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Started By
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General home brewing thread: Ask questions and get answers..
Posted on 1/6/13 at 8:07 pm
Posted on 1/6/13 at 8:07 pm
I've used honey before when bottling.
Is cane sugar better?
TIA.
I'll be bottling 2 gallons in a couple of days.
Is cane sugar better?
TIA.
I'll be bottling 2 gallons in a couple of days.
This post was edited on 1/7/13 at 9:19 am
Posted on 1/6/13 at 8:09 pm to LSUAlum2001
Corn sugar. I've used turbinado before and could not tell a difference with corn sugar.
Posted on 1/6/13 at 9:42 pm to LSUAlum2001
Corn/priming sugar. John Palmer, auther of How to Brew says no to using honey.
quote:
Honey is difficult to prime with because there is no standard for concentration. The gravity of honey is different jar to jar. To use honey, you will need to dilute it and measure its gravity with a hydrometer.
Posted on 1/7/13 at 6:31 am to LSUAlum2001
What they said. Corn sugar is just too easy.
Shouldn't take much for 2 gallons.
Shouldn't take much for 2 gallons.
Posted on 1/7/13 at 7:52 am to LSUAlum2001
If you have corn sugar on hand use that but I would not make a special trip to pick some up. Cane sugar works just fine you'll never tell the difference.
Posted on 1/7/13 at 8:43 am to turbotiger
Sugar is sugar for the most part. Honey would be too difficult. I have used brown sugar before in a Christmas beer that I thought you could taste the slight molasses that was left over but any sugar would work.
Posted on 1/7/13 at 8:53 am to LSUAlum2001
Can this be a general homebrewing related thread now?
So, I batch sparged my first all grain batch last night.
Had some issues with getting the wort to flow at first. I think that was because some grain got under my false bottom.
I added the water first then stirred in the grain. Should I add the grain first to weigh down the false bottom then add the water?
Should I make a gasket of sorts around the edge of the false bottom with some tubing?
My gravity was a little low. I think this was because my sparge water was a little too cool. Was only 168ish when I pulled it off the burner then I had issues with flow for a few minutes while draining into the kettle so it sat around outside for a few minutes.
So, I batch sparged my first all grain batch last night.
Had some issues with getting the wort to flow at first. I think that was because some grain got under my false bottom.
I added the water first then stirred in the grain. Should I add the grain first to weigh down the false bottom then add the water?
Should I make a gasket of sorts around the edge of the false bottom with some tubing?
My gravity was a little low. I think this was because my sparge water was a little too cool. Was only 168ish when I pulled it off the burner then I had issues with flow for a few minutes while draining into the kettle so it sat around outside for a few minutes.
Posted on 1/7/13 at 8:56 am to s14suspense
quote:
I added the water first then stirred in the grain.
That's what I do for the most part. With my false bottom I had a problem with it not sitting level on in the mash tun. I was able to adjust the elbow of it to level it out. That solved pretty much all the stuck sparge problems for me.
quote:
My gravity was a little low.
How low are we talking?
Posted on 1/7/13 at 8:59 am to Fratastic423
quote:
How low are we talking?
I think I was shooting for a 1.056 pre-boil and got around a 1.046...I boiled for a while before hopping because my volume was a little high and I added a pound of DME to get it up to 1.064 post-boil OG which was almost exactly what I was supposed to get 1.065
This post was edited on 1/7/13 at 9:02 am
Posted on 1/7/13 at 8:59 am to s14suspense
quote:
I added the water first then stirred in the grain. Should I add the grain first to weigh down the false bottom then add the water?
I have read (Palmer) that you want to slowly add water to your grain to avoid thermal shock, but that's a pain with temperature loss and dough balls. I did that my first couple times, but then just started dumping the grains in to the water. I use a steel hose, so no worries on it like you were having with your false bottom.
Posted on 1/7/13 at 9:03 am to BottomlandBrew
quote:
I use a steel hose, so no worries on it like you were having with your false bottom.
That's what denny conn uses. Sounded real good after opening that valve and nothing happening last night.. lol but I got it going fairly easily.
So, could a low sparge temp equal low efficiency? What temp do you sparge with?
Posted on 1/7/13 at 9:11 am to s14suspense
Did you have a lot of water still left in the mash tun after you got to your final boil volume?
