Messages

31

All Grain Brewing / Re: Mash-in

« on: March 31, 2013, 10:46:33 AM »

There are a lot of factors which affect efficiency. 15 min fly sparge is gonna be a big part of it. Consider an hour a quick fly sparge. Going for Pliny right off the bat, very ambitious. Still it should be around 6.8%, so a solid ipa. Don't let beersmith guide you, you need to guide it. Don't forget that crush is important also. What was the temp after the mash?  There are just too many variables at play. Playing with them is part of the fun.

Not a big deal, you should have a nice ipa to drink.  I would make a couple beers shooting for 1.060 or so but planning 10 points either way. You really need to know your own system efficiency, before you can start targeting anything. 

32

All Grain Brewing / Re: Extreme Efficiency Boost!

« on: March 30, 2013, 09:03:39 PM »

How are you measuring mash efficiency?  You need preboil volume and preboil gravity or post boil volume and o.g. What ends up in the fermentor does not help you determine mash efficiency. I typically lose at least 1 gallon to chilling and various trub components on a 5.5 gallon batch.  If the math can't add up there is a bad reading somewhere.

33

All Grain Brewing / Re: Need Some Serious Help

« on: March 27, 2013, 10:55:45 AM »

Use all r/o water. Add 4 grams of gypsum to the mash only and no other salt additions anywhere. Lose the acid malt. Double your hop additions. Shoot for a 6.5% beer.  Add 2oz dry then five days later add two more and let sit five more days. Try to eliminate any potential oxygen exposure. You don't mention yeast at all, fermentation temps or times. Tastes are vastly different, find a commericial beer you like and use the hops it has.

The last beer for me has great hop choices but I would call it a pale ale, no where near ipa hop levels.

34

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: No brained brewing rules

« on: March 25, 2013, 08:45:00 AM »

Just because the majority of brewers do something a certain way, that doesn't mean it's the best/easiest/right way to do it. Experiment for yourself.

Also, take any reference more than 10 years old or so with a grain of salt. Again, experiment for yourself.

Generally that is exactly what it means.

There are some very good books  more than 10 years old or so...   How to Brew, Designing Great Beers off the top of my head

35

Events / Re: NHC 2013 Entry Problems - Possible Solutions?

« on: March 22, 2013, 10:47:48 AM »

If NHC is that important to you AND its entry window conflicted YOUR work schedule, then maybe you should have taken the day off from work!  I did because it was important to me.

on the other hand, I did sit in front of my computer at work a whole hour before the entry window was up.  I sat there reloading the page over and over for a few hours until I got my 15 entries into this years competition.  I will not do this again next year and I am sure there are more people with the same intention.

Which is it???

36

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Brewing over Two days

« on: March 19, 2013, 07:46:39 PM »

I have collected the wort at night and then commenced with the boil 10-12 hours later several times. I have never had an issue with it. It has worked great and I will continue to do it without hesitation. It is the best way I have found to cut the brew day in about half. It can easily and successfully be done.
 

37

Events / Re: NHC 2013 Entry Problems - Possible Solutions?

« on: March 04, 2013, 09:48:25 AM »

It is impossible to have a truly "National" competition when it is illegal for residents from several states to participate. As was said everyone wanting to enter must be able to at some level.

38

Homebrew Clubs / Re: Homebrew Club Running a Nano-Brewery

« on: March 04, 2013, 09:31:51 AM »

Pretty sure getting licensed is the definition of no longer being a homebrewer.

Not at all. Majorvices owns a commercial brewery, lives in a state where homebrewing is illegal, but I think he still considers himself homebrewer. Right Keith???

39

All Grain Brewing / Re: MY First All Grain Experience(Long)

« on: March 03, 2013, 10:10:21 AM »

To get your mash efficiency you need to know your preboil volume and gravity, or your post boil volume and o.g.  Your post boil volume is not what ends up in the fermentor. You also need to know your grain bill. Accurate measurements are necessary.  I highly recommend learning how to do all calcs by hand before getting into brewing software, you will fully understand what is all happening this way.

Say 10 #s of grain with 36 pts potential = 360 possible points.  Say you got 7 gallons of wort preboil and its gravity was 1.050 would = 350 points  then 350/360= efficinecy= 97.2222%
 
The number of points wil not change, just the volume as you boil down. So if you boil off 1 gallon you will have 6 gallons of about 1.058 wort.    350/6 =58.333.

40

Equipment and Software / Re: Going 1BBL, how do I setup beersmith Equipment

« on: February 28, 2013, 02:54:11 PM »

 

Secifically how do I ramp the hop utilization? Has anyone set this up in brewsmith?

In your equipment profile, you can set your hop utilization factor.  IIRC the factor for 20 gal is 110%, 1BBL volumes and above is 125% but I brew 10gal so what the heck do I know?

^^^ This is how to change it.  There is no set chart for increases, too many variables. 10-20% increases is what you could expect. 

41

Yeast and Fermentation / Re: San Diego Super Yeast

« on: February 20, 2013, 11:17:34 AM »

A number of factors contribute to the amount of yeast needed. Production date, wort size and gravity are at the top of the list. You do need more lager yeast for a comparable ale. For your current batch 6 vials produced today would be adequate. You did make a starter which helped a bit but was still too small.
Mrmalty.com and yeastcalc.com are 2 great tools that I use.

Beano is something I have heard of people using to drop some points on a stopped fermentation, I have never tried it though.

42

Yeast and Fermentation / Re: San Diego Super Yeast

« on: February 20, 2013, 10:02:42 AM »

The grain bill is fine,  1.016 is not at all unattainable. The yeast starter of 2qts for 2 vials is inadequate- even if you got the yeast from white labs this morning. And 4 days on the stir plate, why? The temperature is fine also. How old was the yeast, one fermentor or two?

43

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: help motorizing grain mill

« on: February 19, 2013, 10:52:41 AM »

But that is not torque. Bench grinders are not designed to have torque- the stone wheel could become a shattered projectile. I have not encountered a bench grinder you couldn't keep from turning on with a slight amount of force from your hand. Grain could do the same thing.

44

All Grain Brewing / Re: Does mashing for a light or full body beer affect the efficiency?

« on: February 10, 2013, 10:07:03 AM »

Others might beg to differ, but in my experience...

Mash temperature has negligible effect on efficiency.  Ditto for mash time.  Ditto for water to grain ratio (i.e., qts/lb).  If you mash in some water at 148 to 154 F for 40+ minutes, you're going to make beer at an efficiency that is mostly affected only by the extent of the crush.  Beyond the crush, very little matters.

My experience.  YMMV... but I doubt it.

Here are some experiments which came to some different conclusions. I have found them helpful and consistent with my experience.
http://braukaiser.com/wiki/index.php?title=Effects_of_mash_parameters_on_fermentability_and_efficiency_in_single_infusion_mashing#Mash_thickness

45

All Grain Brewing / Re: Need Some Serious Help

« on: February 09, 2013, 03:54:04 PM »

Off the top you have double ipa alcohol, and pale ale hop quantities. I don't think, if the numbers are right ,it would be bitter at all. Of course tastes vary greatly. If you don't like cent. or ctz, don't use them. Go with a clean bittering hop, like magnum, and up the late hops and even dry hops and lose 10 gravity points are some things to consider.

You have 8 gallons of 1.049 pre boil and 6.76 gallons of 1.074 postboil- typo somewhere? cause the math doesn't add up.

Also any yeasty  pours/samples will be far more bitter than the chilled clean version.

You say you have used r/o and your tap water with same result and onlly on ipa, results fine on all other styles??