Hi folks,
I’m brewing this weekend. I’m using a 15 gallon Boilermaker kettle.
My question is:
Do I fill up the kettle with water (I’m thinking 1.75 qt/lb of grain), heat it to strike temperature, then dough-in, or is there another/better way to do it?
I’ve been low on my efficiency lately and I’m wondering what’s going wrong. I’m fly sparging if that makes a difference.
Thanks for any ideas,
Clif
Adding the grain to the water makes for easy mixing with few dough balls, IME. Heat the water a bit above your mash temp before adding the grain (the temp will drop 5-10F).
What I go by is to heat your strike water about 17 degrees higher than what you want your mash temp to be. 153- mash temp ? Heat your strike water to 170. I usually throw my grain in first and then slowly add strike water 2 quarts to a gallon at a time. Stir well for no dough balls in the mash. I add about 1.25 - 1.50 quarts per lb of grain. If I have to add more water to adjust the mash temp, then its no big deal. I’ve been getting about 75 % efficiency. How is your mash tun set-up? Hope this helps you out. I use to fly sparge, however, batch sparging is so much easier. I just add a little more grain to make up the difference.
