Messages

61

All Grain Brewing / Re: Big beer efficiency and fermentation question

« on: January 23, 2013, 10:11:29 AM »

Thanks, Kai.  I see what you are saying.  You, and many brewers, may desire a gain of 5% efficiency.

If I'm not getting close enough to my expected efficiency I'll have to boil off more and I want to avoid that.

Plus, for me, with a wife and 3 small kids to attend to, I like my brew day to be as short as humanly possible.  I can knock out a small batch in 3.5 to 4 hours, versus the 5 or 6 hours it might take to do 5 or 6 gallons. 

I hear you just to well on that one. In my case longer mash rests can give me more time to help around the house. I have made a few beers in the past where I timed mash rests and boiling with preparing and eating dinner and putting the kids to bed, respectively. In that case long mashes do help.

Kai

62

All Grain Brewing / Re: Big beer efficiency and fermentation question

« on: January 23, 2013, 09:19:04 AM »

I do hope Kai corrects me where I'm scientifically off base.  All I can do is share what I've learned through experimentation and experience, in the hopes that it will help someone out there to be a more critical thinker such as we are.

No, you are not off base. I never said that its impossible. The point I'm trying to make, and that is not directed at you Dave, is that many brewers jump to the conclusion that they can mash much shorter than 60 min just b/c some malt analysis tests can get the malt to convert in 15 min.

Maybe my crush is not tight enough, but very often I see that I gain another 5 points in conversion efficiency if I mash longer than 60 min. In most cases I'm counting on that. The time the mash is resting doesn't bother me much since I can do other things during that time.

Kai

63

All Grain Brewing / Re: more efficiency questions...

« on: January 23, 2013, 09:01:06 AM »

I have been too lazy to dive into pH and water chemistry so I am hoping most of my efficiency inconsisteny issues are indeed tied to the crush.

Even if your efficiency is fine there is still a benefit to knowing the basics about mash pH and how it is affected by the water and the grist.

Kai

64

Yeast and Fermentation / Re: Don't make yeast starters from dry yeast? WTF?

« on: January 23, 2013, 08:59:01 AM »

Sprinkling dry yeast on stuck fermentation has never worker for me.

yeast doesn't do so well when rehydrated with alcohol.

hookerer brought up important points about dry yeast and their internal reserves.

Compared to liquid yeast it is not so mych a matter of cell count but what we generally call "yeast health". For liquid yeast a starter is not only recommended for increasing the cell count but also for replenishing reserves that the yeast was living on while sitting in the fridge. If those reserves are replenished, and not spent again b/c the starter was sitting in the fridge for a week, then the lag phase will be shorter and the yeast will perform better in your beer.

Kai

65

All Grain Brewing / Re: Hockhurz Step Mash: Check my Process

« on: January 23, 2013, 06:55:33 AM »

I hold the maltose rest for 30 on more malt forward beers and for 45 min on pilsners.

Kai

66

Beer Travel / Re: Leipzig/Dresden beers

« on: January 22, 2013, 04:28:25 PM »

Only Gose comes to mind for Leipzig. The town is not really known for a diverse beer culture like Munich.

Kai

67

All Grain Brewing / Re: Big beer efficiency and fermentation question

« on: January 22, 2013, 04:23:51 PM »

I rarely find that conversion is complete after 30 min. It also depends on how you measure it. an iodine test may be negative at that time but the mash gravity test may show that not all the starches have been converted yet.

ImperialStout, oftentimes it's the lower efficiencies  that are fluctuating from batch to batch. There is a similar thread going on in parallel. http://www.homebrewersassociation.org/forum/index.php?topic=14505.0

Kai

68

All Grain Brewing / Re: more efficiency questions...

« on: January 22, 2013, 11:15:28 AM »

Mash pH depends on water (+salts+acids), mash thickness and the grist. For your two grist examples the 2nd grist likely leads to a lower mash pH than the first grist. Most likely that also means that it was closer to an “optimal” mash pH.

To troubleshoot your efficiency issues I strongly recommend that you start doing the mash gravity test. The idea of the test is to measure the wort gravity of we well mixed mash and compare it to the max that would be expected based on the mash thickness. you can use this table:



Brewer’s Friend also implemented this as one of the log entries you can create.

Kai

69

All Grain Brewing / Re: Overshot Mash PH

« on: January 22, 2013, 10:56:04 AM »

Thanks. What was the grain bill and either the mash thickness or sparge water and grist weight.

Kai

70

All Grain Brewing / Re: more efficiency questions...

« on: January 22, 2013, 10:04:53 AM »

goshman, your changing efficiency is likely caused by changed in the conversion efficiency during mashing. This efficiency is affected by mash parameters like crush, mash pH, mash thickness, time and temperature. The further you are away from 100% the more changes in these parameters can affect it and your overall efficiency. Here is some detailed reading on the subject:

http://braukaiser.com/wiki/index.php?title=Understanding_Efficiency

don't be put off by the formulae in this article. You don't have to understand them fully to understand the underlying concepts.

Kai

71

All Grain Brewing / Re: Overshot Mash PH

« on: January 22, 2013, 09:40:16 AM »

David,

Do you mind sharing the grist and water info. I'd like to run it through the model I have.

Kai

72

Events / Re: NHC 2013 Hotel?

« on: January 18, 2013, 09:43:24 AM »

Kathryn Porter, who organizes the speaker stuff, has been moved to overall event manager for the BA.  Someone new will be taking over her position and until then there are no speaker confirmations.  I get the impression that will happen very soon.

Thanks Denny, I did get a message from her regarding that.

Kai

73

Events / Re: NHC 2013 Hotel?

« on: January 18, 2013, 07:40:35 AM »

The hotel info is up on the conference website.  It's the Philadelphia Marriott downtown.

That's an interesting move to release the hotel info before we can book at the discounted rate. Either I get a room now for a higher rate or wait and risk that there will be no more rooms left.

They also haven't decided on the speakers yet, so I don't even know if I will be going.

Kai

74

Ingredients / Re: To Hop Stand or not to Hop Stand?

« on: January 08, 2013, 12:41:59 PM »

You can also reduce the temp to 80 C (~180F) for the hop stand. That will limit isomerization and DMS production.

That's what I do.

Kai

75

All Grain Brewing / Re: Pale barley brand and price

« on: January 03, 2013, 02:53:48 PM »

I don't like the price of Weyermann malts and the fact that I can't get it through our club bulk buy. Otherwise its very  high quality malt.

I have found less different "stuff" and dust in Weyermann malt than I have found in other malts.

I have yet to make a clear beer with Maris Otter malt w/o the need for fining. I have tried 2 different brands so far (Bairds and Fawcett)

Kai

Kai