taylor1354
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- Joined
- Mar 15, 2016
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I've been a homebrewer for about 7 years now, all grain for 4. I had one or two really good years as an AG Brewer, but since then I have had difficulty making great beer. To me the biggest culprit is my inability to hit temperatures and get consistent extraction. I use BeerSmith 2.0 to calculate my infusions, however when I measure the temps, they are off. I wait 3 minutes for the temperatures to equalize. I then make adjustments by adding water. When I check the temp after the mash it is much different than when I started (5-8 degrees). The tun (insulated igloo cooler) sits on a padded chair for the duration. This messes up my mashouts and sparging steps obviously. I have tried to be more thorough in record keeping so that I can narrow down solutions, but clearly not doing a good job. So...
1- I mix water into the grains. Does this really create thermal pockets that can cause problems? (It's a suspended solution, so I would thing everything would homogenize)
2- Am I alone in this problem?
3-Can I get my grain bed to 165 degrees without a mashout? What temperature does everyone use for sparge water coming out of the pot?
Really, I haven't brewed in 9 months because my last 5-6 batches were somewhere between subpar and abysmal and I want to correct this. Because I like beer. A lot.
Thanks for your help guys!
1- I mix water into the grains. Does this really create thermal pockets that can cause problems? (It's a suspended solution, so I would thing everything would homogenize)
2- Am I alone in this problem?
3-Can I get my grain bed to 165 degrees without a mashout? What temperature does everyone use for sparge water coming out of the pot?
Really, I haven't brewed in 9 months because my last 5-6 batches were somewhere between subpar and abysmal and I want to correct this. Because I like beer. A lot.
Thanks for your help guys!