bigchristheman
Active Member
I mash in my brewing kettle with horrible results. I have an 8 gallon kettle with morebeer's false bottom:
http://morebeer.com/view_product/74..._Kettle_Screen_for_8_Gallon_Heavy_Duty_Kettle
There are a few inches of dead space between the bottom of the kettle and the false bottom but was told I could achieve the same results and the dead space would not be an issue with vorlauf.
I follow temperatures as closely as possible, doing simple single step with just 2 row and crystal, mash out, and batch sparge at the right temperature.
The only thing I do different is I add a about half a gallon more water than the 1.25 ratio beersmith gives me to make sure there is 1-2 inches above the top of the grain bed. I think this probably hurts but I can't imagine it hurting this bad.
I have done 4 batches of all grain now with 40-50% efficiency. I mash out, use as little sparge water as necessary, treat my water with 5.2. My results recently have been dropping. My latest batch I added an extra pound of 2 row and still was .017 off on my OG estimate.
Should I call the false bottom a sunk cost and create a cooler mash tun? I wanted to get a larger kettle and use this kettle as my mash tun but I can't get the results I work for. I've been drinking too many 4.5 IPA's!
Any help would be amazing. I know there are 1million posts on how to increase efficiency, but I was hoping there is something small I'm missing or someone else has tried mashing in a kettle and either turned their results around or switched to a cooler.
Thanks!!
http://morebeer.com/view_product/74..._Kettle_Screen_for_8_Gallon_Heavy_Duty_Kettle
There are a few inches of dead space between the bottom of the kettle and the false bottom but was told I could achieve the same results and the dead space would not be an issue with vorlauf.
I follow temperatures as closely as possible, doing simple single step with just 2 row and crystal, mash out, and batch sparge at the right temperature.
The only thing I do different is I add a about half a gallon more water than the 1.25 ratio beersmith gives me to make sure there is 1-2 inches above the top of the grain bed. I think this probably hurts but I can't imagine it hurting this bad.
I have done 4 batches of all grain now with 40-50% efficiency. I mash out, use as little sparge water as necessary, treat my water with 5.2. My results recently have been dropping. My latest batch I added an extra pound of 2 row and still was .017 off on my OG estimate.
Should I call the false bottom a sunk cost and create a cooler mash tun? I wanted to get a larger kettle and use this kettle as my mash tun but I can't get the results I work for. I've been drinking too many 4.5 IPA's!
Any help would be amazing. I know there are 1million posts on how to increase efficiency, but I was hoping there is something small I'm missing or someone else has tried mashing in a kettle and either turned their results around or switched to a cooler.
Thanks!!