Why do my AGs still taste rubbish

[farmer brown]

I also wasnt aware of this, so basically when sparging i take a sample, cool it to around 20c and test the density. As soon as its drops to 1008 I stop collecting as it may contain tannins? I usually wash may grain with 75c water until I get as much out of the grain as possible, usually around 2.5 gallon of sparging water for an average 25 liter batch. Maybe this is too much ?

 

[The Goatreich]

1008? Have I been going too low then?

1008 is the temperature corrected value. If your hydrometer is calibrated to read 1000 at 20C then it'll read 990 if the wort temperature is around 67C.

Take the temperature of the wort and take a reading with your hydrometer and plug the readings into the hydrometer temperature corrections calculator in your brewing software or in the calculators section of this forum. You want to stop when the corrected value is 1008.

It's worth calibrating your hydrometer yourself. Mine reads 1000 at 30C and not 20C.

I didn't know that about the grain bed temperature either, I'll monitor this next time I brew.

 

[Hollow Legs]

990 is temperature adjusted from 1008 dont forget you are putting hot wort into your test jar or whatever you use and your hydrometer is calibrated to 20degC

 

[farmer brown]

I also wasnt aware of this, so basically when sparging i take a sample, cool it to around 20c and test the density. As soon as its drops to 1008 I stop collecting as it may contain tannins? I usually wash may grain with 75c water until I get as much out of the grain as possible, usually around 2.5 gallon of sparging water for an average 25 liter batch. Maybe this is too much ?

 

[Hollow Legs]

I also wasnt aware of this, so basically when sparging i take a sample, cool it to around 20c and test the density. As soon as its drops to 1008 I stop collecting as it may contain tannins? I usually wash may grain with 75c water until I get as much out of the grain as possible, usually around 2.5 gallon of sparging water for an average 25 liter batch. Maybe this is too much ?

I collect the wort into my test jar as I'm sparging and take a reading whilst it is still hot as the temperature corrections are calculated, can someone correct me if this is wrong.

 

[johnnie]

[quote="farmer brown":23t792ry]I also wasnt aware of this, so basically when sparging i take a sample, cool it to around 20c and test the density. As soon as its drops to 1008 I stop collecting as it may contain tannins? I usually wash may grain with 75c water until I get as much out of the grain as possible, usually around 2.5 gallon of sparging water for an average 25 liter batch. Maybe this is too much ?

I collect the wort into my test jar as I'm sparging and take a reading whilst it is still hot as the temperature corrections are calculated, can someone correct me if this is wrong.[/quote:23t792ry]

Can someone please clear this up for us. I've been looking around on other forums and google and the way some people word it is very confusing. Some say , stop sparging at 1008, others say stop sparging at 0990, but they don't say what the temp of the wort should be.

The Wheeler book says, 'Stop sparging when the gravity of the spargings falls to below about 1.008'.

The forums FAQ says, 'It is commonly mentioned that you should stop sparging when the runnings from the tun reach 1.008 otherwise undesirable tannins can be extracted from the grains which can give your finished beer off flavours. It is also worth mentioning that many people believe that their beer is better by stopping sparging before this at around 1.020'

So, should the 'Hot' runnings from the mash tun be 0.990 or 1.008? before you stop sparging.

 

[Aleman]

Can someone please clear this up for us

OK when you heat wort up the specific gravity falls so if you read it when its hot it records less than it would do when it was cold.

So if you have a wort at 20C and measure it and it reads 1.008, if you heat it to 70C it will read approximately 0.990

When sparging you have the option of reading the wort hot or cooling it before reading (depending in your confidence in the temperature correction factors :hmm: )

Now as to when you should stop sparging, that is a tricky one. It is generally accepted as to be around 1.008 (cold reading), although the sooner you stop the 'better quality' of wort you obtain. . . ie there are less tannins in the wort making it less astringent, My personal preference is to stop at 1.012

The easy way to take gravity readings during sparging is to use a refractometer as it doesn't require a long cooling period.

 

[johnnie]

Thanks Aleman. I now know that I'm stopping at the right time. Wow 388 views, thats a record for me, and a reply from the master. :