It'd been quite awhile since I did an all grain batch so since I had the day off today I decided to try one again. I do 5 gallon batches using the batch sparging method. This was only my 3rd, or maybe 4th, all grain so I'm still fairly new at it. I've read alot about all grain and batch sparging and got to the point where I was getting more confused that clearing things up. From what I can tell people pretty much do what works for them and there's no one right or wrong way. With that in mind I decided to jump in.
I'm attaching the recipe I used.
Anyway, things didn't go well from the start. I heated my 13.75 qts of water to 188 degrees and put it into the cooler/tun to preheat the tun. When the water got to 178 degrees I added and stirred in the grains but the temp only came down to the mid 160's, if I remember right. (I forgot to note the exact temp) I didn't want it too hot so I stirred in 2 qts of cool/cold water and of course it brought down the temp too much, about 144 degrees. So then I hurried up and heated up another 2 qts of water to boiling and stirred it in and it brought the mash temp up to 152 degrees at which time I closed the top and put the blanket on it and called it good.
I checked the temp again after about 40 minutes and it was at 147 degrees and that's where it stayed. I then drained the tun and did a double sparge using about 6 qts each time which brought me to 6 gallons in the boil pot. I screwed up in the sparging too. My first sparge I got a brain cramp and only heated the water to 170 degrees which of course didn't bring up the mash temp to 168 I was looking for. The 2nd sparge I heated to 190 but still didn't get the mash to 168.
In the end I took a gravity reading before starting the boil and it was 1.032 @ 120 degrees. I did the boil and transferred into the primary after cooling it. I was quite a bit below 5 gallons so I added water and ended up with an OG of 1.046 @ 75 degrees.
Not sure how it will all come out but it should still be beer at least. Now I have to figure out what to tweak on my Beersmith profile for next time. I just find it very frustrating not being able to hit my target temps. Makes me consider trying fly sparging.
I'm attaching the recipe I used.
Anyway, things didn't go well from the start. I heated my 13.75 qts of water to 188 degrees and put it into the cooler/tun to preheat the tun. When the water got to 178 degrees I added and stirred in the grains but the temp only came down to the mid 160's, if I remember right. (I forgot to note the exact temp) I didn't want it too hot so I stirred in 2 qts of cool/cold water and of course it brought down the temp too much, about 144 degrees. So then I hurried up and heated up another 2 qts of water to boiling and stirred it in and it brought the mash temp up to 152 degrees at which time I closed the top and put the blanket on it and called it good.
I checked the temp again after about 40 minutes and it was at 147 degrees and that's where it stayed. I then drained the tun and did a double sparge using about 6 qts each time which brought me to 6 gallons in the boil pot. I screwed up in the sparging too. My first sparge I got a brain cramp and only heated the water to 170 degrees which of course didn't bring up the mash temp to 168 I was looking for. The 2nd sparge I heated to 190 but still didn't get the mash to 168.
In the end I took a gravity reading before starting the boil and it was 1.032 @ 120 degrees. I did the boil and transferred into the primary after cooling it. I was quite a bit below 5 gallons so I added water and ended up with an OG of 1.046 @ 75 degrees.
Not sure how it will all come out but it should still be beer at least. Now I have to figure out what to tweak on my Beersmith profile for next time. I just find it very frustrating not being able to hit my target temps. Makes me consider trying fly sparging.