I am missing a step in all grain brewing

[sagnew440]

Heres a link to a mash water calculator. It does all the math for you. All you do is put in batch size and grain amount and it will figure everything else.

http://www.brew365.com/mash_sparge_water_calculator.php

 

[MikeRoBrew1]

Sounds like you forgot to sparge and forgot to boil. Are you doing BIAB?

Basically you need 3 vessels (mash, and two kettles)

Mash with 1.25qt/lb of grain for 1hr at 152degF (strike temp around 165-170). Drain this into your kettle.

While you are waiting for the mash, use your extra kettle to heat about 4.5g of Sparge water to about 185. Pour this onto the grains, stir a couple mins and cover again for 10-20 mins. Drain this into your kettle along with the first mash runnings.

You should have about 6.5 gallons of liquid. Bring to a boil. Add hops (following your hop schedule). Boil 60 minutes which should bring your liquid volume down to about 5.5gal. Then cool and take OG reading. Line your fermenter with a mesh bag, then pour your cooled wort in and strain out the hops. Now liquid should be about 5.25gal. Pitch yeast, stir, walk away for a month (2 weeks if you're desperate for beer).

Sound ok?

 

[SatelliteGuy]

I just had a look at the recipes you made, and I'm seeing that one has 9 lbs of grain, and the other has 10 lbs.
In DeathBrewer's thread on easy stovetop all-grain brewing, he gives the amount of water you should use when mashing: "you also need to know the correct amount of water. this is especially important with this setup because it easy to overfill (you'll see what i mean in a minute.) you want somewhere between 1-2 quarts per pound of grain. generally, i try to shoot for 1.25qt/lb.

For this example, i have about 12 lbs of grain and i will use just over 3 gallons of water."

for 9-10 lbs of grain, that would translate to roughly 2.5 gallons of water for the mash.

edit: what they said while I was busy typing.

 

[BARBQ]

in order to figure up the amount of sparge water, you need to know how much wort was collected with the 1st running. if you got 2.5 gallons, then you'd sparge with 4 gallons . the reason you collect 6.5 gallons (or more) is because you will be boiling for an hour. during that hour you lose volume due to evaporation (boil off). typical rates of 15% per hour would leave you with 5-5.5 gallons of wort post boil. the extra amount allows for loss in the primary at the end of fermentation.

thanks for the boil loss info.

 

[BARBQ]

I just read about BIAB and it sounds like the same thing I was doing. I just didnt boil after removing the bag, but I still had a lower OG. Do you have to add more grain in a BIAB to counteract the lower OG?

 

[Bobby_M]

In general, no sparge BIAB does take a small hit in efficiency so it's better to plan for it. If you do the dunk-sparge process described in Deathbrewer's thread, you'll get that efficiency back.

Where you really sure about your temperatures? Have you checked your thermometer in boiling water?

How much water did you steep the 10lbs of grain in? I'd want to stick with something like 4 gallons. From there, even if you squeeze the grain bag well, you'll probably be left with about 3.5 gallons. That's when you take the grain bag and dunk it into 3 gallons of 175F water, stir it around, and then squeeze it out again. Now you take that 6.5 gallons and boil it for an hour, yielding 5.25 gallons higher gravity wort.

When you skip the boil, you're missing out on concentrating the gravity of the wort. You actually did the opposite by adding water.

 

[Mysticmead]

when I do a BIAB I use all water needed. Last time that was 7.5 gallons of water. for an 11.5 lb grain bill. I hit 77% efficiency. The lower OG you had was because you didn't boil. Boiling will reduce the amount of water, that will result in a higher OG.

 

[BARBQ]

In general, no sparge BIAB does take a small hit in efficiency so it's better to plan for it. If you do the dunk-sparge process described in Deathbrewer's thread, you'll get that efficiency back.

Where you really sure about your temperatures? Have you checked your thermometer in boiling water?

