natural wort chilling doesn't work as well as I thought

[Kaiser]

Saturday night I brewed a Dunkel and since it was late (3am) I didn't want to bother with chilling it all the way down to 46*F. So I only chilled it to about 75*F and left it out in the cold (~34*F) hoping that it will be at pitching temp when I wake up the next morning. I covered it with a sanitized lid.

After about 5 hrs out there it was only down to 65F (maybe I should have put a fan next to it). Now I can see if warm pitching really doesn't cause to many off flavors as I decided to pitch at that temp to fight any contamination that may have started and didn't want to set-up the chiller again. But I was able to draw a fairly clear wort after a 5hr+ whirlpool rest

BTW, the grain-mill (Maltmill) that I bought keeps impressing me. On that last batch I got an efficiency of 95% for batch sparging. But I feel I must have measured the grain wong. This seems to close to the theoretical maximum efficiency for batch sparging, which is around 96% for my system and the amount of grains that I used.

Kai

[Push Eject]

Wow, Kai. 95%! I shoot for 70% and seem to waver between 68% and 74%.

Thanks for posting the results of your 5 hour-outdoor-chill!

Push Eject

[Kaiser]

Wow, Kai. 95%! I shoot for 70% and seem to waver between 68% and 74%.

Yeh, I was surprided as well. But then I also got 80% on a 1.076 beer with a 5 gal cooler and just 25L pre boil.

I think that I'm getting a lot of flour since my mashes don't run-off as fast anymore. I also started to pre-moisten the grains to keep the husks in better shape. And since I started doing that, my mash doesn't seem to settle during the mash rests anymore.

But maybe I really just measured the grains wrong.

Thanks for posting the results of your 5 hour-outdoor-chill!

Can't wait for the winter and the oportunity to use snow to get down into the 40's.

Kai

[GooberMcNutly]

I also started to pre-moisten the grains to keep the husks in better shape.
Kai

Tell me more about pre-moistening. I am interested. Does it help keep sparges from being stuck or help efficiency more? I had not heard of that technique before.

[Bugeater]

Theoretically it should help to moisten the grain a little. This softens the husk material so it stays intact during milling. This keeps everything from compacting so bad. The problem I have heard from folks who have tried this is the one of figuring how much water to add and just how to do it. Too much and everything gums up in your mill, making a horrible mess.

You can avoid all those problems just by adding some rice hulls to your mash. It is much simpler. I am all into simple when it comes to making the brew day simpler. Even some of my friends consider me simple.

Wayne
Bugeater Brewing Company

[GooberMcNutly]

Sounds like it might have merit.

How moist is moist? Maybe a pint in 11 lbs of grain? Or a quart? Spray it with a squirty bottle as I stir it?

I am also assuming that I have to put the grain into the pot and start the mash right away, too? I often grind the night before then brew in the morning, but I am pretty sure I wouldn't want the grain to be wet and warm all night.

I like rice hulls too. I just did a wheat beer with 4lbs wheat and 6 lbs barley. I used 1/2 lb rice hulls. Was this too much? I have heard numbers as low as 5% by weight rice/wheat and as high as 1/4. Any guidelines? (You sure get a lot of rice hulls for $2.)

[Lufah]

GooberMcNutly take a look here...

http://www.thebrewingnetwork.com/phpBB2 ... ht=moisten

Can't wait for the winter and the oportunity to use snow to get down into the 40's.

Ya good luck with that. I tried it last year and it didn't work very well at all. I think it could if you don't mind packing snow back around it every hour or so, but I just stuck mine in a couple feet of snow and went to bed. I only got to the mid 60's from about 100.

Travis

[Kaiser]

Ya good luck with that. I tried it last year and it didn't work very well at all. I think it could if you don't mind packing snow back around it every hour or so, but I just stuck mine in a couple feet of snow and went to bed. I only got to the mid 60's from about 100.

I don't plan to just put the pot into a snow bank. I'll also use the snow in a bucket with water and a pump to circulate the melt water through my counterflow chiller. Currently I'm using ice for that.

Kai