02stangguy
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- Aug 21, 2015
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So I just did my first all grain batch and it sure was a learning experience. I did a gingerbread ale.
5 gallon batch
8.5 American 2 row
.5 chocolate
.5 special b
I used the brew365 calculator for this brew because I found it really easy to use. It told me to heat my strike water to 165 to his my 152 mash target. I did exactly that but it dropped to 148. I boiled a bottle of water and added it and it came up to 150 so I boiled another bottle but somehow it dropped back to 148 so I said heck with it. It maintained 148 for a while till I opened it to stir then dropped to 146. Mixed it around again a little later and it dropped to 144. What can go wrong by mashing at a lower temp? I batch sparged and ended up with 63% efficiency. That's not great but I'm actually happy with it considering its my first time haha.
Things I learned.
My strike water needs to be roughly 20 degrees higher than my target mashing temp
I need to start heating my sparge water about 45 minutes before its time to sparge haha
I need a false bottom for my keggle or a hop bag!
I have a pick up tube that goes to the center of my keg and it picked up so much stuff. I strained it through a sanitized paint strainer and the strainer got so gunked up that I couldn't use it so I just let everything run into my carboy. I imagine that there is a lot of sediment in the beer right now but when I go to rack into my bottling bucket it should clean up a bit right? Can I strain it again while racking into the bottling bucket?
5 gallon batch
8.5 American 2 row
.5 chocolate
.5 special b
I used the brew365 calculator for this brew because I found it really easy to use. It told me to heat my strike water to 165 to his my 152 mash target. I did exactly that but it dropped to 148. I boiled a bottle of water and added it and it came up to 150 so I boiled another bottle but somehow it dropped back to 148 so I said heck with it. It maintained 148 for a while till I opened it to stir then dropped to 146. Mixed it around again a little later and it dropped to 144. What can go wrong by mashing at a lower temp? I batch sparged and ended up with 63% efficiency. That's not great but I'm actually happy with it considering its my first time haha.
Things I learned.
My strike water needs to be roughly 20 degrees higher than my target mashing temp
I need to start heating my sparge water about 45 minutes before its time to sparge haha
I need a false bottom for my keggle or a hop bag!
I have a pick up tube that goes to the center of my keg and it picked up so much stuff. I strained it through a sanitized paint strainer and the strainer got so gunked up that I couldn't use it so I just let everything run into my carboy. I imagine that there is a lot of sediment in the beer right now but when I go to rack into my bottling bucket it should clean up a bit right? Can I strain it again while racking into the bottling bucket?