I have done a few extract kit beers and now a few partial mashes. I am starting the process of ramping up to all-grain. In many online "brewing calculators", such as this mash water chemistry tool by Beersmith, they indicate that the total water volume is different than the mash water volume: I can understand that total water volume might be equal to mash volume plus sparge water volume, but is any other water (besides the sparge) added to the …
A beer from japan arrived in my city: Kirin Ichiban. The main argument that the brand gives is "100% malt, first press beer". In the link above they explain a little of it. In my experience with homebrew, where I am focused only in my pleasure, not really in the money spent, I understand that sparge is very usefull to take apart all of the sugars off the grains. Thinking that we are talking about a industry, certainly they are …
I bought a big pot to cook my mash, it's 150 liters (~40 gallons) and a 100 liters fermenter (26+ gallons). After I prepared my mash, converted my starch into sugars and then boiled it to sterilize it, I want to filter the grains out and keep the liquid part only for further fermentation. I'd also like to sparge the grains, but it's so much and so heavy, I'm not sure how to do it alone. I can't use brewing …
first time poster (long time lurker) on these forums. Hope you'll are doing well. I am 6 months into this hobby and have brewed 3 Pale Ales which have ranged from disastrous to pretty bad :P I now am eager to brew a Porter (1 Gallon). All the 3 brews I have done so far have been using the Brewers Friend Windows Software which has stopped working. So I have tried Beersmith and the Brewfather app, must say, I found …
I use a pump to move strike water from my HLT to the mash tun. I've tried it with and without this nozzle at the end of the hose. The nozzle splatters water when my output valve is open more than about halfway; without it, I can open the valve wide open and mash in much faster. The downside is, I have to add the nozzle back on before I vorlauf. Are there any drawbacks to mashing in more slowly …
Most of my beers where I live now have been astringent (5 or so). Some more some less. I found one of the culprits after lots of research: I have incredibly high alkalinity (400ppm CaCO3). So I have decided to mix my own water with destilled water and the usual salts. Now I am worried about oversparging. Presuming I construct ideal water and calculate my mash and sparge water using the usual method, do I still need to worry about …
I have a 3 vessel setup (hot liquor tank + mash tun + wort kettle) in a single tier setup so I need to pump liquid from one vessel to another, but I only have one pump, so I batch sparge: transfer wort from the mash tun to the wort kettle, then top up the mash tun with sparging water from the hot liquor tank -- rinse and repeat. What is better, both in terms of wort quality and mash …
One of the biggest hurdles I came across when switching to all-grain was learning how to sparge. I honestly still don't think I do it 100% correctly. There are very detailed descriptions online, but they are pretty confusing if you haven't done it before. I'd love to see a detailed, easy to understand explanation of sparging, the different techniques, tips, pitfalls, etc. And where the word "sparge" came from.
I was reading this question: Looking for ways to reduce trub And since I also fly sparge, I would like to know how to detect channeling in the grain bed? I always leave around 3cm of water over the grains, and when the wort is almost completely drained, the grains surface is almost flat.
I am a few all-grain brews in using the Robobrew (poor mans Grainfather) and they have actually turned out great!. One thing I haven't been able to figure out though is how to improve efficiency. People say not to worry about it, but it is frustrating having 5.5 - 7kg of grain and then still only producing a 4.5-5.5% abv beer. Also becomes an economical issue - spending more on grain than necessary. So far I have had the stores …
How do you fix a stuck sparge? Are there any tricks too getting a sparge running again when it slows to a trick or even stops completely? (This is not intended to be a "how to prevent" the stuck sparge answer.)
I am about to do my first all-grain batch. After (batch) sparging is it safe to drop the hydrometer right in or do I need to let the wort cool to a specific temperature first? I realize I will have to do a temperature correction to get the proper pre-boil reading, I am just wondering how hot is to hot for a hydrometer to withstand.
I tried to make dog biscuits with my spent grains, but it was not a big success ;-) I read that we could make more beer reusing the grain again. I liked the idea of making a lighter version of the beer this way. If I make an all grain stout, what can I expect to be able to do by reusing the grain? 1- Can I only add some more 2-row to a new mash to raise the OG, …
My system can comfortably mash up to 10kg of malt. But it can easily fly sparge only 5kg. 8kg is doable, but stretching it. In my recipe I have: 5kg Pale Ale 1kg Munich I 1kg Munich II 1kg Melanoiden 2kg DME candi sugar, caramel etc added later Belgian yeast Previous incarnation of this ale was using no DME and 8kg Pale Ale (rest unchanged) and it was delicious. I decided to substitute 3kg of malt with 2kg of DME …
When it was (potentially) too late I've noticed that I've used the 4L of water for mashing that I should've used for sparging - which was instead 3L. Could this be a problem? The end amount is the same. I've also noticed that the mashing temperature was very stable (probably due to higher water volume).
I'm looking into building an automated RIMS system. I think I understand the principles pretty well, but there is one sticking point for me. Since the heating element is container in the pipe, I would assume that you have to heat the original volume of water necessary for the brewing, before you add the grain. So how is this done? do automated RIMS systems usually have an extra hot water res that holds some of the pre - heated water, …
I've been a batch sparger for many years, but after moving from propane to electric, the new rig can also fly sparge, so I've been trying that. The first two beers came out with a permanent haze, despite using isinglass finings and cold conditioning, and there is a noticeable astringency - it tastes a bit like iced tea. I'm guessing I have oversparged - final runnings were 1.004 and the sparge liquor was 82C, which I now know to be …
I have this problem: I'm regularly achieving 90% efficiency with my mash and sparge, and I like this effect. But I usually end up with about 30 ~ 35 liters when I aim for 20 ~ 22 liters. Boil to reduce water takes long time. So I need to reduce amount of water used without loss of sugars. How can I do it? My current procedure, shown on most recent example: I took 6kg of malt (weighted when dry), wet-crushed …
I am brewing with a 25l HLT, 30l Mash tun and 52l boiler. I am boiling 20l to 25l water in the HLT and losing some water during the Mash and Sparge. By the end of the sparge I am getting about 15l in the boiler. However I am losing lots during the wort boil, with my latest brew I ended up with less than 9 liters. Any ideas of ways I can stop the loss of so much liquid? …