Re: Still Sparging - mba

19 Nov 2003

Jim:
As I use a grain muslin bag, I suppose it wouldn't hurt during the mash to agitate it
a little ( like a tea bag ) to avoid hot spots and get the most out of the grain.
Thanks for all the info and tips!
Need to get back in the brew house this weekend and try some of the proceedures talked
about here.  On the positive side, there will be an abundance of beverages in about 6 - 8
weeks.  I think I know some neighbors who will be stopping by.
Jim Voosen
Stillwater, Mn
On Wed, Nov 19, 2003 at 01:03:54PM -0600, jvoosen(a)usfamily.net wrote:
...
   Jim, Paul,
Mike and others:
 After brewing extracts and Coop's for some three plus years, it is a lot of fun to
take a stab at all grain brewing.  A lot more time and effort are involved but a lot more
interesting.

Charlie P claims you can do an all grain brew in 4 hours.
Some commercial operations sparge for 3.5 hours, plus
the 90 minute boil and the 60 minute mash and ....
  Jim, my ratio of water to grist was a little on
the heavy side 1.88 qrts per lb.  I raised my strike water temp to 175 thinking it would
drop quickly when I poured it into the mash tun.  Next time I will take some temp readings
during the sachrification rest to see how much heat is lost.

I found that 168^F and 1.5 to the pound worked in my system.
I don't think 2.0 qrts per pound is all that loose, and anything
under 160^F is probably fine.  It always amazes me how much
stirring is required to eliminate dry pockets and establish
uniform temps.
Speaking of mashing, w/ my manifold, I underlet the mash water.
W/ the false bottom, it was very important to "establish" the
foundation.  That is, fill the mash tun w/ hot/strike water up
to the top of the false bottom before adding the grain.
  I did skip the vorlauf.  Will give this a shot
next time.  After sparging, should I take a SG reading before I return the brew pot to the
boil?

Not necessarily.  Here's where those glucose meters are so handy.
No temp adjustment required.  The high gravity at the begining is
interesting, but not critical.
It IS important to not over-sparge.  While this has more
to do w/ pH than w/ SG, SG is the typical target.
e.g. stop sparging at 1.010 or 1.005 SG.
Oversparging can extract tanins, particularily if the
pH of the mash/runnings rise much above 5.2 pH.
  With the loss of wert and water during the boil,
when transferring to our primary fermenter to chill down before pitching the yeast, if we
top this off with water to 5 gal, will this dilute the wert too much??

That depends.  Here's where you need the SG measurement.
Plan on boiling off about 10% per hour, or raising the OG
of the wort about 10% per hour.  So, if my OG (cooled sample)
at the begining of the boil is 1.040 and my target OG is 1.044,
I should be just fine.
Better to "brew to SG" than to "brew to volume".
(e.g. ending up w/ 4.0 gallons of 1.050 IPA
vs 5.0 gallons of 1.040 IPA.)
High gravity brewing is not uncommon, but is less than ideal.
  The very first time I brewed, a good friend of
mine told me that beer is forgiving.......in its creation......and in its consumption!  He
is sooo true! 
Absolutely.  It's a wonderfully forgiving process.  Pitch lots
of yeast (wet or dry) and you'll be OK.  Full flavored beers
are drinkable over a wide range of specs.
But perfection is most elusive.  Heck, A-Bush blends up to
10 different batches to get their product "just right".
I'm not sure any of us could differentiate those 10
batches of Butt Light, but they can/do.
YMMV, HTHelps, etc.
Cheers,
Jim
  Jim Voosen
 Stillwater, Mn
 *  Great Lakes Brewing News, 1569 Laurel Ave., St.
Paul, MN  55104   *

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