First AG Session Pictorial

[hlumbard]

I Ended up with pre-boil 6.75 gal of 1.038 wort. Looking for 6.25 gal of 1.045 per BeerSmith. When it was all said and done I had 5 gallons of 1.046 wort in the fermentor. Should have been 1.053 based on a 70% eff. So it looks like my first batch of AG was at 60% efficiency. I'd like to post the recipe if someone can tell me the best way to do it from BeerSmith... Any tips or things I may have done wrong I'd welcome.

 

[GLoBaLReBeL]

The only thing that I noticed was your run-off from your MLT to your kettle. You do not want to create any kind of aeration with the worst until after it has been boiled and cooled down. This is being fought though right now in multiple threads, and may end up being incorrect, but other then that . . Good job man!

You might want to try cutting a hole in that last tube to allow for the proper aeration during the racking out of the kettle into the fermenter. It can make things much better for the yeast when the time comes to pitch!

 

[hlumbard]

I thought of something last night and wanted to pick you HBTer's brains.

First of all I know next time I'm going to split my sparge water and do 2 separate sparges to rinse the rains more.

Second, I have a problem (maybe) with the whole theory behind the steel braid at the bottom of the tun. I think the wort still just travels the path of least resistance and comes down the sidewall and exits just at the mouth of the spigot where the braid attaches. I noticed some channeling of my bed after the sparge and then thinking more about it, without some sort of perforated tube inside the braid, what's pulling the wort from the far end of the hose? Nothing really, right?

 

[SamuraiSquirrel]

I thought of something last night and wanted to pick you HBTer's brains.

First of all I know next time I'm going to split my sparge water and do 2 separate sparges to rinse the rains more.

Second, I have a problem (maybe) with the whole theory behind the steel braid at the bottom of the tun. I think the wort still just travels the path of least resistance and comes down the sidewall and exits just at the mouth of the spigot where the braid attaches. I noticed some channeling of my bed after the sparge and then thinking more about it, without some sort of perforated tube inside the braid, what's pulling the wort from the far end of the hose? Nothing really, right?

In theory the more sparge rounds you do the higher your efficiency will be. Each sparge round you add increases it less and less. I think most people settle on doing two sparge rounds. Some do one as they feel it saves time and just plan efficiency accordingly.

I have to agree with you on the braid thing. I think it will always draw the liquid from the area closest to where it is attached to the bulkhead. This is not really an issue if you are batch sparging. If you are fly sparging, I personally would go with a manifold or false bottom to help eliminate this issue.

I am sure there are people who fly sparge with braids with great success. I just can't map it out in my head how it would draw evenly from all areas of the tun.

However, the same can be said about a manifold depending on how it is designed.

 

[hlumbard]

I didn't think about that, if I'm mixing it all up anyway I really don't even need the Hose. Some some sort of filter to keep the grain out would work.

 

[Bobby_M]

Channeling has no impact on batch sparge efficiency. How well did you stir after dumping the sparge water in? Hopefully very well.

You definitely want to put some tubing on that MLT hose barb not only to reduce aeration but also to pull a nice siphon to reduce dead space in the MLT. Have you ever tested your deadspace by filling with about 2 gallons of water and draining to see what remained?

 

[hlumbard]

Channeling has no impact on batch sparge efficiency. How well did you stir after dumping the sparge water in? Hopefully very well.

You definitely want to put some tubing on that MLT hose barb not only to reduce aeration but also to pull a nice siphon to reduce dead space in the MLT. Have you ever tested your deadspace by filling with about 2 gallons of water and draining to see what remained?

Yeah, I stirred well, I just should have done it twice. Like someone here said, it's like rinsing a glass. Would you do it once full of water and dump or fill it half way dump and repeat. As for the dead space. I never realized that's what that meant! i thought BeerSmith was asking how much space above the water level was left in my tun. Glad I didn't change that setting to what I thought that meant! 3+ gallons!!!

I tilted my cooler at the end of the sparge to get as much out as I could. I guess I'll just measure and then not bother with that again huh?

 

[shataway]

Your final volume was 0.5g higher than expected which reduced your original gravity. You can adjust your boil off % to match how you system performed.

 

[SnakeAnthony6375]

Congrats on your first AG brew! I have done a handful of AG batches and I haven't had a hose on my mash tun either. I'm a bit confused why I should be concerned with aeration at this point. If anything is in the wort, won't it be killed during the boil? Please correct me if I'm wrong....

 

[bullinachinashop]

Congrats on your first AG brew! I have done a handful of AG batches and I haven't had a hose on my mash tun either. I'm a bit confused why I should be concerned with aeration at this point. If anything is in the wort, won't it be killed during the boil? Please correct me if I'm wrong....

Hot side aeration is not good for your beer in a long term storage situation. The yeast cannot get rid of the oxygen that is incorporated in the wort during the hot times.

Your shouldn't aerate until your wort has cooled.

Search hot side aeration

Bull

 

[hlumbard]

Your final volume was 0.5g higher than expected which reduced your original gravity. You can adjust your boil off % to match how you system performed.

No, I boiled it off until I had 5.5 then got 5 into the fermentor. I was .25 gal off on my trub estimate though.... You're right I had .5g extra pre boil though but I thought that wouldn't matter if I boiled it off.

 

[JimE]

Congrats on your first AG. I looked at the recipe, and it was very close to my 1st of 3 AG batches so far. I have a MLT like yours. My braid goes straight across the tun and is about 10 inches long. I batch sparged the 1st one using two sparges. I had some channeling on the 1st sparge where I had the valve open fully. I had no channeling on the 2nd sparge where I opened the valve no more than half way. I fly sparged the next 2 batches and had no channeling; I was careful to add sparge water evenly, keeping about 2 inches of sparge above the grain be. During the fly sparge, I had the valve turned down quite a bit. I had really good conversion this way. Too many words just to say close your valve down a bit.

 

[Bobby_M]

There is no channeling in batch sparging. What do you mean exactly?

 

[JimE]

There is no channeling in batch sparging. What do you mean exactly?

There was in mine. I batched sparged just like in your video. There was what appeared to be channeling, but if I stirred unevenly this could have happened. I did have the valve open wide when draining.

 

[hlumbard]

I think what he means is that channeling doesn't matter in batch sparging. It's all mixed up so even if it all came right out though one spot it would still be taking the sugar with it. This happened to me as well. If you were fly sparging it would be a problem. Them the water wouldn't be properly and evenly rinsing the grains.