mtnagel said:I brewed this yesterday. It was my first time adjusting the mash pH with acid and 3rd time adding salts. That part seemed to go okay. I used half the amount of lactic acid that Brun Water predicted (to make sure I didn't go too low). And then I used the full amount and the pH was at 5.4 (on a pH strip, so hopefully it was accurate enough). I did have a slight issue with my mash temperature. It was good for about 45 mins where it noticed it dropped to 146F, so I decided to heat it more (I do BIAB so the pot doesn't hold the heat as well as a cooler would). It took a few minutes of heating to get it back up to 147F. After 75 minutes into the mash, I wanted to do the iodine test so I opened it up and checked the temp and it was in the low 150's. I guess I added too much heat and since I left it on the warm burner, I guess that caused it to continue to rise. Hopefully it was mostly converted at that point. After that, everything else seemed to go fine. I used WLP090 yeast and I'm maintaining it at 66F degrees now.
I used bru'n water as well. PH Dead on. I did a double batch and ended up using 1 lb acid malt to achieve proper pH with my water, which I adjusted to a stone profile.
I think this mash was fully converted for me by 45 minutes, but I let it go for 75.
To the responder about hop sacks, yeah I generally use them too. For this brew, there was 19 oz of hops used. I generally like to limit hops sack to hold no more than 3 oz of hops, because I've had occasions when I used more than that, and I felt the hops were mass-like in the sacks sort of like a dough ball in the mash, without making good contact with the wort. Anyways, who knows. I will order a whole bunch of hop sacks before I try this brew again, and portion two to three oz hops per sack. I thought about using a hop spider, but seems that I would have probably had the same issue. Well it was a pita for sure. I think my whirlpool technique may be to blame, or else I maybe need to use a little bit of leaf hops to help from a good cone...
TD