chiefbrewer
Well-Known Member
...and my first batch in 2 and a half years...
So I used death brewers partial mash method
The Recipe
American Pale
3.5 lbs of Light LME
Grain Bill
3.5 lbs pale malt
.75 lbs 20L
.5 lbs victory
.5 lbs biscuit
.25 lbs 80L
1oz Cenntnial @60
.5 oz Cascade @30
The mash part actually went pretty smooth...I used the oven to keep my mash temp (between 148 and 152)...Drained the grain bag, put it in the 175 sparge water...stirred and let sit for 10 minutes...drained and tossed out the grain...then combined the batches. I did a conversion test with some idophor. I have never done this before...but it didn't seem to change color(of course I wish I would have done a test before so I could compare...live and learn)
Here is where I ran into my first hiccup. My plan was to figure out the volume collected and the gravity so i could calculate my efficiency...then I would calculate how much LME i needed to add to hit my target OG (around 1.052). Firstly I forgot to come up with some way to figure out how much wort was in my pot so i had to guess...also working with 140 degree wort to try and get a gravity reading is tough. The only hydrometer test jar I had is a combo wine thief/test jar...and I just didn't feel safe putting 140 degree wort in it...plus, the only temp correction chart I had was in Palmer's book...and it doesn't go up to 140, and I didn't have time to sit there and interpolate. Any suggetions on this?
Anyway, I just put in the entire 4 lbs of LME I had to be on the safe side. The boil went fine, added hops. Then the chilling disaster took place.
Okay, so my plan was to use a combination of an ice water bath in the sink and using ice cold bottled water to top off with. I decided this would work better, especially since the pot i have barely fits in the sink. So I put the pot in the ice water in the sink and added one gallon of ice cold bottled water. As far as I could tell, within minutes the wort got down to 100 degrees. Since i was shooting for 80, just so i could pitch the yeast...I figured one more gallon of ice cold water would just about do it. So I dumped the wort into the fermenter and topped off with another gallon of ice cold water...still didn't have 5 gallons, so i added more. I let it sit for another 10 minutes...now the wort was 110!!! Not sure what happened...but I made another ice water bath and put the fermentor in the sink(it's a plastic bucket fermentor)...another 15 minutes and it was only 100...another 15 minuted and it was STILL 100!!! I was getting worried because I used dry yeast(won't ever do that again) and the directions say to pitch it within 30 minutes of rehydrating it. So, i pitched my yeast into 100 degree wort.
Am I screwed???
So I used death brewers partial mash method
The Recipe
American Pale
3.5 lbs of Light LME
Grain Bill
3.5 lbs pale malt
.75 lbs 20L
.5 lbs victory
.5 lbs biscuit
.25 lbs 80L
1oz Cenntnial @60
.5 oz Cascade @30
The mash part actually went pretty smooth...I used the oven to keep my mash temp (between 148 and 152)...Drained the grain bag, put it in the 175 sparge water...stirred and let sit for 10 minutes...drained and tossed out the grain...then combined the batches. I did a conversion test with some idophor. I have never done this before...but it didn't seem to change color(of course I wish I would have done a test before so I could compare...live and learn)
Here is where I ran into my first hiccup. My plan was to figure out the volume collected and the gravity so i could calculate my efficiency...then I would calculate how much LME i needed to add to hit my target OG (around 1.052). Firstly I forgot to come up with some way to figure out how much wort was in my pot so i had to guess...also working with 140 degree wort to try and get a gravity reading is tough. The only hydrometer test jar I had is a combo wine thief/test jar...and I just didn't feel safe putting 140 degree wort in it...plus, the only temp correction chart I had was in Palmer's book...and it doesn't go up to 140, and I didn't have time to sit there and interpolate. Any suggetions on this?
Anyway, I just put in the entire 4 lbs of LME I had to be on the safe side. The boil went fine, added hops. Then the chilling disaster took place.
Okay, so my plan was to use a combination of an ice water bath in the sink and using ice cold bottled water to top off with. I decided this would work better, especially since the pot i have barely fits in the sink. So I put the pot in the ice water in the sink and added one gallon of ice cold bottled water. As far as I could tell, within minutes the wort got down to 100 degrees. Since i was shooting for 80, just so i could pitch the yeast...I figured one more gallon of ice cold water would just about do it. So I dumped the wort into the fermenter and topped off with another gallon of ice cold water...still didn't have 5 gallons, so i added more. I let it sit for another 10 minutes...now the wort was 110!!! Not sure what happened...but I made another ice water bath and put the fermentor in the sink(it's a plastic bucket fermentor)...another 15 minutes and it was only 100...another 15 minuted and it was STILL 100!!! I was getting worried because I used dry yeast(won't ever do that again) and the directions say to pitch it within 30 minutes of rehydrating it. So, i pitched my yeast into 100 degree wort.
Am I screwed???