1st. 10 gallon brew and woes

Don · Post by **Don** » Mon Jul 07, 2008 7:45 pm

Sunday I finally did my 1st 10 gal batch after @ 30, 5 gallons brews.
I made an American wheat, figured I try something simple.
20 pounds of grain in my 10 gal. Gott cooler fit with plenty of room at 1.25 gt/ lb.
I used my new stainless false bottom. This was not the time to try a new false bottom, I used 6 large handfuls of rice hulls and still had a stuck sparge like never before.. (should of used a lot more rice hulls)
I ended up having to removing the grain and putting it into my bottling bucket, removed the false bottom and go back to my old faithful stainless braid (this has never let me down). Ended up spilling some 152 deg wort on my shirt and got a nice red area.

The rest of the mashing went fine then came time to boil the wort. This took an extra 20 minutes to get to up to a full boil, but I was working with 13.5 gallons in my 15.5 gallon kettle. I used Feremcap to try and hold down the boil-over and I only had one little boil-over the rest of the time I could control it with some water spray.
After the 90 minute boil I ended with 11.5 gallons (just as planed).

When it was time to add my first hops I did as always before, and added 1 oz. About 20 minutes later I realized my mistake and added the second oz of hops. (I've made this receipt to many time and didn't read my paper)

In all it took and extra hour to brew 10 gallons verse 5 but It was worth it.

Anyone want to but a stainless false bottom?

Don

sirgiovanni · Post by **sirgiovanni** » Tue Jul 08, 2008 7:02 am

Are you sure your grains might not of just been over ground a bit?

jefrey3 · Post by **jefrey3** » Tue Jul 08, 2008 4:31 pm

Don't give up on your new false bottom yet. I don't know your grain bill, but I assume about half was the wheat. You are right. You just needed more rice hulls. The only stock mash I ever had was with a wheat beer.

Don · Post by **Don** » Tue Jul 08, 2008 8:14 pm

Yes it was 50% wheat an I should of had a lot more rice hulls.
I added what I usually do fo a 5 gal batch.

(More information to add to my notes for the next batch)

Thanks
Don

sirgiovanni · Post by **sirgiovanni** » Thu Jul 10, 2008 7:38 am

I use a false bottom and have done 2 10 gallon wheats now out of it with no rice hulls and have not had any problems sticking. I wish I knew why a bit better. But I do try to keep my ground to a minimum and I run the sparge very fast for the first couple minutes when I recirculate to initially settle the bed.