First AG brew

[m_rawdin]

So I did my first batch last night and there are definitely some lessons learned. Firstly my pump is far too powerful to use with the fly sparge so I think I’m going to have to sparge a different way, it blew the end cap off the arm. I also didn’t account enough for dead space so ended up with just under 20 litres at the end which should have been 23 litres. Also the OG was way off, possibly due to the sparging so I’m not sure how nice this batch is going to turn out! Apart from that it was good as a learning exercise and there are a few changes I am going to make such as using camlocks on all of the connections.

 

[clibit]

Tell us about the beer.

 

[Dads_Ale]

It will probably turn out fine, AG can be quite forgiving.

Part of the draw of AG is the satisfaction in overcoming initial problems and adding 'improvement' as you go :smile:

 

[JapanBrew]

Yea, give us some numbers. Would love to see them.

 

[m_rawdin]

Well it's an American double IPA, smells fantastic! I might try batch sparging next time, I want to fly sparge but my brewery is all on one level so don't know if that's possible? Also the bottom of my HLT and kettle were black afterwards, is that normal?

 

[m_rawdin]

The OG should have been around 1060 but is 1032 which is pretty disappointing

 

[clibit]

Gas or electric? Or coal?!

What was the recipe?

 

[JapanBrew]

Gas or electric? Or coal?!

What was the recipe?

I use hamster on a wheel!!!

 

[m_rawdin]

It's gas powered, wasn't expecting them to be so dirty

 

[Dads_Ale]

It's gas powered, wasn't expecting them to be so dirty

When you say the bottom was dirty do you mean inside or outside?

 

[m_rawdin]

It's on the outside

 

[Covrich]

What gas do you use? someone told me propane makes the pot dirty and all that but I found it okay so far

 

[m_rawdin]

I'm using propane, it's all new equipment I've got so not sure if it's just bedding in?

 

[geetee]

Depending on the type of pump you have you could also restrict the pump flow by putting a tap in line and half closing to restrict flw out of the pump.
If you want to fly sparge my suggestion would be to raise your HLT above the mash tun (or lower the mash tun obviously). I used to batch sparge and although I bought two chugger pumps I found that putting my HLT on a high stool next to MT gave enough gravity to feed the sparge arm without potential pump flow problems.

The most worrying thing is your low OG at 1032 which suggests a not very good sparge or a temperature problem with the Mash tun or both?
The gravity will rise due to evaporation losses in the boil but it ain't gonna be a double IPA any more.
You need to work on these two before committing loads f money and effort to bigger batches.

 

[m_rawdin]

Yeah my OG is very concerning, I think it might have been sparge issues as the sparge didn't go very well at all!

 

[clibit]

I doubt it was just the sparge if the target was 1060. Check your thermometer readings are accurate.

 

[m_rawdin]

I have an electronic thermometer so will check it and see how accurate it is against my other thermometer

 

[Dads_Ale]

This is the sort of drop you need to fly sparge using a rotating sparge arm via gravity

Can you throttle back the pump? Either reduce voltage or restrict the outlet pipe (PS I will add here that I know very little about pumps apart from the one I bought recently said you could reduce flow by restricting the outlet pipe. I think it was a Solar mag pump)

 

[clibit]

I've got a really clever sparge arm. It's attached to me at the shoulder, and has a jug at the other end! This jug pours water into a steel strainer that releases water into the mash at a rate that keeps the water level just above the mash, so that all the grain is sparged throughout the sparging process, not just the grain that is in line with jets of water.

 

[geetee]

I use gravity and although my spinny thing doesn't spin I keep about 1 cm of water above the grain so that it really doesn't matter where it falls it is still evenly spread. The force of the water is not enough to force craters or channeling in the grain head.