Third Attemp At All Grain

[greasewa]

Been a member for a while now. Havent had to post before because I could find all then information I needed. Have to say good site. Brewed a pale ale all grain before xmas and all went well. Only lasted two weekends in the keg after everyone sampled. Second batch I didnt have the sparge water hot enough hence didnt extract enough sugars. Disaster. Today I have completed the third effort. The biggest lesson I have learnt from my distarous effort is to keep detailed records of the brew day. This will help any fault finding in the process. With it in the fermenter this is what I have done.
Australia Day Ale (Phone Ale)
Malts
2.5 kg Joe White Pilsner Malt
2.0 kg Joe White Wheat Malt
0.5 kg Joe White Caramunich Malt
Hops
20g @45min Pride of Ringwood
13g @ Flame out 60 min Pride of Ringwood
Batch Details
Attempted Actual
25lt Final 21 lt
30lt Boil 32.5 lt

Orginal Gravity 1.047 @28.6 C

Process
Pre heat mash turn 15 min @ 88c
Mash for 75 minutes
12 lt @ 74c
Actual start 67c
30 min temp 64.5c
60 min temp 62c
75 min temp 62c
Mash out 6 lt @94 for 10 min Stir thourghly. 10 min end 75c
Collected 11.3 lt from 17 liters.

Batch sparge
1st 10 lt @ 84c. Stir thoughly, recirculate 1 lt 5 times. Used alfoil with holes punched in to prevent disturbance of lthe mash. Collect 9 ltrs
2nd 11 lt @ 82c . Same process as above. Collected 11.2 lt

Cooled and added safale 04 yeast.

Losses
1.5 to trub and sediments
5.3 to malt
10 lt to evaporation

 

[gwozniak]

I've brewed about 5 all grain. Still to get that sparge trick right. Hard work. But beers come out great anyway. Just need to ajdust your efficiency in brewsmith.

 

[gwozniak]

Good record keeping there too!!!
Is it just me or is there a hell of a lot wheat there? I haven't used wheat before tho so i wouldn't know.

 

[chadjaja]

That and I don't know why you are worrying about disturbing the grain bed when adding your sparge water? Just dump the lot in and stir then drain. I use tin foil but only when I add the water from my jug when I vorlouf to clear the wort and settle the grain bed before sparging.

 

[enoch]

Second batch I didnt have the sparge water hot enough hence didnt extract enough sugars. Disaster.

Sparge water temp shouldn't make or break a brew.
I would keep an eye out for something else like accuracy of mash temp and/or volumes. Keeping records like you do will let you identify it if it comes up again.

 

[troublebrewing]

Non-technical question: Why's it called phone ale? I can't see a step in your records saying "Drop phone in wort."...