Low Mash Temp

Hi there, i'd love some advice please.

I'm new to AG brewing on my 4th brew. The last one I fly sparged at 80 degrees but had trouble getting my grain bed into the 70 s.

So I'm thinking for my next brew to either fly sparge at a humongus temp (90 s) or add a kettle full of boiling water to my MT to bring the the bed temp up first, then fly sparge.

I'm new at this so I know it'll take a few more brews to get used to my equipment. But I'm lovin it, specially the drinking bit. The brews ive done so far taste wonderful but my efficiency is well low (in the 60s), but again I guess this will improve over time.

Cheers in advance for any advice, pointers etc.

Nick

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Hi!
I'm sure that wiser heads will advise you, but I understand that the purpose of fly sparging is to disturb the grain bed as little as possible, so adding a kettle of boiling water would not be conducive to this.
I assume that your difficulty in getting the grain bed into the 70s is an attempt to achieve a "mash out" temperature. Have you considered batch sparging?

Nicknacknoo said:

Hi there, i'd love some advice please.

I'm new to AG brewing on my 4th brew. The last one I fly sparged at 80 degrees but had trouble getting my grain bed into the 70 s.

So I'm thinking for my next brew to either fly sparge at a humongus temp (90 s) or add a kettle full of boiling water to my MT to bring the the bed temp up first, then fly sparge.

I'm new at this so I know it'll take a few more brews to get used to my equipment. But I'm lovin it, specially the drinking bit. The brews ive done so far taste wonderful but my efficiency is well low (in the 60s), but again I guess this will improve over time.

Cheers in advance for any advice, pointers etc.

Nick

Click to expand...

It's not so important. Supposed to make the run off more fluid (debatable) and for those looking for absolute repeatability between brews by stopping conversion at a precise time (by raising temperature above what amylase enzymes can tolerate).

Don't use excessively hot water or you might extract things that you don't like (like tannins). The "norm" is about 74-76degrees, but some people play safe and sparge with water at mash temp (64-69degrees).

ok cheers guys, I think ill plod on and either fly sparge at 80 odd degrees or do a batch sparge. Just wondering why my efficiency is sooo low. or is 60 ish % ok.

I was getting 50-60% efficiency until I sorted out my water (hard water area so now strip back the carbonates with CRS acid solution..I test my water alkalinity each brewday with a salifert alkalinity test kit), then found grinding my malt added more so now in the 70-80% mark normally. Accurate thermometer so you are sure you are in the 64-68 zone in the mash plus checking insulation on yr mash tun (unless you are doing BIAB??) ..weak point it the lid of a picnic cooler...fill it with vermiculite or perlite. Alternative is to live with 60% and just an an extra kg of grain to make up for it.

As long as your efficiency is the same each time it's not too much of a concern. Grain crush, water hardness, mash pH, BIAB/batch sparge/fly sparge, mashing out around 76'C, accurate thermometer.. they'll all contribute to your efficiency.

Mash-outs aren't essential, but they do help runoff and extracting as much sugary goodness as possible. The enzymes will be denatured during ramp up to boil and know of a few brewers who just finish on a short rest at 72'C for head stability and retention.

For the cost of a little extra grain it's not that much of an issue. My efficiency is normally bang on 75% and I'm happy with that as I can repeat that every time. I know brewers who can get up to 85-90% but that's their prerogative. It mainly is about repeatability on your system.

I wouldn't be adding too much boiling water though, both for possible extraction of tannins and disturbing your grain bed. If you're fly sparging and only getting in the 60's for efficiency, something sounds astray as fly sparging normally leads to higher efficiency than most other systems. I'd be looking at your crush for a start..

Ok guys, cheers for the advice, ill check my water hardness (think its quite hard in this area) and check my equipment.

Nick

+1 on pretty much all that has been said so far.
My process is to lob in 5l of boiling water into the mash as a mash out, that raises the bed to about 72~ depending on what temp the mash was, I then fly sparge with boiling water, by the time it runs through the rotating sparge arm it has cooled to about 80~ and slowly raises the bed temp to about 75 ish.
On the few times I haven't sparged with boiling water my efficiency has dropped hugely.
By following my own system I get 81% efficiency every time unless I use wheat malt.

Yes I very much with sponge on this, I think as long as you can predict what you're going to get and keep it consistent.

Full 23l BIAB on my burner I do not sparge but do a mashout rest at 75 ish.. I tend to get inbeween 70-75%

Doing smaller 10l batches on my stove with sparge I tend to get 78-80%.. Knowing this you can get the recipe you want

What you don't want to expecting 68% then getting 80% then next time you get 65% and then 75% because you will be chasing getting the balance right

Right ok,
well I'm ready for my next brew, ill do it next week as the missus and kids are away for a few days.
Ill check my equipment but I think its all ok, my MT drops about 1 degree per hour.
Ive looked into the water composition in my area and as a result have ordered a few chemicals ( campden tabs, gypsum, Epsom salts, crs and such).

I think ill try for a few litres of boiling water directly when my mash time ends, give it a stir, recirculate and sparge in the mid 80s. And see what happens.


Cheers for all your help, ill let you now what occurs.

Nick

Hi Guys,
To follow up. I did what I said on the tin.

I treated my water with Campden tabs and CRS.

After mashing I added a kettle full of boiling water which brought my mash upto 70. With my temp controller (set at 75) plugged into my HLT and the thermistor on my grain bed I started to sparge.

The water coming out of my HLT was nearly boiling, but it raised my grain bed to 75 degrees. I did sparge super slow too.

Anywho crash bang wallop worked out my efficiency was round about 73%, so at least I'm going in the right direction.

Next job is to redesign/rethink my sparge strategy.

Thanks again to all who gave advice much appreciated.

Nick

Nicknacknoo said:

Hi Guys,
To follow up. I did what I said on the tin.

I treated my water with Campden tabs and CRS.

After mashing I added a kettle full of boiling water which brought my mash upto 70. With my temp controller (set at 75) plugged into my HLT and the thermistor on my grain bed I started to sparge.

The water coming out of my HLT was nearly boiling, but it raised my grain bed to 75 degrees. I did sparge super slow too.

Anywho crash bang wallop worked out my efficiency was round about 73%, so at least I'm going in the right direction.

Next job is to redesign/rethink my sparge strategy.

Thanks again to all who gave advice much appreciated.

Nick

Click to expand...

:thumb: Sounds like you're getting there, with AG just about everyones setup is going to be a little different (mostly).. so there isn't a one size fits all answer but I guess you just have to work out the process and system which works for you..

After mashing I added a kettle full of boiling water which brought my mash upto 70. With my temp controller (set at 75) plugged into my HLT and the thermistor on my grain bed I started to sparge.

Click to expand...

My strategy is similar, Beersmith calculates the volume of boiling water to add, so add that,
check temp is 72, add more if necessary, or leave lid off for a minute to cool
Leave for 10 minutes to kill off the enzymes,
Vorlauf until clear
Open the valve on the MLT to a trickle to get water moving through the grain bed.
Open the valve on the HLT (full of 72C-75C water) and raise the water level in the MLT to a few (4-6) inches over the grain bed, you can tell if the flow is too high because it disturbs the grain and the water turns brown, slow enough and no sugar/color leaches up out of the bed. I don't have a sprinkler or anything like that, just a hose that sits on top of the bed.
Sparge until the run off is 1.003, the kettle is full or the pre boil gravity is achieved, whichever comes first (remember to correct for temperature, or use a refractometer and cool samples first).

You don't want to lauter too hot (i.e. over 72C), or too long as it will extract tannins.