Not disappointed with first AG, just have some questions

[Toy4Rick]

Hey everyone,

Well I took the plunge today and brewed my first all grain porter.

I hit very few of my my numbers and the ones I did, should have been different. All is good. In the end, it will be a great beer.

My question is regarding the mash. I was shooting for 1.058 pre boil and got 1.046. I mashed 1.5 qts/lb and my temp started out at 150 so I added about 1/2 gal of boiling water which brought it to 153. Since I started out as thin as I did, then added another 2 qts, how much did this affect my efficiency? With a batch sparge, my first running was 4.5 gal and my second was only 1.5 gal. I know they should be far more equal.

Should I have stopped sparging earlier like at 3 gal, add the remaining sparge water then finish the sparge to get 2 equal amounts?

My volumes were all good in the end. Only ended up with 2 qts extra, boiled away 1 gal in 60 mins... Overall I'm pretty happy with the results.

11 lbs Pale Malt 2 Row
1 lb Caramel Crystal Malt 80L
1 lb chocolate Malt

Thanks in advance
Toy4Rick

 

[diS]

Mach thickness dont have much impact on efficiency. As for size of running's, you can get few points by equal sizing of sparge.

There is excellent read about efficiency, take a look:

http://braukaiser.com/wiki/index.php?title=Efficiency
http://braukaiser.com/wiki/index.php?title=Troubleshooting_Brewhouse_Efficiency

and also about batch sparging:

http://braukaiser.com/wiki/index.php?title=Batch_Sparging_Analysis#Effect_of_the_relative_run-off_sizes

edit: I dont know why links are not showing... hope that T will fix that soon.

 

[Hammy71]

In my experience, mash thickness does matter for efficiency on my system. If only because it lessens the amount of sparge water you'll use. For a first go around it doesn't sound like you did too bad. Next time I would try to stay closer to the 1.25/# ratio for the strike volume. This will allow you to add some water (if you have to), and still leave some volume for the sparge. Don't stop the first runnings, just let it be and then try to split your remaining additions in two. If your first runnings are 3 gallons and you need 6 in your pot.....make your sparges 1.5 gallons each.