1 Oct
2003
1 Oct
'03
6:37 p.m.
A couple of thoughts came to me in this thread.
1) Kolsch fermentation temps - Somebody said ferment around 60F.
I have done it colder - 55F. It does work well.
2) Andrew mentioned the hydrometer in boiling wort.
I had some hydrometers become inaccurate over time. Tap water would
measure 0.994. It should be 1.000 or a little above.
The explanation I came up with was -- I was putting my hydrometer into
wort that just came out of the sparge. (160-165F) My thought is the
heat was making the glass expand, and the paper inside the hydrometer
was moving.
My solution - cool the wort before putting the hydrometer into. My
cooling method - Have a bucket of ice water ready (Actually, water with
a couple of the blue ice packs). Put the hydrometer test jar into the
ice water - cold water bath. When the temp of the wort sample drops
below 100F, I trust it not to mess up the hydrometer.
Now a simple solution - Buy a spectormeter!
Question - Has anyone else had trouble with hydrometers changing on
them?
--- Andrew Ruggles <arruggles(a)yahoo.com> wrote:
Actually, a 60dF hydrometer is easy to use in the
boil. Just add 40
points to your measurement (doesn't work so well for beers under
1.040
OG). You'll need to turn off the heat and wait for the boil to
subside,
but it's a quick way to determine if you are on track on your OG
specs.
Of course, you'll have to know your evaporation rate...
Actually, I like a range of about +/- 0.004. I don't sweat if it is
within this 8 pt range.
If we're adding "water" sometimes we'll use the last gallon of
runnings
from the mashtun that wouldn't fit in the boil kettle (gotta
_maximize_
the system). I like adding to the boil kettle, rather than the
fermenters for sterilization purposes.
Boil time seems a little low for an all-grain -- we typically are at
90
minutes -- but if you are hitting your extraction numbers and it
tastes
good, I wouldn't worry about it.
Only adding 2 hours to your brew day seems low. A typical brewday for
the 2 Wheel is around 8 hours, though I think we knocked out our last
Vienna at around 6.5 hours. I can do an extract brew in 2 hours.
Congratulations on what sounds like a fairly successful all-grain
brew-day!
Andrew
--- Al Boyce <aboyce(a)mn.rr.com> wrote:
=====
Leo Vitt
Sidney, NE
__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
The New Yahoo! Shopping - with improved product search
http://shopping.yahoo.com
Sounds like a great first batch Marc! If
you're worried about
hitting the
numbers exactly on the OG, you can always dilute. With the
refractometer,
it's simple to see what your final gravity is going to be and add
appropriate water to the boil to hit your mark. With a hydrometer,
you can
add water to the primary. It's easier to brew too strong, then add
a
little
water than it is to brew too weak and try to bring the gravity UP.
About
all you can do at that point is add extract.
The other style point with Kolsch is fermentation temp - it's an
Ale
that's
fermented cool. Try to ferment around 60 F. if possible. If you
have the
ability, you may even want to drop the secondary down to 50 F.
Your
mash
and hop bill looks fine.
- Al
----- Original Message -----
From: "Marc Donnelly" <marc(a)targetadv.com>
To: <mba(a)thebarn.com>
Sent: Monday, September 29, 2003 12:38 PM
Subject: My 1st All Grain brew...
1
This past weekend I decide to finally take the
plunge. From what
came
of it, I'm pretty happy! Yea it added about
two hours onto a
normal
extract/partial mash batch for me but I believe
it was worth it.
The
> first batch was a Kolsch.
> I think I spent more time fussing with the pH of the water then
> anything (set at 5.5). About 10.5 lbs of grain - 9 lbs of pils, lbs
> of wheat, and .5 lbs of carapils. Used Wyeast Kolsch yeast and
2oz
of
> Spalt for hops.
>
> For my mash/lauter tun I used Listermanns setup (I got it some
time
ago
end
at Lee Kramer's old place). I wrapped the
plastic bucket in the
insulated bubble duct wrap and it kept the temp very well (149
degrees
for 55 minutes). Spargered for about 30 minutes
and got about 6
gallons
> out of the 9 I started with.
>
> Then boiled for 60 minutes and added hops at 60, 30 and 15 from of
> boil. Ended up just shy of 5 gallons of brew. So hopefully by
the
end
baby
of this month I'll bring it to the club only
judging looking for
comments. OG was on the high side at 1.052. Any suggestions on
how to
get it more in profile with the style? I can
tell you an ATC
refractometer is a nice tool to have!
I know I have more work to understand the whole process, but this
was a
> good start and "getting the feet wet" exercise, literally.
>
> Now with a new family member (for all that don't know we had a > girl on August 22 named Paige Elizabeth
Donnelly, 21.5 inches
long
and
__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
The New Yahoo! Shopping - with improved product search
http://shopping.yahoo.com
7 lbs 14 oz. - and much bigger now) finding time
to brew is
becoming
more difficult but hopefully more rewarding. I
was already
teaching
her the ropes of being an assistant brewer.
-marc