Mashing in too much water / & relatedly...

[Minbari]

#MeToo
The local restaurants push Guinness with straight nitro, I went with it and it works beautifully. For my brews I do like @Minbari ; put a light c02 charge on the kegs, hold for a few days and once the tap is available I move to the Nitro.

Way more cost effective too. 5lb size of 70/30 beer gas is about $35. Takes the whole thing to do one 5 gallon batch.

10lb size of nitrogen is about $25 and I still have most of it left.

(Yes, I know n2 is not measured in lbs. Just using it for size comparison)

 

[Dave Y]

I don't leave the nitro on all the time. I charge to ~44psi then shut off the gas at the cylinder until I notice a weak dispensing and recharge. Else the Nitro seems to leak much easier. I've tried several times to try and find where it's leaking but I've been unsuccessful.

 

[Minbari]

I don't leave the nitro on all the time. I charge to ~44psi then shut off the gas at the cylinder until I notice a weak dispensing and recharge. Else the Nitro seems to leak much easier. I've tried several times to try and find where it's leaking but I've been unsuccessful.

I have found that getting high quality silicon gas tube and heavy duty hose clamps helps.

 

[Dave Y]

I have found that getting high quality silicon gas tube and heavy duty hose clamps helps.

For sure, the cheap clamps off Amazon will yield frustration. So I've heard. I've definitely had some connections go south on me costing me a few co2 cylinders worth of carbonation.

 

[JWR_12]

Your mash thickness ratio won't be much problem but your temperature will be. Folks do full volume BIAB with very thin grain to water ratio and make beer just fine. As for your efficiency, it could very well be a function of temperature. If you mashed entirely outside the range and denatured the enzymes needed for conversion you'd definitely have lower conversion efficiency. Boiling longer to get a better concentration will help but the sugars you produced may be more dextrin than fermentable sugars so your FG will likely be higher and ABV lower than you're expecting.

BTW...do you not have a good way to actually measure mash temperature? If you're depending on calculations every time you mash and brew, your actual temp may be different than you think and that could contribute to your poor efficiency.

Just saw this: and I will start using a thermometer to measure mash temp (duh!). I for some silly reason hadn't thought of it.

 

[JWR_12]

So a quick update: the beer did not attenuate as much as I would have thought during fermentation (though it's still okay) so I'm thinking I did have a higher mash temp than planned. But I think what's happening is its shading into American Brown ale territory rather than Pale Ale. Just in time for winter!

 

[Craigerrr]

Let's see it!