Djehuty
Master Brewer
- Joined
- Mar 16, 2010
- Messages
- 56
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Yesterday I finally made my first foray into all-grain brewing. I'm not pleased with the results.
I attempted to make an Irish red ale. The target OG was 1.056, with an assumed brewhouse efficiency of 70%. I fell FAR short of that mark.
My brewing equipment consists of a 52-qt. Igloo picnic cooler, with a drainage gizmo made out of the stainless steel mesh lining from a toilet tank supply line. I'm using a 7.5-gallon brew pot on a propane burner, with my older 5-gallon pot serving to heat the water for mashing and sparging.
I followed the BrewSmith instructions, and added 13.25 quarts of water at 170F, which brought the temperature up to 158F. I hurriedly added a small amount (less than one quart) of cool water, and watched the temperature plummet to 150F. Obviously I should have waited for the temperature to equalize, but even so that would have left it at around 150, instead of the target 154. I quickly boiled some water, but it took several tea-kettles full (and about ten minutes) to bring the temperature up to 154. It remained steady for the full hour.
I then pulled off two quarts of wort and gently poured it back in, and repeated this four times. The wort refused to clarify. After the fifth two-quart draw was cloudy, I gave up and emptied the mash tun. I added my sparge water, and was more than a little bit worried by the foam which was accumulating due to the recirculating of wort and now the addition of sparge water. I let it sit ten minutes, tried again and failed again to get it to run clear, and emptied it into the brew pot. I took a sample and set it on the counter to cool, then put the pot on the burner.
One hour of boiling later, I popped in the wort chiller (well, fifty-five minutes of boiling later, and then the chiller boiled with the wort for five). While the wort was chilling (about twenty minutes or so to go from boiling to 70 degrees -- is that OK?), I measured the specific gravity of the sample. Modified for temperature (97F), it was 1.037 -- well off the expected target of 1.048. BeerSmith calculates this as 57.91% efficiency.
I had some trouble siphoning the wort into the brew bucket, because of a bunch of gunk (including the hops) which sank to the bottom of the pot. I think the hops may have floated last time, but I'm not sure. I didn't siphon previously, so my main difficulty had been in clearing spent hops out of the sieve. Anyway, I eventually got the job done, and left maybe a quart or so of wort in with the gunk, after siphoning five gallons into the brew bucket. That's now in the basement, where it is worrying me a bit because nothing's bubbling out the airlock.
The specific gravity of the wort just before pitching the yeast was 1.044. BrewSmith gives me an efficiency rating of 55.09%.
What did I do wrong, and how can I improve my efficiency?
I attempted to make an Irish red ale. The target OG was 1.056, with an assumed brewhouse efficiency of 70%. I fell FAR short of that mark.
My brewing equipment consists of a 52-qt. Igloo picnic cooler, with a drainage gizmo made out of the stainless steel mesh lining from a toilet tank supply line. I'm using a 7.5-gallon brew pot on a propane burner, with my older 5-gallon pot serving to heat the water for mashing and sparging.
I followed the BrewSmith instructions, and added 13.25 quarts of water at 170F, which brought the temperature up to 158F. I hurriedly added a small amount (less than one quart) of cool water, and watched the temperature plummet to 150F. Obviously I should have waited for the temperature to equalize, but even so that would have left it at around 150, instead of the target 154. I quickly boiled some water, but it took several tea-kettles full (and about ten minutes) to bring the temperature up to 154. It remained steady for the full hour.
I then pulled off two quarts of wort and gently poured it back in, and repeated this four times. The wort refused to clarify. After the fifth two-quart draw was cloudy, I gave up and emptied the mash tun. I added my sparge water, and was more than a little bit worried by the foam which was accumulating due to the recirculating of wort and now the addition of sparge water. I let it sit ten minutes, tried again and failed again to get it to run clear, and emptied it into the brew pot. I took a sample and set it on the counter to cool, then put the pot on the burner.
One hour of boiling later, I popped in the wort chiller (well, fifty-five minutes of boiling later, and then the chiller boiled with the wort for five). While the wort was chilling (about twenty minutes or so to go from boiling to 70 degrees -- is that OK?), I measured the specific gravity of the sample. Modified for temperature (97F), it was 1.037 -- well off the expected target of 1.048. BeerSmith calculates this as 57.91% efficiency.
I had some trouble siphoning the wort into the brew bucket, because of a bunch of gunk (including the hops) which sank to the bottom of the pot. I think the hops may have floated last time, but I'm not sure. I didn't siphon previously, so my main difficulty had been in clearing spent hops out of the sieve. Anyway, I eventually got the job done, and left maybe a quart or so of wort in with the gunk, after siphoning five gallons into the brew bucket. That's now in the basement, where it is worrying me a bit because nothing's bubbling out the airlock.
The specific gravity of the wort just before pitching the yeast was 1.044. BrewSmith gives me an efficiency rating of 55.09%.
What did I do wrong, and how can I improve my efficiency?