Django-Parker
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Hello all, I've had back luck with two batches of an imperial stout with everything the same. It's not bad, but the abv for the 19 lbs came out to 6.5% abv. I was shooting for 9% or so. It's strange to me, since my previous batch before was an oktoberfest-like ale shooting for 5-6%, but turned out 7.2%.
I'll let you know my grain bill, mashing, sparging and everything else:
15 lbs maris otter
1 lb roasted barley
1 lb chocolate
1.3 lbs 60 L crystal
1 lb rolled oats
We use a bayou classic mash tun that is 10 gallons, but unfortunately has a 2 gallon false bottom. We put 7.5 gallons of water, then the grain.
Ph was 5.6
Mash temperatures stirring every 5-10 minutes:
112 for 15 minutes
149 for 20 minutes
156 for 60 minutes
added 1lb of Rice Hulls because it would be too thick for the regular mash.
170 for 15 minutes - stirred alot at first, then let sit for the rest of the 12 minutes, so the grain bed is at rest.
vorlauf for 5-10 minutes
Fly sparged 1.5 gallons (190F) slowly, dripping 8" above into mash tun for 90 minutes. We collected 6.5 gallons.
Our temperature inside the mash tun dropped from 170 to 145 in this time frame. Unsure how to keep it constantly at 170... Though this is the same that we had for the Oktoberfest...
Boiled for 120 minutes and brought it down to a little under 5 gallons (4.8).
Specific gravity for first batch 1.076
Specific gravity for second batch 1.072
We were thinking of adding 1.5 lbs of rice hulls next time and using 2 gallons of sparge water, but we are absolutely unsure about why we aren't getting a higher OG/SG.
Thank you for reading all of this and helping. I appreciate your time. Thank you!
I'll let you know my grain bill, mashing, sparging and everything else:
15 lbs maris otter
1 lb roasted barley
1 lb chocolate
1.3 lbs 60 L crystal
1 lb rolled oats
We use a bayou classic mash tun that is 10 gallons, but unfortunately has a 2 gallon false bottom. We put 7.5 gallons of water, then the grain.
Ph was 5.6
Mash temperatures stirring every 5-10 minutes:
112 for 15 minutes
149 for 20 minutes
156 for 60 minutes
added 1lb of Rice Hulls because it would be too thick for the regular mash.
170 for 15 minutes - stirred alot at first, then let sit for the rest of the 12 minutes, so the grain bed is at rest.
vorlauf for 5-10 minutes
Fly sparged 1.5 gallons (190F) slowly, dripping 8" above into mash tun for 90 minutes. We collected 6.5 gallons.
Our temperature inside the mash tun dropped from 170 to 145 in this time frame. Unsure how to keep it constantly at 170... Though this is the same that we had for the Oktoberfest...
Boiled for 120 minutes and brought it down to a little under 5 gallons (4.8).
Specific gravity for first batch 1.076
Specific gravity for second batch 1.072
We were thinking of adding 1.5 lbs of rice hulls next time and using 2 gallons of sparge water, but we are absolutely unsure about why we aren't getting a higher OG/SG.
Thank you for reading all of this and helping. I appreciate your time. Thank you!
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