most important bit of AG brewing ?

[Baz Chaz]

I was talking to a mate of mine today about AG brewing and he's been very pleased to be one of my guinea pigs :!: one of the questions was about the most important part of AG brewing

Apart from cleanliness, I think one of the most important 'actions' is sparging :idea:

I've made a few brews now :whistle: and the nearest to a cock up has been the brew I was making the day Mrs C came out of hospital and it was a bit rushed :!:

The bit that was a bit rushed was the sparging and I think that brew was a bit 'thin' it was OK and drinkable, but not quite to the standard of all my other brews, so anyone starting AG I would say don't rush the sparging give it plenty of time :thumb:

 

[robsan77]

sorry, how can you rush the sparge? whenever i sparge the speed it takes usually depends on the batch quality of the malt? I guess i dont use a pump so it comes out at gravity speed so i cannot speed it up or slow it down

 

[Vossy1]

I've found pump sparging to be slower than gravity sparging as the mash bed compacts slightly making the wort flow more slowly. Grain crush size can affect flow rate though, the finer the slower IME.
Channeling in the mash is more likely to have given you the thin body Baz, ie, liquor not going through the grains but by-passing them, it happens. Naturally it could be poor malt, but lets assume it wasn't.

 

[Baz Chaz]

sorry, how can you rush the sparge?

open the tap too far

I think it needs to run through slowly, normally I let the wort run out quite slowly but on that particular occasion I was in a rush and opened the tap fully :!:

Maybe that wasn't the reason but it's the only time I've done it and the result not just as good :hmm:

 

[31bb3]

In my honest opinion the most important part of AG brewing is the sitting back and enjoying the fruits of your labour :drink:

 

[Baz Chaz]

:thumb: can't argue with that Eddie :

 

[Dieseljockey]

In my honest opinion the most important part of AG brewing is the sitting back and enjoying the fruits of your labour :drink:

Right on boyo... :clap: :clap:

 

[the shadow]

the most important part of AG geting you mash at the rigth temp so the emzimes can get to work

 

[Aleman]

The most important part of All Grain brewing . . . Getting the fermentation temperature right.

In fact that is pretty much the most important part of brewing full stop

 

[Sean_Mc]

Patience

 

[Talon_Ted]

aleman

i was somewhat surprised by your statement that fermentation temp was the most important thing to get right. now you have got me worried. i usually pay quite alot of attention to mash temp, pitching temp but very little to fermentation temp.

since restarting ag brewing nearly a year ago i have been rather pleased with my results but by the sound of things i have been lucky! i had hoped it was my own skill, but there you are another dream shattered!!

would you, or others, suggest that i invested in a temp controlled fermentation cupboard (converted fridge in my case) before i splashed ot on a HERMS?

i am very lucky that my partner is very forgiving of my many hobbies and i am also fortunate that i have some outbuildings to use. however they are solid but basic and unheated and i have had to move some processes back indoors due the very cold weather. this has not gone unoticed! my last but one batch definitely suffered form the cold as you may have noticed form my last posts.

what would you suggest is the best option? i would appreciate any advice you can give me.

thanks
mark

 

[Springer]

A lot of things matter quite a lot, its probably down to interpretation, but I would have said mash temp and sparging. I see As point if the fermenting temperature is high or to low it will change things quite a bit.
There is no point rushing the sparging because the heating delay up to boiling point is the limiting factor for me :)
I start heating just as soon as the element is covered and the wort is still not boiling before a slow sparging has finished :?
S

 

[Aleman]

A lot of things matter quite a lot, its probably down to interpretation, but I would have said mash temp and sparging. I see As point if the fermenting temperature is high or to low it will change things quite a bit.

An extract brewer that takes great care over ensuring the right fermentation temperature for the beer being produced will produce a superior beer to an all grain brewer that lets the fermentation temperature wander all over the place! Regardless of how much attention is paid to water treatment / mash pH / mashing Temp / Sparging pH / Sparging Temp and all that boll*cks!

I've said it before, 80% of the distinctive flavour in a beer is produced by yeast, Screw that up, by fermenting at wildly varying temps and temps outside the yeasts range, then the beer is not going to end up as good as it can be.

"Spoil the ship for a ha'porth of tar!"

For the winter if you are having problems with the beer fermenting too cold, then buy a heater and a TC10 or ATC800+ and wire the heater up. . . .If you can do so in an insulated box all the better as the heater doesn't have to work too hard. . . . If I had an outbuilding I would consider a large insulated cabinet with a tubular heater. and ferment in there. A fan connected to the cooling side would pull in enough cold air to enable fermentation to proceed at a stable temp. . . .Obviously during summer another effective cooling source would need to be found . . . which is why a lot of us ferment in fridges/freezers . . . or use cooling coils driven by a beer chiller.

 

[Talon_Ted]

aleman et al


i read an old post where you said that you sent back the atc800+ when you obtained a tc-10. i have looked at the specs and because the atc800+ has a range upto +99degC it looks more flexible to me as i would like to control fermentation temps as well as a HERMS for mashing. what do you think?

thanks

mark

 

[Aleman]

I have looked at the specs and because the atc800+ has a range upto +99degC it looks more flexible to me as i would like to control fermentation temps as well as a HERMS for mashing. what do you think?

While the ATC800+ has the suitable temperature range for HERMS it is merely an ON/Off Thermostatic device, and a very crude granularity as to responding to and applying heat to control temperature. This makes it completely unsuitable for controlling a HERMS or RIMS. What you need there is a PID device, that measures the difference between the Set Temp and Actual Temp and applies heating proportionally to that difference. A properly tuned PID will vary about 0.2C either side of the set temp, an ATC800+ will probably be 2-5C either side.

 

[Talon_Ted]

aleman

thanks for that info.

as far as fermentation control goes what does the tc-10 have over the atc800+ ?

mark

 

[Springer]

the right fermentation temperature

I'm listening A, I have two insulated cupboards with bar heaters one controlled by a normal room stat and the other by a PID, which was sitting on the shelf, remember I bought the wrong one for my HERMS set up.
So what temps should I be using for the ideal fermentation ? You are spot on with your comment on a fan being required to stir up the air. I conditioned some beer recently by placing a sheet of ply on the top of the bottom layer of bottles :? and then more bottles on top. I thought the mass would equalize out, bit warmer at the top maybe. Didn't measure it but the bottom layer was one hell of a lot colder than the top, fan being sourced.
Do you think it is worth siphoning off after the initial yeast head has formed, seems a lot of hassle to me and I am usually busy at the right time , I have done it several times but never sure how much difference it makes :?