Brewing Master

Question:

- Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – Last weekend I make a batch of English bitter: 4.2 kg      Pale Ale 210 g       Crystal 20L 25  g       Chocalate 41 EBU 10 g        Target 10,5A 40 g        Kent-Goldings 5A I do a simple massing in my coolbag. The temp was 67C in the middle of the bag, in the bottom about 69-70 (may be to high). It’s the first batch I crush my own malt. After converting (90min), sparkling (45min) and boling (90min). I cool down som wort to 20C and check the OG that was 1028, it should be 1045. Have someone some advise what’s wrong Rune Eriksen The Norwegian State Computer Senter

Rune: I would check the crush.  It is easy to get it too coarse.  Try to crush finer.  Also make sure that the sparge water is 80C and you do not get any channels in the grain bed.  I use a batch method where I add 1/3 of the water, stir the grains, set the grain bed, drain it off, add the next 1/3 water, and repeat 3 times.  This helps prevent a poor sparge because the grains are being rinsed 3 times and the bed is disturbed three times. I have had yields where I got only 50% of the expected value – I traced the problems to a poor crush and poor sparging techniques (channeling, sparging too fast, and low temp grain bed/sparge water).  I am now at 28 pts/lb/gallon, a respectable yield with a Corona mill and a batch sparge technique. John Huegel

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Last weekend I make a batch of English bitter: 4.2 kg  Pale Ale 210 g   Crystal 20L 25  g   Chocalate 41 EBU 10 g    Target 10,5A 40 g    Kent-Goldings 5A I do a simple massing in my coolbag. The temp was 67C in the middle of the bag, in the bottom about 69-70 (may be to high). It’s the first batch I crush my own malt. After converting (90min), sparkling (45min) and boling (90min). I cool down som wort to 20C and check the OG that was 1028, it should be 1045. Have someone some advise what’s wrong Rune Eriksen The Norwegian State Computer Senter

Response:

: Last weekend I make a batch of English bitter: : 4.2 kg        Pale Ale : 210 g Crystal 20L : 25  g Chocalate : 41 EBU : 10 g  Target 10,5A : 40 g  Kent-Goldings 5A : I do a simple massing in my coolbag. The temp was 67C in the middle of the : bag, in the bottom about 69-70 (may be to high). : It’s the first batch I crush my own malt. : After converting (90min), sparkling (45min) and boling (90min). I cool down : som wort to 20C and check the OG that was 1028, it should be 1045. : Have someone some advise what’s wrong Some suggestions: 1 Test your hydrometer with water, it should read 1000 exactly. 2 67C is good for the first step, but to get more starch converted   a second step at 73C (about 30′) is a good idea. 3 Check the mash pH, it should settle at about 5.4, if it’s much   higher or lower the enzymes don’t work very well. 4 Check the crushed grain: all grains should be open, but the husks   as intact as possible. 5 Make sure the sparge water is hot enough (temperature of the   grain bed should be about 75-80C). 6 Make sure you measure the volume correctly (1 litre too much   left after boiling will give about 3 points less than you expect)

Response:

: Last weekend I make a batch of English bitter: : 4.2 kg        Pale Ale : 210 g Crystal 20L : 25  g Chocalate : 41 EBU : 10 g  Target 10,5A : 40 g  Kent-Goldings 5A For a 20 litre batch this should give about OG = 1.058, for 25 litre batch, OG = 1.047, approx.  So I assume you were doing a 25L batch. : I do a simple massing in my coolbag. The temp was 67C in the : middle of the bag, in the bottom about 69-70 (may be to high). Next time try resting the crushed grain in 40C water for 30 minutes first, then raise to 65C for 60 min, then sparge.  Your temp of 67C should be very good and should produce a fairly malty brew. 70C is too high for this beer, but just about right for some Scottish ales. : It’s the first batch I crush my own malt. This is the most likely source of the low OG–so far, none of your process would contribute to low OG. : After converting (90min), sparkling (45min) and boiling (90min), : I cool down some wort to 20C and check the OG that was 1028 I can only guess you had much more wort than 25 litres when you finished, your hydrometer is no good or not calibrated at 20C, the hydrometer was stuck to the side of the sample vessel, or you were brewing at 3 o’clock in the morning.  No matter what you did in the mash your OG should have been higher than this.  Did you check your reading once or twice?  Did you add the boiled wort to chilled water after brewing and possibly take a sample from non-homogeneous wort?

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