Calling for a double check...

[70Cuda383]

just looking for some last minute advice, such as "sounds good, go for it" or "been there, done that, got the t-shirt, you do NOT want to do that"

looking to practice on my all-grain methods and try to improve my efficiencies, and thought I'd go for a SMaSH recipie.

read lots of good things about Magnum hops. Likewise on the S-04 yeast, as it tends to leave a malty flavor.


so, I have 9 lbs of pale malt -- Mash at 155 for an hour or so.

Start the boil and use the Magnum...
1 oz magnum for 60 minutes, and 1/2 oz for 30, 1/2 oz at flame out.

pitch S-04 after re-hydrating and "waking it up" with a shot of sanitized sugar water (I know it's not a REAL starter, but last time I did this, the yeast went crazy immediately, and I was getting airlock activity just a few hours after pitching!)



What say you? I really wanted to do this to focus in on technique and try to dial in my all-grain beer making....but, now I'm also thinking of roasting the grains a little bit...because I don't want to end up with a budweiser clone.

 

[SilverZero]

With no specialty malts, you're going to be pretty thin on the malt side. You'll have some hop profile with the Magnum, it's great for bittering (I use it as a FWH, and I love the results). As a SMaSH, this looks fine to me (for what that's worth).

As for technique, what did you do for sparging? Did you keep your temperatures stable? What was your mash thickness? Sparge temp? Volumes? (I'm a math and science teacher, you gotta give me the numbers!)

You don't need to add sugar to your yeast when rehydrating, as it already has glycogen stores set up to start right away.

 

[70Cuda383]

I'm using a big rectangle cooler, copper pipe in the bottom drilled full of holes.

I batch sparge, and the system drains FAST! I can do my first run-off in about a minute and a half, same with sparge. been wondering if it's TOO fast

I'm getting better, but the first few batches ended up a bit thin on the mash, as my temps were too low and I had to add a gallon or so of boiling water to bring the temps up, but didn't worry about that too much, since I read that a slightly thinner mash wouldn't hurt anything.

when sparging I dumped near boiling water in to bring the temps up on the initial run-off, then used water around 175 for the sparge.

I'm thinking the biggest thing I'll be able to do is have MUCH greater control over my grain crush now, the home brew store owner would "hover" over me while I crushed my grains in his store and kept telling me how I needed to "just crack the grain open" and he kept trying to adjust the setting for me. Well, for christmas I got my own grain mill, so now I can mill a little bit finer, which, Ive read several posts on here about how going finer on the grain crush greatly improved efficiencies.

 

[mike20793]

You should take about 30 minutes to batch sparge. You can improve your efficiency by checking the temperature of your grain bed before adding your sparge water. I use 185 split into two batches. My sparge temperature becomes 167-169 after adding each batch of sparge water to the grainbed. Stir like crazy when you add each batch of water and let it sit for at least 10 minutes. Vorlauf and take runnings. I don't catch my runnings with the valve wide open. I don't think flow rate matters for batch sparging, more so for fly sparging. Double crushing your grain will also improve your efficiency. You don't necessarily want a finer crush on the second pass, just make sure the grain is properly crushed.

 

[BrewMU]

just looking for some last minute advice, such as "sounds good, go for it" or "been there, done that, got the t-shirt, you do NOT want to do that"

looking to practice on my all-grain methods and try to improve my efficiencies, and thought I'd go for a SMaSH recipie.

read lots of good things about Magnum hops. Likewise on the S-04 yeast, as it tends to leave a malty flavor.


so, I have 9 lbs of pale malt -- Mash at 155 for an hour or so.

Start the boil and use the Magnum...
1 oz magnum for 60 minutes, and 1/2 oz for 30, 1/2 oz at flame out.

pitch S-04 after re-hydrating and "waking it up" with a shot of sanitized sugar water (I know it's not a REAL starter, but last time I did this, the yeast went crazy immediately, and I was getting airlock activity just a few hours after pitching!)



What say you? I really wanted to do this to focus in on technique and try to dial in my all-grain beer making....but, now I'm also thinking of roasting the grains a little bit...because I don't want to end up with a budweiser clone.

I just did ( I mean just, like yesterday) a Magnum hopped ale (not a SMASH), and I have to wonder, is that this years Magnum? The Magnum I have is 20.5% AA - I used 1/2 an ounce in a 7 gallon batch. If yours is the same, and that's a 5 gallon batch, that's going to be a bitter one! Good luck.

 

[SilverZero]

I'm using a big rectangle cooler, copper pipe in the bottom drilled full of holes.

I batch sparge, and the system drains FAST! I can do my first run-off in about a minute and a half, same with sparge. been wondering if it's TOO fast

I'm getting better, but the first few batches ended up a bit thin on the mash, as my temps were too low and I had to add a gallon or so of boiling water to bring the temps up, but didn't worry about that too much, since I read that a slightly thinner mash wouldn't hurt anything.

when sparging I dumped near boiling water in to bring the temps up on the initial run-off, then used water around 175 for the sparge.

I'm thinking the biggest thing I'll be able to do is have MUCH greater control over my grain crush now, the home brew store owner would "hover" over me while I crushed my grains in his store and kept telling me how I needed to "just crack the grain open" and he kept trying to adjust the setting for me. Well, for christmas I got my own grain mill, so now I can mill a little bit finer, which, Ive read several posts on here about how going finer on the grain crush greatly improved efficiencies.

Yeah, that's way too fast for sparging. As mentioned, 30 minutes is more to the tune. As for mash thickness, I mash at 1.5qts/lb if I can fit it in the tun, as that helps with efficiency as well.

 

[user 19629]

As I understand it, when batch sparging as long as you stir the mash well after adding the sparge water, vorlauf til clear, you can run off as fast as your system will allow.
All the sugars are in suspension so going slow does nothing.

 

[SilverZero]

As I understand it, when batch sparging as long as you stir the mash well after adding the sparge water, vorlauf til clear, you can run off as fast as your system will allow.
All the sugars are in suspension so going slow does nothing.

Cite yourself, young rogue! (I wouldn't mind a solid argument in favor of shaving some time off my brew day. )

 

[SouthBay]

If youre worried about the malt side of things, you can try doing a multi infusion mash at 140 and 158. You could even make it a single decoction mash and pull enough to go from 140 to 158. You'd get a lot more out of the grains that way

 

[user 19629]

Cite yourself, young rogue! (I wouldn't mind a solid argument in favor of shaving some time off my brew day. )

do search for something like "batch sparge speed runoff time"
or
From Denny Conn's website:dennybrew

(NOTE:quick draining is a benefit, not a requirement, of batch sparging. I recommend you start the recirculation with the valve just cracked open, to set the grain bed correctly. After you return the vorlaufed portion to the mash tun, you can open the valve whatever amount works for your system), and an addition of sparge water is added. This is stirred into the mash, and after recirculation is once more drained as quickly as the system will allow.