Trouble shooting

[Coriba]

I’m all grain brewing using an Anvil brewing system. I’m getting poor conversion. I’m following instructions from Anvil, which is add grain to strike water, recirculate during mash, sparge with one gallon, and boil for one hour.

My most recent attempt is 4 kg pale malt, 3 kg rye, half kg rice hulls. 7 gallons strike water at 161 F. Hold one hour at 152 F. Sparge with one gallon 170 F water.

O.G from this was only 1.052 and should have been 1.071 according to calculators.

What is it I’m doing wrong or what can I improve?

 

[BigEd]

What it your batch size here? I'm guessing based on the water volumes listed it's 5-6 gallons? Comparing your expected OG to that will help getting a better answer.

Many, though certainly not all, conversion efficiency problems are traced to a poor grain crush during milling.

 

[Jag75]

Crush too course , mixing the mash well enough ensuring no dough balls?

 

[bracconiere]

i'd use less strike water, and more sparge water? with my fly sparge setup i'd mash in 1.3qt/lb, and sparge with final expected volume, SLOWLY!

 

[Coriba]

Thanks for the responses. FYI brewing for a rye whisky.

Batch size was 5 gallons. I purchased the grain milled and, by eye, looked good. Almost stuck with all that rye malt. Good volume after sparge.

Strike rate of 1.3 qt/lb is a little stiff isn’t it? I felt like more sparge was needed too.

Do I need to raise mash temp to 170 F? Only doing a single step.

 

[bracconiere]

Strike rate of 1.3 qt/lb is a little stiff isn’t it?

i only use 7 gallons for 20-23 pounds.....for a 10 gallon batch, and fly sparge with 10 gallons 168f or so water, over about a couple hours...

 

[BigEd]

Thanks for the responses. FYI brewing for a rye whisky.

Batch size was 5 gallons. I purchased the grain milled and, by eye, looked good. Almost stuck with all that rye malt. Good volume after sparge.

Strike rate of 1.3 qt/lb is a little stiff isn’t it? I felt like more sparge was needed too.

Do I need to raise mash temp to 170 F? Only doing a single step.

I'd lower the mash temp for a whiskey wash. A lower temp will lean toward a higher ratio of short chain sugars and maximum fermentability. I like 144F/62C for 90 minutes. You're sure the rye is malted? That could make a difference too. Rye kernels are smaller than barley. If they were milled together with the pale malt or at the same gap setting of the rollers you won't get a proper crush of the rye.

 

[Coriba]

How do you get all of that wet? I’ll have to look up what fly sparge is

 

[bracconiere]

How do you get all of that wet? I’ll have to look up what fly sparge is

i heat it up by talking sexy to it, then dump it in? lol it cools down a bit afterwards, but is still about the right temp.....

 

[Coriba]

The rye was milled separately. Much finer than the barley.

 

[bracconiere]

fly sparge is when you use the less solubility of sugar in water to push it out of the grain. slowly rinsing it.

 

[Jag75]

i heat it up by talking sexy to it, then dump it in? lol it cools down a bit afterwards, but is still about the right temp.....

I knew this was coming lol

 

[dandksutton]

I have an Anvil setup too, and initially ran into the same issue. First off, I started using a mesh bag inside the grain basket. This keeps the beer a little clearer and makes cleanup even easier, the bag washes out easily. It also allows me to lift up the bag a few times during the mash, even an inch or two allows the mash water to flow much better. I use the circulating pump during the entire mash to keep the wort running through the grains and stir to the bottom of the grains about every 10 to 15 minutes. I start with 5.5 gallons for the initial mash, place the grain bin up on the drainage rack after 60 minutes and continue to run the circulating pump to wash the grain while heating the sparge water. I then sparge to get boil volume to 7 gallons , which is usually around a 4 gallon sparge. This has been giving me around 1.058 to 1.060 on several IPA's I have brewed with roughly a 14lb. grain bill.

 

[Coriba]

I knew this was coming lol

Yeah, served up quite a softball there.

 

[bracconiere]

Yeah, served up quite a softball there.

you asked? i do it in a round cooler though, 1.3qt/lb is about right to fill it up with 20-23 lb's malt.....i use 7 gallons strike water, and sparge with 10 gallons to get my pre-boil of 14 gallons or so. and i sparge really slowly, to give the sugar time to dissolve. although missible, sugar and water aren't a match made in heaven. kinda a shot-gun wedding.

 

[Coriba]

Mashing in a cooler would different than the Anvil system. We have a grain basket inside the mash tun/boiler. We have to fill all the annular space with water, so we need quite a bit more. We would need 1.3 qts/lb plus the annular space. Posters above had some good suggestions.

 

[bracconiere]

well this is all grain, not BIAB forum. just thought i'd share how i do it with a fly sparge.....

edit: even though i had to google annular. i still think besides the extra dead space under the basket, you'd better off figuring out how to do a bigger sparge.