Topics

1

All Grain Brewing / Mash Tun: Temperature Uniformity

« on: March 07, 2013, 01:52:28 PM »

I use a 70 qt Coleman with CPVC manifold.  During mashes, I have noticed at times that my temp readings are multiple degrees different throughout the cooler. The manifold gets in the way of stirring up the grain which likely contributes to variant temps.  Any ideas on improving this issue?

2

All Grain Brewing / Batch Sparging: Dilution

« on: March 07, 2013, 01:48:27 PM »

My last batch came out with a pre-boil gravity far lower than what I expected.  (I do plan to recalibrate my efficiency with next batch).  But it got me wondering how much water dilution effects this outcome.

My current batch sparge process: I add around 5 gallons of water (at 170, though I read I should bump this to 190) to the tun after the first runnings complete.  Stir, sit and sparge until my desired volume is achieved.

Should I be more precise in how much water I add or is the impact not so great?

Thanks!

3

Ingredients / Getting orange!

« on: November 27, 2012, 01:09:20 PM »

I'm brewing an oatmeal stout but decided to get weird and orange it up! I put in some thin peels 15 mins of boiling.  Tasting the pre-ferm sample, maybe got a little too bitter (either time or quantity maybe was too much).  I couldn't detect much aroma though.  I planned to toss in some pastuerized/peeled/seeded fruity bits of orange in my secondary to give a bit more flavor/aroma.  Good or bad idea?  Not sure what to expect: I don't want unintentional acids wrecking the flavor profile or adding more bitterness.

Thanks,
Alex

4

Equipment and Software / Sparge for Picnic Cooler Tun

« on: November 23, 2012, 06:42:09 PM »

Any suggestions on devices to help automate sparging? I am using a picnic cooler mash/lauter tun.  To date, I have been ladling sparge water with a 1qt cup onto a plate held above the grain bed (using gloves of course).  It can be a pain, especially when I'd rather be measuring the runoff pH and grav.

Thanks for any ideas.