rcalley@charter.net A while back, someone asked for some real data for a real batch using my system. Today I brewed a batch and paid a little more attention to the temps of everything. I must say that all this NOT relaxing and WORRYING about stuff really took the fun out of doing what we love to do. Although it did help to have a few homebrews on the way. If there is some data point I miss on the way, email me. I may remember what it was or I'll get the data on the next batch.
I decided to do a real simple ale with no particular recipe, using stuff that I had on hand. I've done several batches similar to this one and have enjoyed them all. I believe that you don't have to get real elaborate with the ingredients to have a fine beer.
The recipe for 5 gallons...
11 lbs 6-row malt
1 lb 40L Crystal malt
1 oz Willamette hops 80 minutes (homegrown, unknown alpha %)
1 oz Willamette hops 20 minutes (homegrown, unknown alpha %)
1 oz Cascade hops 10 minutes (homegrown, unknown alpha %)
1 oz Cascade hops 5 minutes (homegrown, unknown alpha %)
Irish moss
YeastLabs Australian Ale liquid yeast (A01) (starter made 2 days
prior to brewing)
1) The hot water tank was filled to near the top with water and started heating. The grain was milled and placed in the Mash/Lauter tun.
2) When the water in the tank was heated up to 127F, some was pumped onto the grains. The grains stabilized at 122F and the remaining water in the tank continued heating. The water on the grains was recirced for a while to ensure even heat distribution and remained at 122F.
3) After 30 minutes (with the grains at 122F) the water in the tank was at 184F. The mash water was recirced through the coil (in the tank) and the temp raised from 122F to 152F. The temp raise took 5 minutes. The coil is more effective the greater the temp difference between the mash water and tank water. Again the mash was recirced (bypassing the coil) to ensure even heat distribution.
4) The temp was held for 20 minutes at 152F. An iodine test of the mash water showed that conversion was complete at this point. Just to check the effectiveness of the coil I did a temp raise to 158F with the water in the tank at 172F. With this temp raise, a 6 degree change took 5 minutes. Temperature differential between the tank and the mash water is very important. I don't want the water temp in the tank to be much over 170F because it is also my sparge water.
5) The mash was held at 158F for 15 minutes and the tank water was held at 170F and the temp of the mash was raised to 163F over 10 minutes.
6) With the tank water at 170F, I started sparging the grains and draining (a trickle) off the bottom of the tun. This continued until I had 7 1/4 gallons in the kettle. Keeping about an inch or two of water over the grains. The whole lautering process took about 50 minutes. I didn't worry about lautering until I reached a particular pH or specific gravity or any thing like that. I lautered until I had enough for a 90 minute boil or so.
7) The boil lasted about 90 minutes and I ended it at 5 1/2 gallons in the boil kettle. The wort was whirlpooled and pumped through the chiller. The original gravity of the wort was 1.053. According to the Beer Recipe Formulator Version 1.1 (copyright 1992 by Chris Campbell) that works out to be a 70% mashing efficiency. Good enough for me.
8) Yeah, I could make the contraption more efficient, but who cares. It makes good beer. Grain is cheap. In the past I've acidified the sparge water with lactic acid and gotten efficiencies as high as 75%. I brew the way I want to. 70-75% is good enough for me right now.
Got any questions?...