Analyze my brew day

[dudes]

I am using 3 x 20G Blichmanns. This was the second brew on them, and we attempted to do a 15G batch.

Kolsch
Ingredients

Amount Item Type % or IBU
9 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 31.03 %
8 lbs 8.0 oz Global Kolsch (3.0 SRM) Grain 29.31 %
5 lbs 8.0 oz Pale Malt (6 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 18.97 %
5 lbs Wheat, Flaked (1.6 SRM) Grain 17.24 %
1 lbs Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM) Grain 3.45 %
2.00 oz Pearle [8.00 %] (60 min) Hops 19.3 IBU
4.00 oz Crystal [3.50 %] (15 min) Hops 8.4 IBU
3 Pkgs German Ale (Wyeast Labs #1007) Yeast-Ale


Beer Profile

Est Original Gravity: 1.051 SG
Measured Original Gravity: 1.038 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.012 SG Measured Final Gravity: TBD
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 5.06 % Actual Alcohol by Vol: TBD %

Mashed into 11G of 160F water (started it to hot, had to wait for it to cool). Mashed for an hour between 148-154. Had to add a short flame to bring it back up to temp about half way through. It appeared to hit 165 for a short bit during this time.

Gave it a quick flame and fly sparged with 170+ water. Matched output to sparge input, and all appeared to be going very well. Took about 25 min to pull 17 3/4 gallon.

Reached boil immediately, added hops, BOIL OVER. Really messy and I guess I lost 1/4 of the hops. Knocked down the heat and the rest of the boil went fine. Ended right at 15G.

Cooled through a therminator using a pump, recirculating back into the BK. It was a hot texas day and she stopped right at 100F. I wasn't set-up to pull chilled water in, so I decided to get them in fermenters and chill in our fridge/fermenter. Decided 100F was probably ok for aeration, so I let the pump continue to recirc but pulled the tubing out so it splashed back into the pot. [read this morning that I probably shouldn't arerate over 80F]

Ended up getting some losses from all of thsi and only getting about 14G into
carboys. But got them chilled the rest of the way and then pitched. It's churning away.

Really surprised I missed my FG numbers so badly (first batch hit it dead on, but I mashed for 90 min in that one). Bad mash? Not enough grains? Bad sparge?

Any feedback?

 

[kryolla]

you efficiency is based on the conversion from starch to carbs and you ability to lauter or get out as much wort as possible.

 

[dudes]

that is known, kyrolla.

looking for tips on where I could have went so wrong. need to hold mash temps more accurate and more consistent? lauter slower (from reading seems like this should take 36 - 54 minutes for the ~18G I wanted)? Is my beersmith SW off somehow and I needed more grains?

 

[mattmcl]

You will definitely want to get your mash temps consistent - 148-154 is a very wide range, and 165 is just too high. What mash temp is in your Beersmith recipe? That can make a BIG difference in efficiency.

I've never fly sparged, so I may be full of ****e here, but I always heat my sparge water to 190 or so, and I take about an hour to empty the MT and do two rounds of batch sparging. 25 min seems pretty fast.

 

[dudes]

On our first batch with this equipment we mashed for 90 min, and then lautered with the valve open full bore - REALLY fast - and still hit our number. It set a bad precedent

This time I lautered at half that speed. I kept the water level steady from the auto sparge input - but it was still probably ~.75-1gal/min.

I'd like to rule out the grain issue first. Doe this grain bill look like it should support 1.050 FG from an 18G boil for 15G final? (SW says it should).

If so, then obviously we need to look at our mash and our lauter as areas for improvement.

 

[strat_thru_marshall]

Getting your mash up into the 165 range could de-activate the enzyme activity that converts starch into sugar. If you pushed it that high half way through the mash, you could have gotten incomplete conversion, explaining your low efficiency. This is why you want to bring the grain bed up to this temp during mash out and lautering, so the enzymes stop and you can wash away all the good stuff they created.

 

[ksbrain]

Would a low mash temp cause low efficiency? Shouldn't that just affect the fermentability?

I would agree that the runoff sounds too fast, but that doesn't explain why it worked so nicely the first time.

Different base malts have different potentials - maybe this had something to do with the difference? Are you sure all your grains are correctly configured in your software? Did you maybe weigh them incorrectly?

Was your mash much thicker this time than last time? I seem to get better efficiency with a thinner mash. Though your ratio here looks fine.

 

[weirdboy]

What efficiency did you use to estimate your OG?

 

[dudes]

For the Kolsch grains, BeerSmith doesn't have a profile loaded and I couldn't find one. I assumed potential of 1.036 based on 75%.

No - mash was pretty thin. Very similar to our first brew on this set-up.

Next time we'll do a better job on our mash temps, I'll Iodine test to confirm conversion, and sparge even slower. It's hard to believe we missed this badly though.