Hi all,
Second attempt at AG brewing yesterday (trying to ignore the first where I dropped my thermometer in the mash, then clogged the kettle's filter with hops and had to pour it out via a sieve).
Was attempting a recipe from the Jon Finch book which can be seen at https://www.themaltmiller.co.uk/product/house-pale-jon-finch/
Grain bill was
Crisp Pale Ale Malt (3500 grams)
Crisp Crystal Malt (500 grams)
and I was aiming for 19l in the fermenter with an OG of 1.049.
I ended up with 18l (not sure where I'm losing that 1 litre yet) with an OG of 1.044. I'm guessing that it was my mash which didn't extract as much sugar as the recipe would expect. According to my BeerSmith calculations I ended up with an mash efficiency of 67% which from what I've read on here/other forums is a little on the low side.
I batch sparged. The first runoff (11 litres) had a gravity reading of 1.056. I then added 11.8l of water back to the mash, gave it a stir, left it a little while then the runoff from that batch had a gravity reading of 1.020.
Would you expect the second runoff to have such a small reading compared to the first? If not, I guess that's what I need to look to improve somehow next time. If so, what else should I be trying/monitoring/measuring to attempt to improve on this next time?
Any advice appreciated. Thanks.
Second attempt at AG brewing yesterday (trying to ignore the first where I dropped my thermometer in the mash, then clogged the kettle's filter with hops and had to pour it out via a sieve).
Was attempting a recipe from the Jon Finch book which can be seen at https://www.themaltmiller.co.uk/product/house-pale-jon-finch/
Grain bill was
Crisp Pale Ale Malt (3500 grams)
Crisp Crystal Malt (500 grams)
and I was aiming for 19l in the fermenter with an OG of 1.049.
I ended up with 18l (not sure where I'm losing that 1 litre yet) with an OG of 1.044. I'm guessing that it was my mash which didn't extract as much sugar as the recipe would expect. According to my BeerSmith calculations I ended up with an mash efficiency of 67% which from what I've read on here/other forums is a little on the low side.
I batch sparged. The first runoff (11 litres) had a gravity reading of 1.056. I then added 11.8l of water back to the mash, gave it a stir, left it a little while then the runoff from that batch had a gravity reading of 1.020.
Would you expect the second runoff to have such a small reading compared to the first? If not, I guess that's what I need to look to improve somehow next time. If so, what else should I be trying/monitoring/measuring to attempt to improve on this next time?
Any advice appreciated. Thanks.
