jamessh
Member
I am currently on my third AG so I am still relatively new w/r/t this whole process.
I brewed an IPA today. 13 lbs crushed grain from LHBS including: 10 2-row pale, 2 munich and 1 crystal. I heated the strike water to about 195-200F and let it sit in my mash tun (an insulated igloo cooler) until it hit roughly 180F. After dough in (at 180F) my temperature was still a bit high so I left the lid open and let it drop to 160F then closed the lid. The temperature had dropped about 10F during the 60 minute mash so I will assume that I was within the acceptable range during this time. I mashed with 3.5 gallons of liquid.
I heated sparge water in the BK to about 195 and added some of this water, essentially enough to get the temperature up to 170ish (which it was) and began to drain the mash tun (the cooler functions dually as a mash and lautering tun) -- I have a subQuestion at this point: is it bad to oxygenate the beer at this point, in the Joy of home brewing it says avoid bubbles, and introducing oxygen -- I used a couple grain bags and so I did not vorlauf. This whole time I had someone pressing the grain bags with a large spoon, almost flattening them out and mixing the water in thoroughly. The sparge water was introduced through a metal strainer sitting on top of the grain bag (probably more important if one is not using bags so that the grain bed remains intact).
A) I collected all of the runnings together and then about 15 minutes later I took a small amount of the liquid from the MLT and tested its SG. It was almost 1.060.
B) after decoction (i.e. boiling to five gallons) I checked the starting gravity and it was around 1.040. My target was 1.066 so I thought for sure after checking it at 120F and measuring 1.060 that I would be able to nail it, if not go higher
What went wrong?
This observation could suggest several things:
1) There was the potential for higher alcohol as per the observation in (A)
or
2) This liquid was the stuff sitting around in the cooler, pressed against the grains the longest, the "dregs" if you will thus it would imply that some runnings may be stronger than others
Now I did not get my temperature up to 170 and then close the lid, stir (or in my case press/agitate) and let it sit for 10 minutes so maybe this was my problem but I still don't think that would be responsible for such a discrepancy.
pointers w/r/t this whole process would be greatly appreciated
Thank you.
I brewed an IPA today. 13 lbs crushed grain from LHBS including: 10 2-row pale, 2 munich and 1 crystal. I heated the strike water to about 195-200F and let it sit in my mash tun (an insulated igloo cooler) until it hit roughly 180F. After dough in (at 180F) my temperature was still a bit high so I left the lid open and let it drop to 160F then closed the lid. The temperature had dropped about 10F during the 60 minute mash so I will assume that I was within the acceptable range during this time. I mashed with 3.5 gallons of liquid.
I heated sparge water in the BK to about 195 and added some of this water, essentially enough to get the temperature up to 170ish (which it was) and began to drain the mash tun (the cooler functions dually as a mash and lautering tun) -- I have a subQuestion at this point: is it bad to oxygenate the beer at this point, in the Joy of home brewing it says avoid bubbles, and introducing oxygen -- I used a couple grain bags and so I did not vorlauf. This whole time I had someone pressing the grain bags with a large spoon, almost flattening them out and mixing the water in thoroughly. The sparge water was introduced through a metal strainer sitting on top of the grain bag (probably more important if one is not using bags so that the grain bed remains intact).
A) I collected all of the runnings together and then about 15 minutes later I took a small amount of the liquid from the MLT and tested its SG. It was almost 1.060.
B) after decoction (i.e. boiling to five gallons) I checked the starting gravity and it was around 1.040. My target was 1.066 so I thought for sure after checking it at 120F and measuring 1.060 that I would be able to nail it, if not go higher
What went wrong?
This observation could suggest several things:
1) There was the potential for higher alcohol as per the observation in (A)
or
2) This liquid was the stuff sitting around in the cooler, pressed against the grains the longest, the "dregs" if you will thus it would imply that some runnings may be stronger than others
Now I did not get my temperature up to 170 and then close the lid, stir (or in my case press/agitate) and let it sit for 10 minutes so maybe this was my problem but I still don't think that would be responsible for such a discrepancy.
pointers w/r/t this whole process would be greatly appreciated
Thank you.