(no subject)
So! I finally brewed my very first batch of ALL GRAIN beer! I of course forgot to take pictures for posterity, but I was really much too busy juggling three different pots full of near-boiling water, or trying to get my continuous sparging system to work continuously, or sitting on the couch pouting over how the kitchen stove won't bring three gallons of water to a boil fast enough.
Went for a plain old pale ale this time, to get a feel for the new equipment without any other variable in the equation. Mash temp was a bit on the low side (I just couldn't get it up that last five degrees...), so the final product may be a bit drier than i like. Efficiency was pretty bad, so the OG was about 1.033 instead of 1.055. Ouch. That translates to about 3.0-3.5%abv instead of 4.5-5.0%.This might be partly because of the cool mash, but I'm sure its mostly from awful, awful sparging technique. Boiling the wort went pretty smoothly, despite having to do it in two separate kettles, and i actually had enough ice to cool the hot wort in a reasonable amount of time, for once. Currently bubbling away in primary. Oh, also, I couldn't find my bag of Irish moss, but honestly, I can't even call that a problem after all the rest.
Things i learned? I NEED a bigger kettle. At LEAST six gallons, probably more, to leave a little breathing room. I really REALLY need to work on sparging technique, maybe look for some other efficiency boosting tips. Boil water more proactively. And, do your own math. If the recipe looks like it's got too much water, definitely give it another look-over.
Went for a plain old pale ale this time, to get a feel for the new equipment without any other variable in the equation. Mash temp was a bit on the low side (I just couldn't get it up that last five degrees...), so the final product may be a bit drier than i like. Efficiency was pretty bad, so the OG was about 1.033 instead of 1.055. Ouch. That translates to about 3.0-3.5%abv instead of 4.5-5.0%.This might be partly because of the cool mash, but I'm sure its mostly from awful, awful sparging technique. Boiling the wort went pretty smoothly, despite having to do it in two separate kettles, and i actually had enough ice to cool the hot wort in a reasonable amount of time, for once. Currently bubbling away in primary. Oh, also, I couldn't find my bag of Irish moss, but honestly, I can't even call that a problem after all the rest.
Things i learned? I NEED a bigger kettle. At LEAST six gallons, probably more, to leave a little breathing room. I really REALLY need to work on sparging technique, maybe look for some other efficiency boosting tips. Boil water more proactively. And, do your own math. If the recipe looks like it's got too much water, definitely give it another look-over.