Hot answers tagged all-grain
6
Yes, it can be fixed and the plan sounds fine. Make a log of this, and review when brewing in future so you can fix the process and avoid these problems in future brews.
Kölsch is lightly hopped so don't worry about adding additional hops. Your lower gravity will have increased utilization slightly so adding non-hopped wort will go some way to balance this ...
6
This screams out "mash water problem" to me. Anytime you go from good extract beers, to "bitter/astringent/chalky/burnt" flavors in all grain, you can bet your buns that its a mash water pH problem. Also, a hash pH of 5 sounds really low to me. I shoot for 5.5 on average.
Water chemistry for all-grain is honestly the most "sciency" part of home brewing, and ...
5
A full wort boil is not absolutely necessary, but you shouldn't be topping off too much of your volume. Your efficiency will suffer greatly from topping off. Even if you're able to hit 80% effiency with 11.5L of wort (a big if), after boiling and topping off to 23L you'll end up with below 40% brewhouse effiency. You would also definitely be limited in ...
5
No, you don't have to boil the full volume in AG brewing. I only had a 7 gal. pot when I started AG so I's boil about 5 gal. down to 3.5-4, then add top off water. Boiling less will reduce your efficieny because you don't collect as much wort. You need to use more grain to make a higher gravity wort at less volume, so you can top off afterward. That was ...
4
Most likely, if it doesn't smell foul everything will be fine. I think for the most part, any lactic acid produced will primarily help to keep your mash pH a little lower (possibly buffering any salts you might add, and possibly helping to aid mash efficiency).
If you wind up tasting something off, you'll know what it was that caused it and know that ...
4
Just because your thermometer is accurate at freezing temps doesn't mean it's accurate at mash temps. You need to get a certified calibration thermometer and check it at mash temps, about 150F. It might not be your thermometer at all, but until you verify it at mash temp you just don't know.
4
If you are truly being that diligent about your mash temps and hydrometers including knowing they are accurate, the ONLY thing left is a contaminating wild yeast/bacteria driving down the residual gravity.
Take a bottle of beer and put it in a warm attic for a week. Chill it down overnight and open it up in the sink as a precaution. If the beer is super ...
4
(TOG - GR * (BV/FV)) / (45/FV) = lbs of DME to add pre-boil to hit target OG
TOG = Target Original Gravity in Points
GR = Gravity Reading in Points
BV = Boil Volume (This is what you are taking your reading from)
FV = Final Volume (i.e. 5 gallons)
45 = # Gravity Points you get per lb of DME per gallon
So lets say you are making a 5 gallon smash beer with ...
3
Are you fermenting at high ambient temperatures?
I've definitely noticed much more attenuation during summer months, when my basement is running at about 74F, compared to winter, when it's 68F.
I've adjusted my recipes somewhat, but more my expectations and target styles. I now brew with Nottingham and saison yeasts in the summer, with an expectation of ...
3
The mash tun simply needs to be cleaned - no need to sanitize - any microbes are wiped out in the boil.
If you are getting contamination issues specifically with all-grain, then it has to be post-boil - I can only think that it may be because of your chiller, assuming you weren't using that when doing an extract brew.
3
Someone gave me a tip when I started that I followed, and it might make a difference for you.
The grain bed is your best filter. Once you are done mashing you will sparge to separate the sugar from the grain. During this stage you want to make sure that the wort is running clear before you start collecting it. I use a pitcher to collect from the grain and I ...
3
I would be inclined to say that this should be done in secondary. A quick google search shows that some people have tried making mushroom vodka that apparently turned out well. I would suggest making an infusion in vodka with dried mushrooms like you would a spice and adding that to the final product. I can't say too much as to quantity currently, but I ...
2
I do this all of the time. And it involves no math (that I have to do, anyway).
First of all, the day before (or sooner), I have my recipe in the brewing software. I make sure everything looks good (the pre-boil gravity, the post-boil gravity, volumes, etc).
After sparging, I take a pre-boil gravity and volume. If I'm ok on volume and low enough on ...
2
You'll probably be OK, even with the temp drop, if you maintained a temp above 145 for most of the mash. I doubt that the temp had anything to do with your low OG. Do you fly sparge or batch sparge? If you fly sparge, you don't want to stir the grain during the sparge. If you batch sparge you want to stir it thoroughly before you start the runoff, but ...
2
Randy Mosher in his fantastic book "Radical Brewing" describes a chanterelle beer that he does. I won't post the recipe since I'm not sure how copyright works for that kind of thing, but I'm sure you can google around for it if you don't own Radical Brewing. http://www.radicalbrewing.com
2
That size will be fine, especially if you batch sparge. If you fly sparge, you may find the grain bed depth a bit shallow, which could negatively impact your efficiency. If you batch sparge, you don't have that problem. Holding temp shouldn't be too big a problem and if it is you can wrap your cooler in a blanket or sleeping bag to help hold the temp.
