Looking for some help troubleshooting my brewing.
Spent a good part of the day making the AG Bells Two Hearted clone:
10# Pale
2 # Vienna
.5# Carapils
.5# Crystal 20
for a total grain bill of 13#, shooting for a 1.065ish OG.
I'm using a 48qt. Coleman cooler with a ball valve and a "keg screen". Grains were crushed at the LHBS using their mill. I'm batch sparging.
I preheated my mash tun by putting about 4 gallons of 150ish water in and letting it sit while I heated up the mash-in water, 16.25 quarts.
Heated mash-in water to about 165 on my floating thermometer and poured it in the mash tun. Added my grains and stirred for about 3-4 minutes until the temp got down to about 153 (152 was my target mash temp, but I usually lose a degree or two because there's a lot of headspace in the tun.)
Mashed for 60-65 minutes, and then I started to recirculate until it was running fairly clear. Drained slowly into my bucket, then added 9 quarts of mash-out water at about 175 degrees, figuring it will cool a few degrees when poured and stirred.
Stirred this for a few minutes and then let it sit for 10 minutes and started to drain. Once the sparge water was below the grain level, (20 or so minutes later) I added the other 9 quarts of mash out water and drained slowly until I got about 6.5 gallons of wort to boil. The wort was almost clear by this point. which was about an hour from the end of the mash to 6.5 gallons ready to boil.
Boiled for 60 minutes, and the volume into the fermenter was around 5.5 gallons, and my OG was only 1.042ish. I was floored. I think this is probably the batch I've taken the most patience with. Somewhere I've got a hole in my system and it's really discouraging. Just to make sure, I went out and took another sample and it was the same.
Am I missing something big here? My two suspicions are
I've gotten better efficiency by putting my grains in a bag, mashing in a small 5 gallon cooler, and then dunking the bag in a bucket full of mashout temp water, but that process works better for smaller batches / smaller grain bills. I'd like to get this process down.
So now I've got 5 gallons of watered down IPA. Hopefully it will still taste good, but I'd really like to figure out what's going on. Otherwise, it might be time to close down the garage brewery and just keep on buying commercial kegs.
Spent a good part of the day making the AG Bells Two Hearted clone:
10# Pale
2 # Vienna
.5# Carapils
.5# Crystal 20
for a total grain bill of 13#, shooting for a 1.065ish OG.
I'm using a 48qt. Coleman cooler with a ball valve and a "keg screen". Grains were crushed at the LHBS using their mill. I'm batch sparging.
I preheated my mash tun by putting about 4 gallons of 150ish water in and letting it sit while I heated up the mash-in water, 16.25 quarts.
Heated mash-in water to about 165 on my floating thermometer and poured it in the mash tun. Added my grains and stirred for about 3-4 minutes until the temp got down to about 153 (152 was my target mash temp, but I usually lose a degree or two because there's a lot of headspace in the tun.)
Mashed for 60-65 minutes, and then I started to recirculate until it was running fairly clear. Drained slowly into my bucket, then added 9 quarts of mash-out water at about 175 degrees, figuring it will cool a few degrees when poured and stirred.
Stirred this for a few minutes and then let it sit for 10 minutes and started to drain. Once the sparge water was below the grain level, (20 or so minutes later) I added the other 9 quarts of mash out water and drained slowly until I got about 6.5 gallons of wort to boil. The wort was almost clear by this point. which was about an hour from the end of the mash to 6.5 gallons ready to boil.
Boiled for 60 minutes, and the volume into the fermenter was around 5.5 gallons, and my OG was only 1.042ish. I was floored. I think this is probably the batch I've taken the most patience with. Somewhere I've got a hole in my system and it's really discouraging. Just to make sure, I went out and took another sample and it was the same.
Am I missing something big here? My two suspicions are
- The mill at the LHBS gets used more than a three dollar whore and the crush is just all wrong. I've only got about 10 AG batches under my belt and maybe I just don't know what to look for in a good crush.
- Temperature might be off. Are the floating thermometers you buy at the LHBS generally accurate? I used to use a digital meat thermometer with remote probe, but I have two of those and they always read off at room temparature.
- A third possibility is that I just don't understand the sparging process and I'm doing it wrong.
I've gotten better efficiency by putting my grains in a bag, mashing in a small 5 gallon cooler, and then dunking the bag in a bucket full of mashout temp water, but that process works better for smaller batches / smaller grain bills. I'd like to get this process down.
So now I've got 5 gallons of watered down IPA. Hopefully it will still taste good, but I'd really like to figure out what's going on. Otherwise, it might be time to close down the garage brewery and just keep on buying commercial kegs.