Improving my Mashing!

[DocTrucker]

Morning all.

Please can you offer some advise on improving my mash.

Firstly I'm using a zapap tun and stove top boil. I continuously sparge into two small pots that I transfer into a large pot on a chair above my stove pot which I then tap into the stove pot after boil. I will upgrade to 50l pots with heating elements soon.

I was working with 7.7kg of grain (appreciate it was a tall order for a newbie, but wanted to guarantee a reasonably strong beer - old ale) and ended up with about 1.064. Unfortunately I was under target on volume so by the time I topped up it was 1.055, but still should make a 5.4% beer so happy with that, just not quite old ale!

So, my issues were that I had 30l (stopped at 1.008) after sparge and that wouldn't all fit in the boiler. If it had of then my final gravity would have been the 1.064. Even at this my brew house efficiency is low at around 55%. I'd like to know how to improve. I did do an Iodene check and the conversion was complete.

I think temperature is my main failing. Where do you take the temperature from? Do you shove it right in the grain bed or just the water on top? Is a mash out critical to better figures or do I just need to get my bed hotter than the 65C is that it was? If I do a mash out, or if I'm trying to increase the grain bed temperature during sparge I have to ensure the water coming from the HLT doesn't exceed 80C don't I?

Thanks for any help!

 

[Gerryjo]

Hi Doc only brewing AG a few months but I'm usually averaging around 80â„… with 5.5kg.As you're doing with a few pots but boiling on the stove top.
I would normally probe I to the mash for temp check using several reference points for average.
I know it's a big grain bill but it seems that you may have a few doughballs in there.
As for temps it's usually between 66 to 68.
Try going for a 23l batch with less grain making sure you stir it in carefully and cover well during mash to maintain temp..

Sent from my ALE-L21

 

[DocTrucker]

I was aiming for a 23l batch. Over shot on the last pot. Ideally would have had a 27l boil volume.

I poured the grain in slowly and stirred while doing that. Do I need to be stirring right to the bottom of the pot or is it enough to make sure you smash up the dry lumps of grain as it goes in?

 

[Gerryjo]

I stir the whole pot,although I'm currently using a 15 litrepot with the addition of an 11.5 litre for dunk sparging.After mashing I would use around 5 litres out of the 10 I had heated in the second pot to sparge the grains over a collander to the bigger pot then place the grains in the smaller pot for a dunk sparge and that way extracting as much wort as I possibly can.With my last brew once the dunk sparge was completed I removed and sparged again with the kettle which had been boiled and cooled to 72 degrees.
Your problem seems to be too much liquid so what I would suggest is that you take your pot and and maybe a second,fill them and boil for 60 mins and check your boiloff rate.That way when your aiming for your target in litres you should know the amount of wort required to get to your target figure and if your gravity is lower than expected dont be afraid to add some LME/DME,sugar or syrup,but bear in mind that if you are adding post boil when cooled that you shall have to boil these up for 15 to 20 mins,cool then add to the fermenter prior to pitching your yeast.
Check out this thread for another one I had posted and both brews are conditioning for a week in bottles for christmas but I could not help myself and although there was only slight carbonation they were great tasting and will knock your socks off with 7.5% and 8% ABV.
http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=66423

 

[Dads_Ale]

I was aiming for a 23l batch. Over shot on the last pot. Ideally would have had a 27l boil volume.

I poured the grain in slowly and stirred while doing that. Do I need to be stirring right to the bottom of the pot or is it enough to make sure you smash up the dry lumps of grain as it goes in?

I always stir the whole lot right to the bottom once all the grains have been added. You will be surprised with the temperature variation across the mash tun if not well stirred.
I had a few problems when I upgraded to a fixed temp probe in that the grain around the probe gave a different reading than the bulk grain. I found I had to make sure I stirred around the probe to ensure an even temperature.

A couple of questions
What strike temperature are you using? Do you pre heat the mash tun? Is you grain kept at room temp?

 

[DocTrucker]

My strike water was 73C. When sparging I raised this to 80C and made sure the water on top of the grain bed didn't exceed 80C.

The zapap tun setup uses two fermentation buckets, one having lots of holes to provide a false bottom. There is about 6l of space between the buckets and I added 6l of 80C water to this space before I filled it with the strike water. In retrospec I guess this could have been 90-100 with little problem.

The grain had been in the kitchen for approaching a week before use.

I'm thinking that the mix, and the low temperatures are my main culprits at the moment. Thanks for your suggestions so far.