brooktrout
New Forum Member
- Joined
- Sep 7, 2013
- Messages
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Hi and happy holidays to you all.
I just did my second batch using BeerSmith2 and a Coleman cooler mash tun with copper manifold. The software and equipment worked like a charm, although, with experience from the first batch, I fudged the temps to the higher side and hit them really close. I used a single infusion and a single batch sparge for this Kolsch recipe. I emptied the mash tun and collected about 2 gallons of first runnings with a gravity of 1.082 (next time I will measure the volume more carefully).
After about 10 minutes of messing around, I added 4.5 gallons of sparge water at 170.2 F. I noted that the temperature settled in to only about 155 in the tun. Is that OK?
[Edit] Having done a some searching in the forums I realize that I need to hit 168 by adding much hotter water for the sparge.
The other thing I noted was the end of runnings gravity was 1.030. That suggests I left a lot of sugar behind in the mash tun. I'm thinking two smaller batch sparges should be more efficient. My OG ended up at 1.051, which was right on (albeit with only 4.8 gal of total wort transferred to the fermenter).
Another question I have is how much should I stir during the saccrification step? I did not stir at all except at dough-in.
Thanks very much for the community and happy times to you all.
- Tom
I just did my second batch using BeerSmith2 and a Coleman cooler mash tun with copper manifold. The software and equipment worked like a charm, although, with experience from the first batch, I fudged the temps to the higher side and hit them really close. I used a single infusion and a single batch sparge for this Kolsch recipe. I emptied the mash tun and collected about 2 gallons of first runnings with a gravity of 1.082 (next time I will measure the volume more carefully).
After about 10 minutes of messing around, I added 4.5 gallons of sparge water at 170.2 F. I noted that the temperature settled in to only about 155 in the tun. Is that OK?
[Edit] Having done a some searching in the forums I realize that I need to hit 168 by adding much hotter water for the sparge.
The other thing I noted was the end of runnings gravity was 1.030. That suggests I left a lot of sugar behind in the mash tun. I'm thinking two smaller batch sparges should be more efficient. My OG ended up at 1.051, which was right on (albeit with only 4.8 gal of total wort transferred to the fermenter).
Another question I have is how much should I stir during the saccrification step? I did not stir at all except at dough-in.
Thanks very much for the community and happy times to you all.
- Tom




