grantmichaels said:
OK, more ASK WHEEBZ!
1) Which is generally considered good form by the community, using metric, or imperial?
2) I've just mashed in to 160F water, and my slurry is like 150F now, and I'm supposed to be soaking/cooking where readings from different areas in the pot are all within the range of 144F - 152F. But, for the sake of discussion, what is optimal here - 144F, 148F (the mid-point of the "range" +/- 4F), or 152F?
3) If you are mashing out to 170F, is that so that your wort and sparge water (heated separately) are the same temperature? I ask, because my brain is better served by laying down a rule, like "don't pour hotter water into your hot grain mash, or you'll _____ your wort."
4) When a recipe says to re-circulate the wort through grain once, they mean for you to move your strainer and create a different lauter tun using a 2nd vessel, right? I think we're at 3 vessel instances now, re-using the initial vessel and so only requiring two. So, probably really would want a 2nd SS pot, ideally (as it turns out, I have other pots I can use, but I might just buy a 2nd one because the widened handles feel nice and secure).
5) Is there a target temp for the "light boil," of the boil? I have a lot of temperature probes and measuring devices, and there's no sense not using things that I already have. This is a 90 minute boil, specifically, and then it says to turn off the heat. This is the part where the idea, ideally, is to get that down to 70F as quickly as possible, right? ...
6) After pitching the yeast, am I to spray palm w/ sanitizer and shake manually to oxygenate the yeast - and, about how long to shake (5s, 30s, 1m+)? ...
7) They are kind of specific about placing the blow off tube one inch into the stopper, but they don't clarify if they mean an inch past the top or the bottom of the stopper. Basically, is the blow off tube supposed to be an inch inside the glass under the stopper?
They have the instructions written such that they are trying to teach the lingo (lauter tun, mash, sparge etc) along the way, but it kind of muddies their intent for trying to be slick ...
Thanks in advance!
1. Depends on whats easier for you. I tend to use both now interchangeably as the current system I am on is in metric and celcius, but all my previous systems have been imperial and fahrenheit
2. All depends on what beer you are making. If you are doing a low ABV stout like I think you are, you want to shoot for 153-154 throughout the entire mash tun/pot as a general rule. Depending on beer style and what you want your final outcome depends on the temp that you mash in at.
3. The whole "mash out" thing is debateable. I do it on my current system because I have the ability to raise my mash temp without using more water, and it helps because I have a separate mash tun and lauter tun. Don't worry about doing that. Basically the way I do it is I never sparge with water hotter than 170, and typically its around 166 to 168 depending on the beer.
4. Basically you are keeping your grain in the same mash tun, you are just pulling it off the bottom and pouring it right back on top. This is to set your grain bed and to filter out any of the large particulates that would instead go into the kettle. Its called vorlaught.
5. There is no light boil. You are either boiling or not boiling. There is no need for you to do a 90 minute boil for 1 gallon. Its going to boil very vigorously anyways. Once you are done boiling, I yank it off the stove and throw it into your ice bath and drop it to 70ish as fast as possible. Prevents the formation of DMS pre-cursors.
6. Its only 1 gallon. You do not need to oxygenate it. You will get enough in there from pouring it into the carboy/growler you are fermenting in, not to mention your yeast only have to acclimate to a 1 gallon amount of wort. No stress there.
7. Just stick it in there. I dont have the blow off tube sticking lower than the stopper, but it really doesnt matter
we dont have primary and secondary fermenters, we have conical fermenters which allow you to dump your yeast down the drain without transferring from vessel to vessel.
Its not that big of a deal at all for 1 gallon. Hell depending on what you are doing, its not a huge deal for 5 gallons either. Its more for clarification and conditioning than anything else.
Basically once you are done primary fermentation, i.e. no more bubbles, let it sit for another 3 or 4 days for the yeast to eat up all the bad shit it produced during fermentation, then bottle it, let it carb, and toss them things in the fridge.
What I used to do is go from primary into a secondary and add some sort of clarifiying agent in the secondary fermenter and crash it down to 32 degrees and let it sit for 7 days, then transfer it into a corny keg, carbonate it, and either serve it clear and carbonated, or use a beer gun and bottle it so its clear and carbonated with no sediment in the bottles. Definitely helps when it comes to presentation, especially when you are judging beers
