Third time lucky?

[JontyP]

Hi guys, at it again. (after OP - No longer an AG virgin)

1st 2 brews went down the drain. Assumed unfermentable wort was being produced due to liquor & mash temperature problems leading to high percentage of dextrins.

Everything is clean. Post-copper all liberally treated to a dose of Starsan, which I assume won't kill the yeastie beasties.

Recalculated liquor treatment after talking to water authority and omitted CRS. Alkalinity is 13 ppm. Ca is 26 ppm. pH is 7.1

Aiming to mash at 65C for 90 mins. Will tolerate a drop to 60C, in the interests of increasing the percentage of maltose in the wort.
Ambient temp is 4C. Have lagged the already insulated MT with extra insulation (roof insulation foil/bubble laminate)

Brewing same recipe today:
MO 3980g; Crystal 80g; 10g DRS in mash (15g DRS to go in copper.)

Preheated MT for 30 mins @ 78C
HLT @ 73C (All I want for Christmas is a PID!!)
Strike temp (MT) 71C
Grain temp ~ 10C

Now mashing:
Initial Mash Temp 65C (!!!) First thing right. So far, so good.

Will take temp. at end of mash; pH and Blix readings at end of sparge, which should be around 13:40 + sparge-time, say an extra 30 mins, so aiming to have it in the copper about 14:10 or thereabouts.

More later...

[JontyP]

Cheers Daab,

Hope the thermometer isn't out or I'm well & truly stuffed!

In brew one, the mash temp was low 60's, so I added about 3 litres of liquor at about 75C plus 2 litres of boiled water in batches. Trouble was I kept losing heat when I took the lid off the MT to add it as ambient temp. was 1C.

In brew 2 I overcompensated for the previous losses by having a strike heat of 78, resulting in a mash temp of 69C, which held for the 90 mins as you, quite rightly, suggested. The sparge temp. was probably in the region of 78C too.

Am planning to re-hydrate the Safale04 in 500ml of wort cooled to 30C for an hour before pitching too.

Thanks for the advice.

Will post more as things progress.

[Jim]

You can check your thermometer at 0C and 100C. Just boil up a pan of water and once it's boiling properly stick the thermometer in - it should read 100C. Next mix up some ice cubes in water and let them settle so that the ice is melting. Stick your thermometer in the water and you should get near enough 0C.

Re your mash, if you got a decent extraction (presumably you checked the original gravity?) I would have thought it highly unlikely that you would get a totally unfermentable wort. It's more likely to be a fermentation problem (duff yeast, too cold etc).

[roger the dog]

Good luck Jonty, hope it works out OK this time

[JontyP]

You can check your thermometer at 0C and 100C. Just boil up a pan of water and once it's boiling properly stick the thermometer in - it should read 100C. Next mix up some ice cubes in water and let them settle so that the ice is melting. Stick your thermometer in the water and you should get near enough 0C.

Re your mash, if you got a decent extraction (presumably you checked the original gravity?) I would have thought it highly unlikely that you would get a totally unfermentable wort. It's more likely to be a fermentation problem (duff yeast, too cold etc).

Thanks Jim,

Have checked the thermometer - all OK.

On the temperature front, the fermenter cabinet (fridge + ATC-800) was set at 18C for the first two brews.
Have set it to 20C for this one.

After 17 hours there is a good head of yeast and gravity has dropped from 1040 to 1036. Measured by refractometer to minimise losses/contamination risks converted approximately using a factor of four: 10 Blix = 1040; 9 Blix = 1036.

Thanks again fro the advice.
JP

[Andy]

Is Blix a Japanese unit of measurement ?

[Jim]

Is Blix a Japanese unit of measurement ?

Nope, it's a South African term of abuse.

[JontyP]

Is Blix a Japanese unit of measurement ?

Nope, it's a South African term of abuse.

Blirriant brokes, just blirriant!!!
Solly, I got my wiles a rittre clossed.

Have turned the temperature up to 21 C, should keep things between 20-21C and the yeasties seem a lot happier. SG has dropped to 8 Brix, 1032 in 24 hours.

Cheers, JP

[Vossy1]

Glad to see all's looking good for this brew JP

[JontyP]

Glad to see all's looking good for this brew JP

Thanks V,

Must admit to some surprise that, after there being 2" of head on the brew after 24 hours, today, at 48 hours after pitching, there is no head at all.

Is this normal?

Cheers, JP

[delboy]

Its probably fermented already! Another upside of going all grain is that the wort being freshly made is highly fermentable gone are the days of stuck ferments associated with kits (muntons).

Take a hydro/refract reading if you want to check.

[JontyP]

Its probably fermented already! Another upside of going all grain is that the wort being freshly made is highly fermentable gone are the days of stuck ferments associated with kits (muntons).

Take a hydro/refract reading if you want to check.

This ferment is the same as the previous two, i.e. OG ~1040, ferments down to 1020-ish after a couple of days.

Just taken a refractometer reading - 5.6 Brix ~ 1022.

Was hoping to rack it off into a Corny at 1010, but I don't think it will ever get close.

Confused am I

Many thanks for the input.