The lower sparge water temp would certainly have a little impact on your efficiency but probably not an incredible amount. However ideally you want that water around 170-175 hitting the grains. And when you are batch sparging you may want to have it a little hotter, so that it brings the grain temp up to 168 to mash out at the same time.
The lower sparge water temp would certainly have a little impact on your efficiency but probably not an incredible amount. However ideally you want that water around 170-175 hitting the grains. And when you are batch sparging you may want to have it a little hotter, so that it brings the grain temp up to 168 to mash out at the same time.
Posted on 1/7/13 at 9:13 am to s14suspense
quote:
I added the water first then stirred in the grain. Should I add the grain first to weigh down the false bottom then add the water?
Everything i've read says to always add water to grain, and not the other way around. Too easy to get a stuck sparge adding grain to water, and you can easily get inconsistent temperatures that way. It also seems easier adding grain first as opposed to water.
Posted on 1/7/13 at 9:17 am to Fratastic423
quote:
The lower sparge water temp would certainly have a little impact on your efficiency but probably not an incredible amount. However ideally you want that water around 170-175 hitting the grains. And when you are batch sparging you may want to have it a little hotter, so that it brings the grain temp up to 168 to mash out at the same time.
Yeah... I think that had a good bit to do with it.
There wasn't too much water in there I don't think. Ran off a little bit more in the pitcher and it looked like 1.018 gravity so we threw that in the kettle as well.
To me it seemed very easy to add the grain to the water. SO was stirring the shite out of it while I slowly poured the grains in and didn't seem to have any issues with the consistency or dough balls. I might try it the other way though.
quote:
LSUAlum2001
Thanks for editing the title . What did ya brew?
This post was edited on 1/7/13 at 9:24 am
Posted on 1/7/13 at 9:18 am to BugAC
quote:
Too easy to get a stuck sparge adding grain to water, and you can easily get inconsistent temperatures that way.
Why would this be the case? Why would it be different? Obviously if you were using a RIM system to recirculate the water it would make sense to add the grain first, but if you were going to stir the crap out of the mash anyway to get the grain and water incorporated together why would it matter which you added first?
Posted on 1/7/13 at 9:24 am to Fratastic423
quote:
Obviously if you were using a RIM system to recirculate the water it would make sense to add the grain first, but if you were going to stir the crap out of the mash anyway to get the grain and water incorporated together why would it matter which you added first?
I'm just going with what i've read. But i also fly sparge, so that could be why my views differ.
Posted on 1/7/13 at 9:27 am to s14suspense
quote:
So, could a low sparge temp equal low efficiency? What temp do you sparge with?
Possibly. What has helped my efficiency out is splitting my batch sparge up in to two sparges. I use a lot of pils in my recipes and go with 90 minute boils, so I usually have large sparge volume that can easily be split. I will heat the sparge water up to around 180 and then sparge right at 169-170.
I've read on HBT of some people doing cooler sparges and having no noticeable efficiency problems, but I've never done it.
Posted on 1/7/13 at 9:27 am to BugAC
Question: Upon re reading the post, I may have been thinking of mashing in, not sparging. But i have a question about that. If you have already mashed, and you are going to sparge. Why would you add your grain to the sparge?
Maybe it's difference in systems used. I use 2 10 gallon water coolers and i fly sparge, so maybe i only really have the one option to add sparge water to the grain. But it seems, to me, that you want to keep a liquid bed of water on top of your grains at all times. This is from what i've done in the past and everything i've read.
Maybe it's difference in systems used. I use 2 10 gallon water coolers and i fly sparge, so maybe i only really have the one option to add sparge water to the grain. But it seems, to me, that you want to keep a liquid bed of water on top of your grains at all times. This is from what i've done in the past and everything i've read.
Posted on 1/7/13 at 9:31 am to BugAC
quote:
Question: Upon re reading the post, I may have been thinking of mashing in, not sparging. But i have a question about that. If you have already mashed, and you are going to sparge. Why would you add your grain to the sparge?
I'm talking about mashing in by adding my grains to my cooler full of water.
Then sparge with another 4 gallons after I've drained my initial mash water.
This post was edited on 1/7/13 at 9:34 am
Posted on 1/7/13 at 9:31 am to s14suspense
I'm never switching from extract
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