2
Most maltsters ship their grains in bags that are not air-tight, but they don't recommend storing them for long periods of time (12 months, max). A plastic jug isn't as air-tight as it seems because it is gas permeable. Even if it was air-tight, it wouldn't matter unless you used nitrogen or CO2 to flush-out all oxygen from the container. Nobody really ...
1
There's something fishy about your numbers here. For example, to get a OG of 1.072 with your grain bill I need to assume 80% efficiency. Is that what you're used to getting?
As far as the source of your problem, it could be any number of things and right now we're only going to be able to guess. If in the future you take gravity readings throughout the ...
1
Draining from all the answers and comments above:
Boil Kettle = (((batch size + deadspace) + (boil off/h * boil length) ) + expansion) + extra Space for Boil over
With 9% boil off, 4% expansion, 90 min boil, a 20l batch and 5l dead space:
BK = (((20l + 5l) + (9% * 1.5)) + 4% )+ extra for boil over
BK = 29.5l extra for boil over
From the rule of thumb ...
1
While the formulae can give you some insight into the appropriate sizes, there are quite a few unknowns. I would instead take into account the common wisdom for kettle sizes.
The general rule of thumb is to have the boil kettle around twice the volume of your target batch. I brew 38 liter/10 gallon batches and use a 75 liter/20 gallon blichmann kettle. ...
1
Required Volume for each vessel:
Boil Kettle: (Batch Size + 4% expansion) + (Boiloff) + (Extra Space for Boilover)
Mash Tun: (Water to Grist Ratio) * (Largest Grist Bill) + (Grain Volume) * (Largest Grist Bill)
HLT: (Strike Water) + (Sparge Water)
Grain absorption is easy to estimate. I have always used 0.1 gallons of absorption per 1 pound of grain, or ...
1
I do a single step mash, heating the water on a propane burner and adding it to the cooler then waiting the appropriate amount of time. I then do a two step batch sparge.
In this case the size of the mash tun will simply make it more difficult to maintain the mash temperature, but it's still do-able. Coolers tend to hold their temp very well, but the ...
1
I just ran the calculator doing what you propose.
Its simply asking you, what is the temp of the water you plan to infuse with.
In order to hit 1.25qt/lb I had to tell it I was going to use 212F (boiling) water. And it then said I would need 6.3qts of 212F to get there. (I didn't account for your 2degree loss though).
If you wanted to use 190F water you're ...
1
It might be their mill, or it might be that your system isn't capable of dealing with properly milled grain. What kind of efficiency were you getting from the other shop that milled your grain? If it was good, then I'd say the mill at the new shop may be set too fine. If you were getting low efficiency before, you might want to consider changing your ...
1
To really verify their crush, you'd need some kind of sizing screen. For a quick check, though, I'd just dump a cup of milled grain into a sandwich bag and shake it a bit. You should be able to see how much flour or really fine particles are in there. If you've got a lot of small stuff, then their mill is too tightly gapped. Doesn't sound like they're ...
1
Good answers already given, although if you choose to boil a higher gravity then add top up water, keep in mind that that boiling a higher gravity wort reduces hop utilization, so you need to use more hops to achieve the same level of bitterness. (Doesn't apply to flavor and aroma hops.)
Typically it's between 10% and 30% more. The table here lists hop ...
1
I'm sure there are some easier ways of doing this, but I enjoy doing my brew calculations by hand! You need to figure out the total gravity "points" of your wort. After you've pulled the bag and rinsed it, take a hydrometer reading. You will most likely need to correct for temperature, most hydrometer's are calibrated to 15C, by 20C they are off by 1 point ...
1
To rule out mash variables, you could double batch on your next brew day. One all-grain and one extract. If they both turn out thin, then you have a sanitization issue. If the extract is ok, but the all-grain is thin, there's a mash issue. But this is a harder solution than the others. Could be more fun, though, brewing more is always good!
1
I've found that some leaf hops (my last two packs of East Kent Goldings for instance) do contain seeds - absolutely loads of them. They are small and round and I didn't notice them until after the boil. I did a bit of research and found that it's quite common and shouldn't affect the beer, although I looked just now and found this from BYO magazine ...
1
Ok, this is an ancient question but I'm going to add my process since it is considerably different.
First, I don't think I'm 'properly' conditioning the grain in terms of substantially hydrating it. Instead my goal is just to add a touch of moisture to reduce the dust and hopefully keep the hulls a little more intact.
I take a very small amount of warm ...
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