More Ag Questions

[bennyc]

Hi all, had a mammoth beer day on Saturday, bottling one batch and then completing two AGs (number #2 and #3 for me).

First was the Fly Blown Belgian Ale (thanks TDA and Warren), second was an EPA. I used the no-chiller method for the EPA and will pitch it when my fermenter is free.

The process is getting easier thanks to making plenty of mistakes and doing plenty of research on this forum, but I have a few more questions which will hopefully make things easier and better for the next brew.

1. I keep managing to miss the strike temp, even using various on-line calculators. Aiming for 66 degrees, I've heated the water to 72 degrees, but the temperature only drops to 67 (but dropping to 66 over the hour). I think from now on I'll heat to 71 and add extra hot water if needed.

2. I have trouble getting a good reading of the temperature of the mash when heating it up to mash-out (77 degrees). Using a four ring burner, the mash heats inconsistenly across the kettle. To combat this I stirred the mash up a fair bit and managed to get what I thought was a fairly accurate average reading of 77 degrees, so turned off the heat. Any tips?

3. Flowing from the above, when I tasted the FBBA wort prior to boiling, there was a very very faint soapy taste (nothing that I'm really concerned about). Cleaning products should not be an issue here. I'm wondering if this was due to oxidation while I was stirring the mash up to get a good temperature reading. Any ideas?

4. When I transfer the mash to the lauter tun, I seem to lose a fair bit of heat. The mash seems to drop to the high 60s-low 70s. My sparge water is heated to 80 degrees but also seems to lose a bit of heat by the time it reaches the lauter tun, resulting the mash never really reaching 77 degrees in the lauter tun. Should I therefore heat the sparge water to whatever temperature is required to maintain the mash at 77 degrees? Or because the mash has already reached 77 degrees in the kettle does this not really matter?

5. I've lost a lot of liquid to evaporation (29L 19L for the FBBA and 30L 20L for the EPA). I'm not particularly worried about this, but I'm wondering if two birds can be killed with the one stone. I've read that you can freeze boiled water in an air tight sanitised contained and then drop it in the fermenter to (a) cool the wort and (B) bring it up to volume. Has anyone done this with success?

Not too worried about the above for the brews that I just completed (the wort still tasted great for both!), but any tips would be appreciated!

Thanks

Ben

 

[DJR]

Sounds like you need to calibrate the thermal mass of the tun - the tun will absorb an amount of heat that you need to work out - if you are getting 67 instead of 66, that probably means you need to lower the thermal mass by a bit.

You can get up to mashout temperature with a boiling water addition, or put some boiling water in your lauter tun (use the thermal mass of the lauter tun to get the right reading) and then put your mash in that.

I usually don't bother with a mashout anyway, just get the temp up above 70 to start with and then runoff, then sparge at 75 or so. If you are batch sparging you will only have it at the mash temp for max 15 mins anyway, which isn't going to cause a big problem. What's more important is hitting the correct temp in the first 5 minutes, since that is when the majority of enzyme activity occurs - i've done an iodine test at 20mins using JW malts before and found no black at all.

 

[matti]

5. I've lost a lot of liquid to evaporation (29L 19L for the FBBA and 30L 20L for the EPA). I'm not particularly worried about this, but I'm wondering if two birds can be killed with the one stone. I've read that you can freeze boiled water in an air tight sanitised contained and then drop it in the fermenter to (a) cool the wort and ( bring it up to volume. Has anyone done this with success?

It has been done succesfully. 3-4 kgs of ice will assist to drop the temp some.
It is always handy to have that around.
You would be better off with cubes if possible.

I am still at partial stage. I use 15 liter of cooled water for my
a) Topping up
B) Cold break
c) Aeration.

Three ag:s behing you :blink:
18 month behind schedule

Matti

 

[bennyc]

Thanks Matti and DJR.

I didn't think that there was too much wrong with what I was doing, but I'll definitely have to adjust the thermal mass.

Didn't have time to make a starter so I was a bit worried about getting the fermentation going but it's happily bubbling away now

Anyone have any thoughts on the soapy flavour and stirring the mash?