My First Mash!

[hopmonkey]

Just completed my first AG, and it went reasonably smoothly but i did have a couple of problems. And was wondering if anybody could provide a few pointers for next weekends attempt!
Am using a SNPA clone that i have succesfully made a number of times using an extract converted recipe.
5.4kg marris otter
0.8kg Crystal
13g magnum (pellets) @ 60min
9g magnum (pellets) @ 30min
30g cascade (whole) @ 10min
70g cascade (whole) @ flame out.
Safale us-05
1 tsp irish moss @ 15min.

Mashed grains @ 67C for 60min with 15l water
Mashed out @ 67C for 10min with a further 4L
Tried to drain but was VERY slow. Took around 15min to drain 8L. (1.076)
Sparged with 6L @ 70C again slow drain collected further 6L (1.054)
Sparged again with 6L @ 70C drained a bit faster and collected 6 extra L. (1.032) Was going for a 12l second sparge but drained so slowly i thought i would try splitting it!
Combined gravity 1.056 @ 21L

Continued as usual.
After boil 15L (1.080)
Made up to 18L 1.058. (recipe gravity)

Have noticed that there is very little trub in fermenter (usually a good inch using extract.) possibly only 1cm.
Is this a problem? Had a good rolling boil and used immersion chiller as usual.
Very slow drain. Is this a problem with grain to water ratio or eqpt? I am using a flexible tap adaptor smashed pushfit end off and pulled tube from inside and screwed remaing side to back of drain tap. Runs clear after around 1L of recirc. From other AG recipe's this seems like quite a lot of grain?
Tap used is a big drum tap with 15mm tubing running to boiler. Should i use a smaller tap and tubing to prevent HSA (there was an horendous amount as small trickle ran down inside of tube. but wont worry too much about that as it will be drunk super quick!)

All in all though a great first experience, made easier by all the help found on these pages (am from uk but this is best forum by a long way, ours are very poor)
Thanks

P.s How dusty is crushed malt! The misssus is not too happy about the thin layer of malt dust all over front room!

 

[mika]

Sounds like your crush might have been too fine. Or there's a problem with your manifold. What sort of efficiency did you get ?

 

[hopmonkey]

I make it 62%

 

[jjeffrey]

Be patient with your sparge. You want it to be slow to get the most out of your grain. If you are doing 20L in less than 45 minutes, you are gonna end up chucking out heaps of sugars, or end up having to boil the shit out of it to get your gravity. This happens because there isn't enough time for the sugars to dissolve into the water. That's why your efficiency was poor (you should be able to easily hit 75% or more). When I fly sparge, I normally do it at about 5L every 15minutes

Try batch sparging in 2 lots. So, when you mash out, add another 10-15L @ about 80C. mix it up and recirc until clear, then drain the lot (easy, cause you can go and do something else in the mean time). Check what volume you got out of it, then add the remainder of the water you want in the 2nd lot (say you want 28L for the boil and you got 15L in the 1st go, add another 13L). Mix it up, recirc until clear, then drain again. Ideally you want about 1/2 of the boil volume in each lot- according to various studies that is the magic ratio. Don't do 3 lots: you get jack shit out of the 3rd one, except for tannins (which you don't want).

Grain is really dusty, and if your missus is like mine, she'll get even more pissed off when she realises that power forms a sticky residue over everything. When you tip your grains into the mash tun, cut the bag and then rest it on the bottom of the tun (open end down). Slowly pull the bag up, effectively sliding the bag off the grain. DON'T POUR IT- you will just get shit everywhere. Finally, outside is better than inside.

Hope that helps.


JJ