Chris Roscoe
Member
Hey guys, I'm currently in some trouble with my brews that are currently in the fermentation process. I have been all grain brewing for only two weeks now and in that time I have managed to do two 23L batches (one IPA and the other an American Pale). With the first batch (the American Pale), I started with the strike water at 70 degrees and mashed for an hour (as was instructed on the recipe). Because I started out with 23 liters though, the strike water was just above where my thermometer dial sits in my mash tun. By the time mash process was complete, I realised the mash had reduced below the thermometer probe (most likely due to liquid reduction from sitting on a flame) and as a result I only had half my intended batch size going into the boil process which was another hour on top of the mashing. What this meant, was that my intended mash temperature of 65 - 67 degrees was probably closer to 80 + degrees. This is because the temperature probe was above the actual mash and the readings which I was getting off the dial were completely inaccurate while I had the mash under heat. By the time I got around to pitching the yeast I had around 12L of beer instead of the intended 23L. I figured because I only had half the amount I set out for, I only needed half the yeast from my starter (which I had on a stir plate for about 24hrs).
To make matters worse, I couldn't sparge properly either because one of my heating elements in my kettle blew making it very difficult to heat up the second runnings of strike water in time.
When I took a hydrometer reading, the alcohol level was only around 1.5. Its now been two weeks and the reading is still at 1.5, should I add some sugars to my carboy to bump up the alcohol level or would this spoil my extremely low alcoholic brew? Throughout fermentation the beer has sat between 14 to 22 degrees and hasn't moved much below or above. On top of this, the brew has completely stopped pushing CO2 through the airlock and there was no bubbling or any other signs of activity going on inside the carboy.
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Secondly, my IPA which I just brewed over the weekend has also had some troubles. During last week between brewing the American Pale and the IPA, I managed to fix my kettle's heating element and tweaked a few minor things which some friends suggested. I had some US-05 on a stir plate over night prior to brew day (Saturday 24th).
Things I did differently this time around:
- Started with 29L with my strike water as opposed to the 23L with the American Pale.
- Mash process took 90mins instead of 60mins
- the mash was meant to be at 65 but because I was using all three pots instead of two (like with the previous batch), it was very hard to maintain heat as I had no flame under the mash tun because I needed it with HLT in the next step. So it basically sat around 58 - 56 degrees for the last half (45 Mins) of the mash process. Because I was on my own, I couldn't shift the pot onto the heat as it was way too heavy and didn't want to risk anything. I tried everything to maintain the heat in the mash tun i.e. insulating it with towels and blankets and even topping it up with boiling hot (100 degrees) water every now and then. Unfortunately there was nothing I could do to get the temperature back to where it needed to be.
- sparged an extra 20L (as was instructed on recipe) as opposed to the no sparging at all with the American Pale.
- boiled between 80 and 85 degrees for an hour compared to 90 + degrees with the previous batch.
The recipe was intended to make 23L but made a comfortable 46L. The hydrometer reading was around 11% too which seemed unusually high - i figure this is probably to do with the mash not being done right. The real problem I'm having was when I checked the carboys this morning it was spewing out yeast and beer from the airlock and had actually forced the airlock to come off. I cleaned the exterior of the carboy and washed out the airlock and sanitized it and it started to bubble a bit. The other batch which was made on the same day looked good as gold - I still haven't taken a hydrometer reading since Saturday - but will probably do so tonight after work. Any suggestions or tip would help out greatly! Thanks!
Roscoe
To make matters worse, I couldn't sparge properly either because one of my heating elements in my kettle blew making it very difficult to heat up the second runnings of strike water in time.
When I took a hydrometer reading, the alcohol level was only around 1.5. Its now been two weeks and the reading is still at 1.5, should I add some sugars to my carboy to bump up the alcohol level or would this spoil my extremely low alcoholic brew? Throughout fermentation the beer has sat between 14 to 22 degrees and hasn't moved much below or above. On top of this, the brew has completely stopped pushing CO2 through the airlock and there was no bubbling or any other signs of activity going on inside the carboy.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Secondly, my IPA which I just brewed over the weekend has also had some troubles. During last week between brewing the American Pale and the IPA, I managed to fix my kettle's heating element and tweaked a few minor things which some friends suggested. I had some US-05 on a stir plate over night prior to brew day (Saturday 24th).
Things I did differently this time around:
- Started with 29L with my strike water as opposed to the 23L with the American Pale.
- Mash process took 90mins instead of 60mins
- the mash was meant to be at 65 but because I was using all three pots instead of two (like with the previous batch), it was very hard to maintain heat as I had no flame under the mash tun because I needed it with HLT in the next step. So it basically sat around 58 - 56 degrees for the last half (45 Mins) of the mash process. Because I was on my own, I couldn't shift the pot onto the heat as it was way too heavy and didn't want to risk anything. I tried everything to maintain the heat in the mash tun i.e. insulating it with towels and blankets and even topping it up with boiling hot (100 degrees) water every now and then. Unfortunately there was nothing I could do to get the temperature back to where it needed to be.
- sparged an extra 20L (as was instructed on recipe) as opposed to the no sparging at all with the American Pale.
- boiled between 80 and 85 degrees for an hour compared to 90 + degrees with the previous batch.
The recipe was intended to make 23L but made a comfortable 46L. The hydrometer reading was around 11% too which seemed unusually high - i figure this is probably to do with the mash not being done right. The real problem I'm having was when I checked the carboys this morning it was spewing out yeast and beer from the airlock and had actually forced the airlock to come off. I cleaned the exterior of the carboy and washed out the airlock and sanitized it and it started to bubble a bit. The other batch which was made on the same day looked good as gold - I still haven't taken a hydrometer reading since Saturday - but will probably do so tonight after work. Any suggestions or tip would help out greatly! Thanks!
Roscoe