How much water did you steep the 10lbs of grain in? I'd want to stick with something like 4 gallons. From there, even if you squeeze the grain bag well, you'll probably be left with about 3.5 gallons. That's when you take the grain bag and dunk it into 3 gallons of 175F water, stir it around, and then squeeze it out again. Now you take that 6.5 gallons and boil it for an hour, yielding 5.25 gallons higher gravity wort.

When you skip the boil, you're missing out on concentrating the gravity of the wort. You actually did the opposite by adding water.

yeah my temps are usually good. I am a stickler on temp cause of bbq and frying alot. I use two of them just in case at all time two different types.

I have metal colander type strainer that has handles and would fit great on top of the pot. Couldnt I just put the grain bag in this on top of the pot when it is done and use a sprayer of cold water to get the rest of the starches/sugar to go down? I always do this when I boil rice in a pot and then put it in the sink and it usually spray it. It always pulls all the starch down into the sink and the sink is coated with a thick white sludge.

Does only hot water pull the sugar down? I guess if not the bad thing would be cooling the water before the boil, but what I dont understand is even though I added water it still totalled at 5 gallons.

 

[kanzimonson]

I think you need to do some extract batches so you can learn more about the boil. It's cool that you're tackling all grain, but it's clear that you just don't understand enough about the wort production process.

When people start out with all grain, they frequently have very low efficiency/extraction from their grains. You're coupling this with the low-efficiency method of no-sparge brewing, as well as not boiling your wort. You have a lot to improve on. Don't get too stressed with the details - just keep trying to slowly improve your system. Every time you brew you'll learn something new.

 

[Bobby_M]

You can use cold water if you want to but spraying damp grain in a colander isn't the best way to sparge. A lot of the sugar is actually still in the spongy parts of the grain and having the grain sit in a new body of water allows it to diffuse out. With rice cooking, you're rinsing starch off the outside. Would you still get some sugar out? Sure, but a full dunk into new water is better. Also, hot water will make the sugar a bit more soluable. It's a small gain, but that's what efficiency is all about, a bunch of small gains.

 

[BARBQ]

ok thanks everybody. I will try on the next batch to get better effec

 

[IceFisherChris]

You said you mashed in a grain bag. Did you ever stir the grains inside the bag, or did you just put it in the water? If you didn't stir then I bet that is part of the issue.
When I mashed, I just dumped all the grains into my pot with the water. This was extremely easier than trying to stir a grain bag. When my mas was done, I put a paint strainer over my plastic bucket and dumped in the grains. I will never "brew in a bag" now that I have done it this way.

 

[Mysticmead]

You said you mashed in a grain bag. Did you ever stir the grains inside the bag, or did you just put it in the water? If you didn't stir then I bet that is part of the issue.
When I mashed, I just dumped all the grains into my pot with the water. This was extremely easier than trying to stir a grain bag. When my mas was done, I put a paint strainer over my plastic bucket and dumped in the grains. I will never "brew in a bag" now that I have done it this way.

he used panty hose for a grain bag.. that alone wold prevent the water from circulating around the grains no mater how much he stirred. He really needs to use a grain bag made from voile (make it yourself for less than $10) or get a 5 gallon paint strainer from home depot

 

[TheMan]

It sounds like you misinterpretted a lot of the reading you did prior to posting here. Follow what everyone else suggested and read a bit. Always feel free to ask again if there is something you don't get or if you just want someone to check over your thoughts before your next brew. We will be happy to help and want to make sure you have success next time. Good Luck!

 

[BARBQ]

You said you mashed in a grain bag. Did you ever stir the grains inside the bag, or did you just put it in the water? If you didn't stir then I bet that is part of the issue.
When I mashed, I just dumped all the grains into my pot with the water. This was extremely easier than trying to stir a grain bag. When my mas was done, I put a paint strainer over my plastic bucket and dumped in the grains. I will never "brew in a bag" now that I have done it this way.

I thought about doing this too. Thanks I will try it.