Batch Sparging Help
Oh yeah and I almost forgot, stop being such a baby and fly sparge! JK (digs at brewchez) LOL
Where can I get this magical pH stabilizer? My LHBS, or do you have a place on-line?
Northern Ike wrote:
Where can I get this magical pH stabilizer? My LHBS, or do you have a place on-line?
You can try here http://morebeer.com/view_product/19873/ or here http://www.midwestsupplies.com/products … rodID=4836 or here http://pivo.northernbrewer.com/nbstore/ … 0&y=12 or ask your LHBS
One last thing on the pH stabilizer. Does it depend on whether you have hard or soft water? I've got a water softener, which I understand makes the water unacceptable for all-grain brewing. As such, I buy the stuff from my local grocery store...the kind that is from the dispenser machine.
Do I need to test the pH of this water, or just add the stabilizer? I don't want to over think it...maybe I'll just buy some and give it a try.
I occasionally use 5.2 as well. Great stuff! It is designed to give you 5.2 ph regardless of what you start with. Soft water by the way is great for several styles including Pilsners and you can always harden your water with gypsum or other water conditioners. When I first started all grain I used distilled water and would add appropriate amounts of gypsum, chalk, or burton salts to help harden the water.
Thirsty, Brewchez, Richa182...you guy rock! Just like Zepplin!
Just ran my second all-grain batch. Did the PuPu Platter of: mash out, pH stabilizer, double grind on the grains...and my pre-boil OG came in at 1.046!
That is a full 16 point improvement, with the exact same grain bill!
Again...you guys rock!
Ike
How do I calculate efficiency? I based my grain bill on 75% extraction rate, but can someone give me a formula or something to plug into my excel sheet?
Here is some info from one of the foremost experts on batch sparging..............he's won several 1st's in the American Homebrewer's Competition and has been featured on Basic Brewing Radio.....
http://hbd.org/cascade/dennybrew/
I just finished my 5th all grain batch, all batch sparges. My first few batches were struggling to hit 50% efficiency. I upgraded from the "double buckets" to an igloo with a bazooka screen and my efficiency went up to about 55%. Then I started using 5.2 and did a mashout and I hit 65%. For my last two batches, I used my own grain mill and have now hit 78% efficiency. I think I might be able to get a few more efficiency points by milling a little more finely but I am very content with 78% as long as I can hit it consistently.
Corky, you should try Brewchez' technique of doing a mashout with the first running of wort. He recommends about 1.5 gallons at about 200F. Check out page 1 of this thread.
From my experience last weekend, and my set up, 1.5 gallons @ 200F is not enough to heat the mash up to 170F. I am going to try 2 - 2.5 gallons at 200F next time.
I think the mashout -- if you're not doing one already -- should kick you up a few efficiency points.