Please critique my process

[grace1760]

I just finished brewing my 3rd batch (all extract, with specialty grains). This was AHS Imperial Agave Wit. I think overall it went pretty well, but here are the things I'm concerned or confused about:

1) I have a 10-gallon stainless steel brew kettle (in anticipation of AG batches someday) and so I figured I would do a full boil. Even though I had my pot centered across 2 burners (including a high-heat burner), I was never really able to get the 5.5 gallons to a good boil. The recipe only calls for a 30-minute boil, I let it go a little bit longer, but I don't know what the impact will be? It ended up being more of a meek simmer than a boil.

2) This was also my first time using a yeast starter. :rockin: I made it on Friday night, and brewed on Sunday afternoon. It was about 42 hours after I made the starter (about 800 ml of water and 2/3 cup of extra light DME, and one pack of wyeast - I think 3944 but not sure, it's the wit yeast). Is this a good ratio of water/DME for a starter? It took off pretty nicely, but I wasn't able to brew until today, so the krausen had fallen by that time. I simply shook it a bit before I pitched (I pitched the whole thing). I know some people talk about sticking it in the fridge and pouring off some of the liquid but I wasn't sure when this is appropriate, or what the advantages are?

3) I steeped the grains (1 lb flaked oats) in about 3/4 gallon of water for 25 minutes per recipe. The temp of the water when I started was 162; when it was done, it was about 145. I pulled the bag out and then poured the steeping water over the grains into my brew kettle. Is there any advantage to this with specialty grains? I know it's important in AG brewing...

4) The recipe OG is 1.066; I ended up at 1.062. Any thoughts why this might be the case?? I don't know why it would be so far off in an extract recipe?

5) Finally, my gravity sample had TONS of trub at the bottom, even though I filtered through a SS mesh strainer when I poured into the fermentation bucket. See the pic below. What the hell is that? This was BEFORE I pitched the yeast starter. The recipe was basically: 1lb flaked outs steeped for 25 minutes, 7lb Wheat LME, 2lb Agave Nectar, all boiled for 30 min, with 1oz Sterling hops at 15 min, 3/4 oz bitter orange peel and 1oz cracked coriander at 5 minutes. What is that?


P.S. My 100th post!!

P.P.S. Happy Father's Day to all the dad's on HBT.

 

[Tall_Yotie]

1) Close to a boil for me has been good enough. On a stove I never get to a full rolling boil, just something pretending to be a boil. It will get to 212F, but the additional heat to get it to do a hard boil is not added at the rate needed. You are fine. As for longer boils, besides concentrating the wort you will get more from the hops if you add them for longer.

2) Don't do measuring cups, it is inaccurate do to density of the packing. 100g DME per 1L water is the standard ratio. As for fridge and decanting, this is done so you don't add a lot of liquid to your wort that isn't needed. Not needed (IMO) unless you made a HUGE starter.

3) The temp range there should be fine. However, drops in temp can mean less sugar extraction / conversion. I suggest keeping an eye on the temp and adding heat as needed.

4) 1.062 could be due to poor specialty grain extraction, or, most likely, inaccurate wort volume measurement. 5g of 1.066 is 1.062 if there are 5.3g, just for example. The lines on brew buckets are infamous for being inaccurate.

5) A lot gets through fine mesh strainers. It could be shreds of grain husk, bits of protein, or bits of stuff from the agave nectar. If I let any of my hydro samples sit for any amount of time I will collect bits of stuff on the bottom.

All in all, looks like you are doing just fine!

 

[Hang Glider]

+1 - you're doing fine.

If you want a stronger boil (and you might when you move to all-grain to drive off DMS) you'll need to move to an electric system with electric elements embedded into your boil kettle, or simply get a propane turkey fryer and use that - you can easily get full rolling boils with such a set up. Don't forget to account for a lot of evaporation with a turkey fryer. I start with 6.5 gallons to get a 5-gallon end result (1 hour boil).

 

[JonM]

100 posts! Congrats, Senior Member!
Seriously, +1 to all of the above - you're fine. Cheers!