Stirring?

[max384]

I take samples with my refractometer from the top of the mash and find that the gravity is lower than expected which makes me worry. If I then stir the mash the gravity goes up. I think it is because the sugar laden wort settles to the bottom of the tun because when I don't stir I still get the expected OG at the end of the boil. If the sugar laden wort really settles then at the bottom of the grain the sugar concentration is higher which would lead to poorer efficiency if I didn't sparge. Stirring equalizes the concentration so a little more of the sugars are dissolved. With sparging the won't be much difference at the end.

Do you fly or batch sparge?

 

[slym2none]

You stir what? You posted your first ag brew today. So at the time of this post you hadnt even made an ag batch! This is why forum advice is questionable.

I stir the s..t out of the mash at the beginning and end cause like you don't want to lose heat

I've made a few partial-mash batches before. Made a thread all about one here on HBT.

Who's to say he wasn't doing partial mash?

Thank you!



That being said, this time around, I did not stir except for right before taking the temperature 6 minutes after doughing in, and after the mash-timer had elapsed.

 

[Hello]

You stir what? You posted your first ag brew today. So at the time of this post you hadnt even made an ag batch! This is why forum advice is questionable.

I stir the s..t out of the mash at the beginning and end cause like you don't want to lose heat

Rough man, rough.

Who's to say he wasn't doing partial mash?

That is exactly what I thought. He likely does partial mashes which would include stirring.

That's why I don't jump to conclusions on this forum. Advice here has been fairly solid for me.

I stir when I dough in and not again until the mash is complete. This is not BIAB though. I do mash in a cooler using a bag though for easy clean up. My gap is at .032 but I think it could be at .030. There's no risk of stuck sparges with my bag, of course.

 

[RM-MN]

Do you fly or batch sparge?

No? I dump some water into the top of the bag while it is sitting in a colander that is sitting in a bowl. Sometimes I stir it into the grain, sometimes I just dump it in and let it soak through so I don't really batch or fly sparge.

 

[bransona]

No? I dump some water into the top of the bag while it is sitting in a colander that is sitting in a bowl. Sometimes I stir it into the grain, sometimes I just dump it in and let it soak through so I don't really batch or fly sparge.

Isn't that BIAB's version of batch sparging? That's my process, and I've always referred to it as such.

 

[RM-MN]

Isn't that BIAB's version of batch sparging? That's my process, and I've always referred to it as such.

With batch sparging you would add water to the grains until they are covered in water, then stir. My grains don't always get covered, sometimes the water drains through before i get that much water in there. I think of dunk sparging as the BIAB version of batch sparging and pour over is more like fly sparging. I do a bastardized mix of both.

 

[copper2hopper]

View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1457344738.824035.jpg
I stir like crazy AND recirculate with a constant VERY low source of heat from the burner. I'm constantly monitoring temp which never gets above or below 1-2 degrees within target temp. My conversion efficiencies have been never below 85%. Even hitting 90's quite regularly. I also squeeze and crush fine and do a mash out for 15 minutes at 165-170.

 

[doug293cz]

I stir like crazy AND recirculate with a constant VERY low source of heat from the burner. I'm constantly monitoring temp which never gets above or below 1-2 degrees within target temp. My conversion efficiencies have been never below 85%. Even hitting 90's quite regularly. I also squeeze and crush fine and do a mash out for 15 minutes at 165-170.

I consider anything below 95% to be low conversion efficiency. Fine crush mashes can routinely deliver 98% or better conversion efficiency.

What's your definition of conversion efficiency? The conventional definition of conversion efficiency is the amount of sugar actually created in the mash divided by the maximum potential sugar. It is not the percent of potential sugar that makes it into the BK (that is mash efficiency.) Mash efficiency is equal to conversion efficiency times lauter efficiency. These definitions are the same as used by BrewersFriend and BeerSmith. For efficiency numbers to have any meaning, everyone has to use consistent definitions and terms for all of the different efficiencies that can be calculated.

Brew on

 

[copper2hopper]

Yes I use Brewers Friend calculators basically for all my calculations.

 

[applescrap]

So not to dredge up too much of an old thread. By accident it happened that I had to stir a mash to cool it down. My system brings the water to strike in like 10 minutes so there's not a whole lot of time to be messing around. I have struggled to find the best strike temp outside since I'm not in my kitchen and have mashed a little too low which based on an experiment I saw leads to higher ABV which makes me want to mash low always. Anyways I messed up and got it a little hot so I stirred it to cool it down. As stated above i stir heavily anyways. But I started thinking why not just stir and not worry about covering right away because the temp in the kettle is what matters and as long as it's within a reasonable Zone I can stir away with the lid off and no rush to put it on. I saw a video I think it was Bobby from brewhardware who is a brilliant dude by the way, said he likes to bring strike too high and stir it to cool it rather than have water in a cooler and end up needing to heat it up. This has held true to me because I am using a heat stick and I take it out and put my bag in so it's a pain in the toochy too add Heat. So I started thinking why not just always start a little warm and then give yourself some time to really get to it. But the real point I'm trying to get at is since I'm doing short mashes and have been brewing this winter outside in the cold in Colorado there hasn't been a lot of time to open the kettle and stir as I wrap up the kettle and bag it so it doesn't turn into an icicle. So when I do open the kettle the water looks fairly clear or at least not what you want but then I start hitting it with the

stir stick like it was 1985 and I'm doing the Cabbage Patch dance to Hammer Time. And all of a sudden the magic happens and poof there is beautiful wort and I just keep stirring and stirring and stirring because I don't want to leave any of my sucrose Buddies left out. Which makes me think that stirring can create can create Wort quickly if not insure a good creamy product. Oh no now I remember yeah stirring it in the beginning like I was saying made wort appear Then too, like real 60 Minute Mash wort. So I started thinking again if you just kind of dumped some grains in and stir up a little probably need 60 minutes but if you get to it less. Okay I'm done