I’ve brewed about 12batches. I keep improving and my beer is becoming extremely good. But as i stride to make even better beer, I’m looking at things I can improve on. The one part of my procedure that seems to fall short each time is my og.
I use a converted ice cooler to mash. The cooler loses heat extremely quick. Did a porter sunday, strike water was 170(beer smith said 167) Wanted to mash at 155, settled at 152. Checked 30 mins later and it was at 147, 30 mins later 144, 15 mins later 142. My measured post mash gravity are usual above estimated. I drain the whole MT, then batch sparge. I heat the first runnings while the sparge is draining and then add it to the BK. Mix around and take a gravity reading for my pre boil gravity....This is where i see a major dip in my numbers. Example, this last batch was
-end of mash 1.075(estimated 1.070)
-pre boil 1.055(estimated 1.079)
Boil for 75 mins
OG 1.058(estimated 1.089)
I do 6gallon batch
mashed with 6gallons, sparged 4.5 gallons
preboil volume 7.75gallons
I keep tweeting things and my numbers don’t seem to improve(this one seem to go down)
So what i was thinking of doing is
Use my BK as a mash tun, keep burned low to maintain temp. BK has false bottom(that leaves about two gallons of space that the grain would be above the bottom of bk)
Things I was thinking of doing, after 20 mins, drain a few gallons and pour back over the top. Repeat a few times. After 75 mins, drain into a bucket, then fly sparge to hit my pre boil volume. Drain grain from BK, add wort to bk and boil.
Am i making a mistake with this thought process?
Any help/ideas is appreciated.
I use a converted ice cooler to mash. The cooler loses heat extremely quick. Did a porter sunday, strike water was 170(beer smith said 167) Wanted to mash at 155, settled at 152. Checked 30 mins later and it was at 147, 30 mins later 144, 15 mins later 142. My measured post mash gravity are usual above estimated. I drain the whole MT, then batch sparge. I heat the first runnings while the sparge is draining and then add it to the BK. Mix around and take a gravity reading for my pre boil gravity....This is where i see a major dip in my numbers. Example, this last batch was
-end of mash 1.075(estimated 1.070)
-pre boil 1.055(estimated 1.079)
Boil for 75 mins
OG 1.058(estimated 1.089)
I do 6gallon batch
mashed with 6gallons, sparged 4.5 gallons
preboil volume 7.75gallons
I keep tweeting things and my numbers don’t seem to improve(this one seem to go down)
So what i was thinking of doing is
Use my BK as a mash tun, keep burned low to maintain temp. BK has false bottom(that leaves about two gallons of space that the grain would be above the bottom of bk)
Things I was thinking of doing, after 20 mins, drain a few gallons and pour back over the top. Repeat a few times. After 75 mins, drain into a bucket, then fly sparge to hit my pre boil volume. Drain grain from BK, add wort to bk and boil.
Am i making a mistake with this thought process?
Any help/ideas is appreciated.