Elf King Ale II

My second official Elf King Ale. I've made some changes. Added more grain. And I changed the crystal 15L to crystal 40L. This should give the beer more body and color. I also changed the flavour hops at the end to Centennial since I couldn't get Amarillo. So, far I have tried Amarillo and Cascade. I like Amarillo better.

Recipe:
10lbs 2 row
1 lbs Crystal 40L
0.75oz Magnum 14.4 AA at 60 min
1oz Centennial 10.3AA at 5min
1oz Centennial 8.9AA at 1min
WLP001 - was harvested from the last batch.
Whirlfloc, servomyces

I needed to attempts to get my strike water temp correct. During the first attempt I added too much cold water. On the second attempt I got it to 165 which is where I wanted it.

After I got done adding grain, 5.2, checking PH, etc. the mash temp is 150F. I wanted 153F. When I first doughed in it was 155F so I thought I was the man. It appears I am not the man. So I will need to rely on the crystal 40L grain to give the beer body.

Also, I ran into a problem. I have two glass thermometers which are 10 degrees off. The new one that floats is 10 degrees higher than my old standby. I need yet another glass thermometer to resolve the issue. I can't be 10 degrees off in the mash. Either I right as of now or I'm off as of now. The beer seems fine lately so I'm not going to sweat it.

I wanted to see if the pH really does change with the 5.2 so I bought some pH strips. About 5mins after dough in I measured the mash at 5.5-5.8. It does appear different after the 5.2. I did seems to change the pH and make the mash more acidic. I'm not sure it is at 5.2 right now. But I will check when the mash is over.

Just did my first runnings. Forgot to check the pH before I emptied the first runnings. Next time.

Batch sparging today. Did one already. While waiting for the sparge water to heat up I did a little experiment where I let the remaining water in my hot liquor tank heat to boil. The new thermometer measured 200F. The old standby measured 211ish. It's 212 says the internets. At least now I know.

Pre-boil gravity is 1.030. I let it boil for about 15 minutes before putting in the first hops.

OG is 1.048. That is terrible efficiency. Perhaps I should add 2 gallons of boiling water at mash out. Then just have one batch sparge. I've got to get some consistency on this. It's driving me crazy.