My first AG

[Tonypr24]

So I made my first AG over the weekend and since I have never done one I dont know how it went but I would say it went well. I just have a few questions regarding mashing and rinsing grains..I my target temp was 152 so i heated water at 176 and it got me 153 so it was pretty close. I did that for 90 mins...on my mash out i heat the water up at 180 and it got me 153 again...not sure why...also i heat more water for my sparge at 190 and it got me 154...what is the deal..I couldnt get it as high as I wanted to but my FG was 1.062 and the recipe was 1.065 so it was pretty close.. any suggestions??

 

[Runyanka]

What type of mash tun are you using? Was it a cooler or a pot? If its a cooler, you may look into pre-heating it prior to doughing in. You could have been getting some severe temp drops during the mash, thats why your mash out only raised it up a to the beginning temp. Usually I'll heat my strike water up to 180, dump it in the cooler, close the lid and walk away for 10 min. Then once at my strike temp I dough in. That way your cooler is nice and toasty and doesnt suck heat out of the mash. Hope this helps.

BTW, what did you brew?

 

[jerryodom]

How big was your batch? How many gallons did you use to Mash and how many gallons did you use to mash out?

 

[cvstrat]

You'll want to heat your water a few degrees above what is required to hit your mash temp. Pour into the mash tun (cooler) and close the lid. Let everything come to temp. Then pour in your grain and stir, stir, stir until it hits your temp, then close it off. 1 degree difference doesn't matter so much, but you could have dropped it a degree by stiring to release some steam/heat.

I usually do something like 1.25 quarts of water per pound of grain, heat that to about 167 and it should equalize just fine. Then mashout with half as much water as you mashed with and heat that to 210. Just get the sparge water hot, nothing crazy and use exactly as much as you need to get 1-1.25gal above your final desired volume (variation for evaporation during boil check your system). Looks something like this:

Strike Water 1.25qt/lb: 167 -> 153
Mashout (strike/2): 210 -> 170
Sparge : 170

 

[patrck17]

The only thing I question, which has been said above, is if you preheated the cooler first. If you didn't preheat the cooler here is what I think happened:

You heat your water up to 176 dump it in your cooler, dough in, check temperature and see 153, good to go np. Since your cooler isn't preheated, and is at room temperature, durring your 90 minute mash your cooler temperature will bring down the temperature of the mash as it absorbs heat. The temperature will average out probably didn't drop too much maybe as low as 140.

Now depending on how much water you added at 180, it was only enough to get the temperature back up to 153, or maybe you were probing a cooler spot in the mash and the rest was a lil higher. The same thing could have occured for your sparge.

Not preheating your cooler would most readily explains this, as you lose so much heat to the cooler from the mash. Next time take temperature readings at the end of the mash. If the mash is 153 after 90 minutes, It really isn't possible that adding sparge water @ 180 would only increase it to 154. Unless you sparged with like a cup of water.

But the good news is you came really close to your target OG, and you'll end up with yummy beer.

Grats on first AG.

Patrick

 

[Tonypr24]

the total recipe grain was 12lbs...my strike water was 10 quarts at 176..I now know that I should have had more water...but thank you guys these are all good suggestions that I did not think of....Thank you.

 

[wilserbrewer]

Sounds like you did well! Adding a gallon or two of very hot, near boiling water for the "mash out" or first batch sparge will raise your grain bed temps. Just be careful not to exceed 170, as higher temps can cause tannin extraction.