postban
Active Member
On my 3rd batch of all grain yesterday, simple little Blue Moon clone 5gal batch.
Got the strike water in, doughed in, threw in the temp probe for my digital thermometer, gave a good stirring with the paddle.
Read the temp, watched the 168 strike water temp go right to the 150 mash in temp like it is supposed to.
Then decided to pull the probe out to use on the mash out water and it felt stuck. Pulled a little harder and it came out along with a big air bubble. I thought "That was weird".
75 minute mash, then hit it with the mashout 200 degree water, 10 minutes.... OK, ready to vorlauf, get my cup ready to catch the first runnings and crack the valve, oatmeal. All solids and very little juice.
So I think back to why the temp probe would not pull out easy like it always has. Yeah, it got stuck under the tube that feeds from my false bottom to the valve. I had pulled off the elbow letting anything and everything to come out the valve.
Panic ensued.
I had my sparge water in the HLT, all ready to fly sparge. Grabbed that, dumped it back in my extra water pot. Picked up the mash tun and poured all of the mash into the HLT and in complete horror saw the disconnected elbow plop into the HLT as I poured.
Ran and grabbed a slotted spoon from the kitchen, poured the sparge water out of the water pot into the kettle, poured half the mash into it and then started digging into the 168 degree mush trying to find the elbow. I found it and pulled it out, burnt my fingers on it too.
Then I reassembled my mash tun and false bottom, got all the mash back in it, covered it up. Cleaned out the HLT and water pot, reheated the sparge water, transferred back into the HLT, setup the fly sparge. This time, vorlaufing nicely settled first runnings.
Not sure how much temp I lost pouring mash here and there, digging in it and whatnot.
Boil and hop schedule went ok.
...and I hit the gravity deadnuts on at 1.060.
Miracles do happen.
Oh yeah, it kicked off real hard, krausen out the blowoff tube filling a 1 gal bucket to the top.
Got the strike water in, doughed in, threw in the temp probe for my digital thermometer, gave a good stirring with the paddle.
Read the temp, watched the 168 strike water temp go right to the 150 mash in temp like it is supposed to.
Then decided to pull the probe out to use on the mash out water and it felt stuck. Pulled a little harder and it came out along with a big air bubble. I thought "That was weird".
75 minute mash, then hit it with the mashout 200 degree water, 10 minutes.... OK, ready to vorlauf, get my cup ready to catch the first runnings and crack the valve, oatmeal. All solids and very little juice.
So I think back to why the temp probe would not pull out easy like it always has. Yeah, it got stuck under the tube that feeds from my false bottom to the valve. I had pulled off the elbow letting anything and everything to come out the valve.
Panic ensued.
I had my sparge water in the HLT, all ready to fly sparge. Grabbed that, dumped it back in my extra water pot. Picked up the mash tun and poured all of the mash into the HLT and in complete horror saw the disconnected elbow plop into the HLT as I poured.
Ran and grabbed a slotted spoon from the kitchen, poured the sparge water out of the water pot into the kettle, poured half the mash into it and then started digging into the 168 degree mush trying to find the elbow. I found it and pulled it out, burnt my fingers on it too.
Then I reassembled my mash tun and false bottom, got all the mash back in it, covered it up. Cleaned out the HLT and water pot, reheated the sparge water, transferred back into the HLT, setup the fly sparge. This time, vorlaufing nicely settled first runnings.
Not sure how much temp I lost pouring mash here and there, digging in it and whatnot.
Boil and hop schedule went ok.
...and I hit the gravity deadnuts on at 1.060.
Miracles do happen.
Oh yeah, it kicked off real hard, krausen out the blowoff tube filling a 1 gal bucket to the top.
