legaleagle
Well-Known Member
Thought I'd try something different today. Tried the Constant Recirculation Direct Fired Mash ("CRDFM") method because I have a 2 pot system (all grain) and I liked the idea, at least on paper, of this method. The link describing it is here: http://web.archive.org/web/20080201093347/http://www.alenuts.com/brutus20.htm.
I decided to do EdWorts Kolsch recipe for one last lawnmower beer of the summer (doubled up to a total of 14lbs pilsner malt + 5lbs wheat malt). Did everything according to the instructions. But, my starting gravity was way low (temp corrected). According to EdWort, I should have produced a 1.051 og wort. Instead, I ended up with a 1.036 og wort. According to the Alenuts CRDFM link, I should have reached equillbrium in the two pots by 45 minutes; but after 90 minutes still no equilibrium. With an evening social commitment looming, I decided to stop there and spike it with some light DME I had laying around to kick up the og. I did notice that that when I drained the mash tun for clean up, the liquor was very sweet at a significantly higher gravity, but with no noticeable astringency (i tossed as much as that as possible into the fire kettle).
Obviously, something went wrong here. I cannot attribute it to the grain crush as I have not changed my crush settings and it appeared as it usually does. The mash was at 149F, off slightly from EdWort's suggested 1.051, for one hour and iodine tested negative (tasted very sweet). For some reason despite a pretty consistent even flow between the two kettles and periodic stirring of the fire kettle, I could not get the gravity up.
The only other variable I can think of is I allowed the temp to drop as I cut the fire off when I crossed the pot lids (this was after conversion had occured). After awhile into the CRDFM, I realized the temp had dropped in both pots to below 160F, so lit the fire and got it back up to 170F continuing the CRDFM. But, still no bump on the gravity.
Did something go here wrong or is this an inherent limitation of this method? i realize the author of this method indicated that you could expect less efficiency than from a fly sparge, but my result seems rather dramatic (by far the lowest og I have ever gotten on my system using 19 lbs of grain and I have made many beers on this system). If I use this CRDFM method again (which I really liked fwiw), should I use more malt? mash at a higher temp? etc....
I decided to do EdWorts Kolsch recipe for one last lawnmower beer of the summer (doubled up to a total of 14lbs pilsner malt + 5lbs wheat malt). Did everything according to the instructions. But, my starting gravity was way low (temp corrected). According to EdWort, I should have produced a 1.051 og wort. Instead, I ended up with a 1.036 og wort. According to the Alenuts CRDFM link, I should have reached equillbrium in the two pots by 45 minutes; but after 90 minutes still no equilibrium. With an evening social commitment looming, I decided to stop there and spike it with some light DME I had laying around to kick up the og. I did notice that that when I drained the mash tun for clean up, the liquor was very sweet at a significantly higher gravity, but with no noticeable astringency (i tossed as much as that as possible into the fire kettle).
Obviously, something went wrong here. I cannot attribute it to the grain crush as I have not changed my crush settings and it appeared as it usually does. The mash was at 149F, off slightly from EdWort's suggested 1.051, for one hour and iodine tested negative (tasted very sweet). For some reason despite a pretty consistent even flow between the two kettles and periodic stirring of the fire kettle, I could not get the gravity up.
The only other variable I can think of is I allowed the temp to drop as I cut the fire off when I crossed the pot lids (this was after conversion had occured). After awhile into the CRDFM, I realized the temp had dropped in both pots to below 160F, so lit the fire and got it back up to 170F continuing the CRDFM. But, still no bump on the gravity.
Did something go here wrong or is this an inherent limitation of this method? i realize the author of this method indicated that you could expect less efficiency than from a fly sparge, but my result seems rather dramatic (by far the lowest og I have ever gotten on my system using 19 lbs of grain and I have made many beers on this system). If I use this CRDFM method again (which I really liked fwiw), should I use more malt? mash at a higher temp? etc....
