First Mash = Success!

[JMD87]

So I completed my first PM last night. Belgian Wit. Went pretty much flawless and wound up with the best tasting wort I've made so far. (I'm used to extracts). I owe all thanks to the information on this forum for sure.

Here's a few questions I had during my experience:

1. When you finish sparging, do you tilt your MLT (I have 5 Gal igloo w/ SS Braid) and get every last drop out? It seemed to never stop trickeling.

2. Beersmith told me to sparge with 168 Degree water. That seemed low so I used 175. Is there a manual input for sparge temp or is it automatically calculated?

3. That's all, like I said it went really well. One big lesson is thankfully I did not have a boil-over, but I spilled a little on the stovetop. Cleaning was a hassle. I can only imagine the mess that a full boil-over makes.

-Homemade wort chiller cooled from boiling to 80* in under 10min. Very happy
-Bubbling in primary this am ( <12Hrs after Pitch)
-After pouring the LME into the pot, I thought to myself "all the effort went into mashing and now I'm pouring LME, very unsatisfying. Next batch will be all grain"

Thank you to everyone!

 

[ol' rummie]

i usually put a short piece of 1in. plank under the end of my cooler (opposite the spigot). I also use 175F sparge temp.

 

[bwitt]

So I completed my first PM last night. Belgian Wit. Went pretty much flawless and wound up with the best tasting wort I've made so far. (I'm used to extracts). I owe all thanks to the information on this forum for sure.

Here's a few questions I had during my experience:

1. When you finish sparging, do you tilt your MLT (I have 5 Gal igloo w/ SS Braid) and get every last drop out? It seemed to never stop trickeling.

2. Beersmith told me to sparge with 168 Degree water. That seemed low so I used 175. Is there a manual input for sparge temp or is it automatically calculated?

3. That's all, like I said it went really well. One big lesson is thankfully I did not have a boil-over, but I spilled a little on the stovetop. Cleaning was a hassle. I can only imagine the mess that a full boil-over makes.

-Homemade wort chiller cooled from boiling to 80* in under 10min. Very happy
-Bubbling in primary this am ( <12Hrs after Pitch)
-After pouring the LME into the pot, I thought to myself "all the effort went into mashing and now I'm pouring LME, very unsatisfying. Next batch will be all grain"

Thank you to everyone!

Good job on your 1st AG.

1. I don't tilt my cooler. But using a board to prop it up is a good idea to get a little more out. If you do prop it up check how much water is left and adjust your equipment dead space volume setting in beersmith so your efficiency will be calculated correctly.

2. Open your recipe in beersmith. In the Mash Profile section click on details. In the ph Sparge section you can enter the sparge temp.

 

[ohiobrewtus]

I tilt my first runnings out, nothing wrong with it if you ask me.

Generally you want to sparge right around 170, give or take a few degrees - 175 is fine.

Congrats on doing your first mash. Here's to many more!

 

[JMD87]

Makes sense to prop up the cooler before the mash-in... Thanks.

Any tips on vorlaufing? I had a hard time not disturbing the grain bed in a 5gal round cooler MLT setup.

After some reading, it looks like my next mash will be a Single infusion, mash out, double sparge. I'm excited to see how it works. (It will also be my first AG, there's no reason to keep doing PM if you ask me)

She's bubbling like mad and smells oh-so-good. I cannot wait till this one is ready to drink.