Yesterday and today, actually, since I started last night and finished this morning.
Brewed an APA last night; it’s too hot to brew during the day. I’ve been adjusting my system to larger batches at the city house since I can now keg here. My 8 gal kettle isn’t big enough for full volume, no sparge BIAB batches much larger than 3 gallons. I’ve brewed two 4 gallon batches so far. The first I mashed in with half my desired preboil volume and did a pour over sparge. That brew went off without a hitch. Last night I mashed in at my 3 vessel system 1.5 qts./lb. intending to do a dunk sparge after measuring my “1st runnings”. Bad idea. The necessary sparge volume to reach my preboil volume, plus 9 lbs of grain, filled the sparge bucket to the brim, with the grain bag taking up much of the space. Not much room to stir or do anything without slopping wort all over the patio. So, I let it steep for awhile, added the sparge liquor to the kettle, and boiled away.
With the lengthy hot spell the city water here is up to about 75°. So I put the kettle in a bathtub full of cold water and went to bed. This morning I racked a crystal clear, great tasting wort to the FV. The OG was .030, 20 points below the predicted number. I was expecting the mash efficiency to suck, and it did. OTOH, a 3% session APA sounds like a pretty good hot weather beer. I might be tempted to do brew one on purpose at some point, but I think I’d use a 6lb grain bill instead of 9lbs, and sparge more efficiently.
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