My brew day, ups and downs

[Athos56]

I decided to try a Brown Ale. I used Vienna, Munich, Victory and Chocolate Malts and US Goldling hops. I tried a few new things this time. First, I've been doing some reading on recirculation systems, I figured I could do the same thing manually. So when I missed my first mash temp on the low side I drew out about a quart of wort, heated it up to 180deg on the stove and added back to the mash. It took two recirculations and about 10 minutes to get to 154deg. I did two more 158deg recirculations during the mash to keep my temp at 154deg. I did the same for my mash out. Seemed to work well! I also used whirlfloc and an immersion chiller (which was awesome) for the first time. Here is where the downs start. Whirlpooling didn't knock anything out suspension nor did it cause a nice little cone to form. Even though the break formed really nice but it all ended up in my primary ooh well. I also forgot to take my OG reading oops! It looked and smelled really great though, a nice deep dark brown. The immersion chiller rocked, it cut my cooling time down from 30 minuts to 10 minutes, woot!

 

[weirdboy]

For whirlpooling you want to whirlpool a good long time, like 15 minutes or so, then let it come to a rest and settle for another 20 minutes or so before trying to rack off. Also, if you are using a valved vessel and just crank the valve open and let it empty out as fast as possible, this can create enough suction so as to disturb your nicely formed cone. I have seen advice that recommends cranking the valve down to maybe 1/3 or so once you get down to the last couple of gallons.

 

[Athos56]

Oh, I whirlpooled for maybe a minute, I used to have to make hollandaise sauce which required alot of egg yoke beating. God I hated that... Ok, next time I'll give a bit more time I used a hose to transfer the wort, but it was a 1/2" ID tube so it really sucked it out, I'll use a smaller tube next time. Thanks for the advice!