As long as you iodine test looks ok, you can move to sparging.

 

[shlap]

I'm brewing an American IPA.

Ingredients:
11.75 lbs American 2-row
.5 lbs Dextrine Malt
1.3 lbs Crystal Malt 40°L
.5 lbs German Wheat Malt Dark
.5 oz Chinook (12%) - added during boil, boiled 60 min
1.5 oz Cascade (6.4%) - added during boil, boiled 30 min
1.1 oz Crystal (3.9%) - added during boil, boiled 30 min
2 oz Cascade (6.4%) - added during boil, boiled 5 min
2 oz Crystal (5.1%) - added during boil, boiled 5 min
1 oz Cascade (6%) - added dry to secondary fermenter
2 oz Crystal (3.1%) - added dry to primary fermenter
0.0 ea White Labs WLP001 California Ale

 

[Cheesefood]

So then, is putting all your grains in your MLT at once, then dumping all your water on it at once a totally bad idea?

I really should have read How To Brew before jumping in.

 

[Ivan Lendl]

I'm brewing an American IPA.

Ingredients:
11.75 lbs American 2-row
.5 lbs Dextrine Malt
1.3 lbs Crystal Malt 40°L
.5 lbs German Wheat Malt Dark
.5 oz Chinook (12%) - added during boil, boiled 60 min
1.5 oz Cascade (6.4%) - added during boil, boiled 30 min
1.1 oz Crystal (3.9%) - added during boil, boiled 30 min
2 oz Cascade (6.4%) - added during boil, boiled 5 min
2 oz Crystal (5.1%) - added during boil, boiled 5 min
1 oz Cascade (6%) - added dry to secondary fermenter
2 oz Crystal (3.1%) - added dry to primary fermenter
0.0 ea White Labs WLP001 California Ale

Thats A LOT of hops!
Why only 3 additions? I like to spread the hops out like 60, 45, 30, 15, 8,5,0, etc...
Also dry hopping the primary is not a great way to get aroma becuase the yeast action will scrub away most of the hop aroma (if not all) you could probably skip that and youll have enough aroma with the 2 oz in the secondary, or maybe do like BP suggests and dry hop 2 oz. the day after racking to the secondary, then more a week later...

Just suggestions,

 

[Schlenkerla]

Cheese - Quit being an EAC!!!

 

[BierMuncher]

So then, is putting all your grains in your MLT at once, then dumping all your water on it at once a totally bad idea?

I really should have read How To Brew before jumping in.

I like to dump in a few inches of water...a few inches of grains...water...grains...and so on. It just makes mixing easier.

When my temp is too low, my 5 gallon cooler is usually pretty full already so I drain off a couple quarts and bring that to close-to-boil and add it back in. Works every time.

 

[shlap]

Woops! There are a few typos in my recipe. I'm adding 3oz hops to the secondary. 2 oz Crystal, and 1 oz Cascade.

Now another question, I'm not sure what the term is but I've been "filtering" or draining a pitchers worth of wort and pouring it back in to get rid of the particulates. I've been doing this for about 30 min now and still have a bunch of small particles in my runoff. How clear should the runoff be?

 

[Ivan Lendl]

Woops! There are a few typos in my recipe. I'm adding 3oz hops to the secondary. 2 oz Crystal, and 1 oz Cascade.

Now another question, I'm not sure what the term is but I've been "filtering" or draining a pitchers worth of wort and pouring it back in to get rid of the particulates. I've been doing this for about 30 min now and still have a bunch of small particles in my runoff. How clear should the runoff be?

The Vorlauf....it should only take maybe 10 minutes, or 4 or 5 qts before it clears up. It should just not be cloudy, somewhat bright with a few particulates now and then. Be sure to carefully place back the wort, dont just pour it in or you will create channels.

 

[brewhead]

Crikey thats high! (170)

that depends on your system i would think. for instance on my system i shoot for strike water temp of 165 - 168 because i know that by the time i get all the grains doughed in the delta t will take me to around 155 degrees of which i will lose an aditional 5 - 7 degrees

 

[shlap]

If anyone is still reading this... after I collected my 6 gallons and started my boil, I was curious how much wort was left in the MT. I opened the valve and collected about a half a quart before it ran dry. I took the gravity and it was 1.058! The gravity reading I took in the pot with 6 gallons in it was only 1.052. Both gravitys take temp into account. What the???

 

[AleHole]

My strike water is usually in the 168-170 range and pretty much always hit a 150-153 mash temp. I always preheat my cooler with water fromt the HLT while its heating up as well. I have always added all my strike water to the MLT and then slowly stirred in the grains. I know some people including Palmer say to do it the other way around but thats what I do.

 

[thebull]

This is what I have always read and have been doing myself:

Put all the water in the mash tun and add the grain while stiring. I have also read some say with really large brews you can layer the water and grain while stiring. I have never used more than 11-12 pounds of grain for a five gallon batch.

 

[shlap]

Thanks for the input everyone, greatly appreciated!

 

[stale]

I usually have fair results by putting all my grains in then slowly dumping in all my strike water while strring . them check my temps to see if i need to up it or lower it. very small adjustments are all I've ever had to do with this method. seems to work for me anyway.

 

[debtman7]

I've always just added all the grain, and then dumped in all the water and then stirred. Haven't had any problems, including using up to 18 lbs of grain. If it works fine is there any reason I shouldn't do this?

 

[Bobby_M]

I found the method I'll continue to use as long as I use a cooler MLT. Heat your mash water higher than you think you need, maybe 190ish. Throw that in the cooler and put the thermometer in and wait until it hits your calculated mash temp. For me, beersmith said 169 was good for a grain temp of 68 and a mash temp target of 154. This makes it so you don't need to try to calculate temp drop from cooler absorbtion or waste water by preheating and dumping. It doesn't take very long for the mash water to drop a few degrees if you keep the cooler lid open. 192F water cooled down to 170 in about 4 minutes in the cooler for me. Then dump your grain in and stir.