Damn
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- 20/5/12
- Messages
- 273
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Hi all,
Recently I put a post for a recipe conversion from a partial to an all grain in which 1 contributor pointed out my 19L pot would be inadequate for a 22.5L batch. I thought I could do a concentrate and dilute it in the fermenter. Well after that education I raced out and bought myself a 50L pot. Here a my doubts and questions of the experience so far. I filled the pot with 35.5L water as per some calculators I sought and added the 5.5kg of grain. Sparked up my center wok burning gas burner on my 900 stove. I put in a floating thermometer and watched closely over the next 20-35mins the temp was still at only 45-50 deg. It took another hour to arrive at 66 deg (1 1/2 hours in total). During that raise in temp I also used a digital thermometer probe http://www.jaycar.com.au/productView.asp?ID=QM7216. I noticed my floating thermometer was all over the shop. For instance my probe was saying 60 whereas my floater was saying 80. When I stirred the water a bit my floater would slowly correct to probes reading. Is that my floater is deeper that it is giving a different reading. I disregarded the floater and relied on the digital. As I'm a bull at a gate I can see I've made a few mistakes here.
With giving me too much a kick up the backside could I have some feed back please. Thanks.
Damn Damian.
Recently I put a post for a recipe conversion from a partial to an all grain in which 1 contributor pointed out my 19L pot would be inadequate for a 22.5L batch. I thought I could do a concentrate and dilute it in the fermenter. Well after that education I raced out and bought myself a 50L pot. Here a my doubts and questions of the experience so far. I filled the pot with 35.5L water as per some calculators I sought and added the 5.5kg of grain. Sparked up my center wok burning gas burner on my 900 stove. I put in a floating thermometer and watched closely over the next 20-35mins the temp was still at only 45-50 deg. It took another hour to arrive at 66 deg (1 1/2 hours in total). During that raise in temp I also used a digital thermometer probe http://www.jaycar.com.au/productView.asp?ID=QM7216. I noticed my floating thermometer was all over the shop. For instance my probe was saying 60 whereas my floater was saying 80. When I stirred the water a bit my floater would slowly correct to probes reading. Is that my floater is deeper that it is giving a different reading. I disregarded the floater and relied on the digital. As I'm a bull at a gate I can see I've made a few mistakes here.
- My first concern is have I overcooked my grain as the floater may of been giving an accurate reading of deeper down in the pot? Or maybe I shouldn't leave the floater in the pot, only place it in as i need a reading? I could only stick my probe down 100mm but I trust there would be a fairly even distribution of heat through out the kettle.
- My second is I'm a disappointed how long it took to get to target temp. I may start with hot water next time. This has blown out my brew times. I didn't really want to buy a large burner and use bottled gas as I'm concerned with the cost of bottled gas.
- I started with 35.5L water aiming for a finished with 25L (2.5L over my aimed amount). I know I know I should of calibrated my kettle first but I trusted the 2 calculators I tried. Now my calculated OG is 1.044 rather than 1.049. I was thinking of dropping in 500g LDME to raise my OG back close to original target. Or should I just leave it at 1.044 and take it as a lesson learned. If I drop in the LDME, it won't be till Monday night as that's earliest I can get to the brew shop.
With giving me too much a kick up the backside could I have some feed back please. Thanks.
Damn Damian.