First all grain

[mk1paggy]

Well I finally did my first all grain today. It didn't go to bad. I brewed a dark chocolate stout. The mash went well , potential of 1068 and first running came out at 1056. Sparging not so well . Boil start gravity was 1025 the final gravity after boil and chilled down to 23 degree was 1038. Which gave me a brew efficiency of 56% there about. I think it was during the sparging. Will try batch spage next time. After I used the wort chiller and emptying into the fv I noticed there wasn't any stuff left on the bottom of boiler. Dose this mean I didn't achieve the hot break of similar and will it affect my brew?

[DeadFall]

Well I finally did my first all grain today. It didn't go to bad. I brewed a dark chocolate stout. The mash went well , potential of 1068 and first running came out at 1056. Sparging not so well . Boil start gravity was 1025 the final gravity after boil and chilled down to 23 degree was 1038. Which gave me a brew efficiency of 56% there about. I think it was during the sparging. Will try batch spage next time. After I used the wort chiller and emptying into the fv I noticed there wasn't any stuff left on the bottom of boiler. Dose this mean I didn't achieve the hot break of similar and will it affect my brew?

I had this with my last brew. I've put it down to channelling and will mash out a lot slower next time (will probably modify my manifold a bit too).

[jaroporter]

sounds like it's gone pretty well at least, no horror story and a wort that should resemble beer! can you be more specific about the sparge process? what equipment do you use, when did you take the first running sample? how fast were you sparging, and did you keep a good layer of water above the grains?

[mk1paggy]

It is a static copper tube based sparge unit , oblong shape with a middle section where the water is fed with 2m holes along the outer long edges only. Under pressure it sprays nicely but in use it was to fast and on slowing it down it channelled , like deadfalls did. Yes I kept the water above the grains. I took the first og reading after putting 3 pints back in the mash and it was running clear.
My set up is 50l steel hlt converted cooler box mash and 50l steel boiler both with gas burners.

[keith1664]

I recommend that you give batch sparging a try. I tried fly sparging when I started out but had similar issues to yourself, I also couldn't predict my efficiency from one brew to the next.

[Dave S]

+1 for batch sparging. Apart from MT size considerations for high gravity beers, the simplicity and predictability is a no brainer for me.

[jaroporter]

sorry, meant to ask as well about your liquor to grain ratio. thought process is just that 1,056 sounds like a pretty low figure for first runnings (unless you were mashing a lot thinner than the standard 2,5-3L/kg obviously), which might indicate that part of the problem at least is in the mash rather than the sparge?

can't comment on batch sparging as i've never done it, but when fly sparging i keep a good 2-3" layer of water above the grains to stop them compacting too fast, and just drip water in in one place from the hlt tap (as opposed to using a sparge arm or similar device) at the same rate as the outflow (ridiculously slow for me!), no issues with channeling.

[mk1paggy]

I think I will give batch sparging a go next time just to see if I prefer it. My ratio was 2.5l to the kg. There was a slight difference in the thermostats. The one attached to the hlt was spot on before when I tested it but battery powered laser thermometer showed it to be under what was reading on the hlt. I also lost more heat than expected during the filling of the mash tun and doughing in.