Messages

1711

All Grain Brewing / Re: Short higher temp mashes

« on: February 26, 2012, 10:41:04 AM »

I'm not sure if it takes all that long to dough-in. I've read of breweries spraying their grist with strike liquor as it comes out of the mill. It then falls into a pre-heated tun. The limiting factor would be how quickly they can crush their grist. Some of the serious grain mills like a Kuenzel can crush 500lbs/min.

For a 10bbl batch of 1.045 beer, you'd need about 500lbs of grain. If your mill can grind at 50lbs/min, that'd only be 10min of dough-in. Most breweries try to ramp at 1*C/min. If you ramp from 70C to 75C, that should only take 5min. If they can only ramp at 0.5*C/min, that would take 10min.

10min - Dough in
20min - 70* C rest
5-10min - Ramp up to 75*C
? - run-off

So it could definitely extend the effective stand time, but not necessarily by all that much. Of course there are a thousand breweries who approach this a thousand different ways, and I have no idea what Stone actually does.

1712

All Grain Brewing / Re: Short higher temp mashes

« on: February 26, 2012, 08:35:26 AM »

Malzig: Thanks for the link to Kai's experiment. My efficiency is consistently 70%, +/- 1-2%. I might try a longer mash next time and see if that boosts my efficiency.

I remember hearing an interview with Dr. Bamforth where he talked about dextrins and beer. In a blind tasting, they doctored a light lager with pure dextrin. It took a huge amount of dextrin, like more than you'd ever see in wort, to get even a slight change in the apparent body or texture of the beer.

Proteinases should be active up to 155*F in the mash, so I wonder if, with highly modified malts, the effects of high temp increasing body are the result of less protein degradation, and don't involve dextrins at all. 

1713

Ingredients / Re: Chinook

« on: February 26, 2012, 08:22:47 AM »

I like Chinook for aroma. I've done a few single-hop IPAs (bittering, aroma, dry) with Chinook and they turn out well. I got primarily piney aromas, with earthy flavor.

1714

All Grain Brewing / Re: Short higher temp mashes

« on: February 26, 2012, 07:18:45 AM »

I usually mash for 30min, then vorlauf and run off, which takes another 10-15min. I used to do iodine tests, but I can't really "read" them well, so I just taste the wort. If it tastes sweet I run it off, if it still tastes starchy I leave it longer. I doubt I get "100% conversion" this way but I don't have any issues with starch haze or the like, so it can't be too bad.

It seems the quality of malt available is so much better than it was 10 years ago that a lot of the rules-of-thumb about mashing don't really apply anymore.

1715

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Just had my first kolsh...

« on: February 25, 2012, 12:51:15 PM »

Water is probably my biggest issue.  If I started with RO water what would I need to add to make it good?

How bad is your water? I made my last batch of Koelsch with 7dH general hardness and 6dH karbonate hardness. That's about 35ppm Ca, 9ppm Mg, and 106ppm alkalinity. My water has very little of anything else.  I usually add 1-2g of CaCl to get the calcium around 50ppm, and then add a bit of acid to knock the alkalinity out.

So if you're just going with RO, I'd probably treat the water the same as mine, only you'd need more CaCl and less acid. Or you could use 3% acidulated malt if that's easier.

1716

Ingredients / Re: Hop identification question

« on: February 24, 2012, 04:18:56 PM »

Amarillo and Simcoe sound right. I remember it being piney and grapefruity. Maybe Chinook too? I don't have as much experience with the other C's, but I don't think they use Cascade.

1717

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Dubbel vs Belgian Dask Strong

« on: February 24, 2012, 11:55:33 AM »

BJCP stats for dubbel:
OG: 1.062 – 1.075
IBUs: 15 – 25    FG: 1.008 – 1.018
SRM: 10 – 17    ABV: 6 – 7.6%

BJCP stats for BDS:
Vital Statistics:    OG: 1.075 – 1.110
IBUs: 20 – 35    FG: 1.010 – 1.024
SRM: 12 – 22    ABV: 8 – 11%

Not much overlap, IMO. What are your beer's stats?

The biggest qualitative difference to me is the noticeable alcohol.

1718

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Just had my first kolsh...

« on: February 24, 2012, 09:23:49 AM »

IBU (rager): 29.06

Have you seen this chart? http://cigarsinreviewtony.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/image99.gif?w=690

I can't find the article I originally saw that chart on, but it basically talked about how the Rager formula looks pretty weird, and not much like any other organic chemical curve. Garetz and Tinseth look much more like natural curves. That's not a good explanation but the article was pretty convincing.

1719

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Just had my first kolsh...

« on: February 24, 2012, 08:47:46 AM »

Just thought I'd chime in with my version. Probably the best beer I've ever brewed. It's in metric because I really don't understand how pounds and ounces / quarts and gallons work.

38L batch
OG: 1.050
FG: 1.010
44% US 2-row - 3.5kg
44% Rahr Pils - 3.5kg
12% Red wheat malt - 1kg

Single infusion at 149*F
Mashout at 160*

@ -60min - 60g US Vanguard 5.2%AA ~ 20 IBU
@ -10min - 15g of the same ~ 2 IBU
@ -0min - 35g of the same ~ 0 IBU

ferment with WY2565 at 58* for 8 days
Raise to 68* for another 8 days
40* for 3 weeks, then bottle.

Bottle at 2.5vol

1720

Yeast and Fermentation / Re: Bulk aging barleywine, do I need to re-pitch yeast?

« on: February 24, 2012, 08:37:21 AM »

I know the dominant opinion is no secondary, ever, excep for fruit and hops. Are there any contrary opinions out there for beers 1.080 and up? Does secondary with bulk ageing make a huge difference vs. extra time in primary and bottle?

I sometimes bulk age, sometimes bottle and age, depending on how many bottles or carboys I have free at any point. Haven't noticed a difference really, but I haven't done any controlled experiments either.

1721

Ingredients / Re: Deciphering the various water spreadsheets

« on: February 24, 2012, 08:11:34 AM »

In trying to match up calcium and residual alkalinity with the target profile, and then get the mash pH down, this was my result.

For yellow-to-brown beers, think of residual alkalinity as your enemy that prevents you from hitting your mash pH. Alkalinity only becomes beneficial when making dark beers, and even then you need to be careful not to overdo it.

As for calcium, 50ppm minimum is the rule-of-thumb for proper yeast health, flocculation, and protein coagulation, but I don't know of any benefits for going over that amount.

Briggs says "Perhaps the concentration of calcium ions should not greatly exceed 100 mg/l in the mashing liquor as no great advantage is gained from higher doses and there is the risk that too much phosphate may be removed from the wort, and the yeast may then have an inadequate supply."

FYI when working with very low concentrations of substances in water, mg/L is close enough to ppm as to be interchangeable, although they're not strictly the same thing.

Also, not to muddy the waters or anything, but malts contain minerals too. I've seen a figure of 35ppm of Ca+ contributed by the malt during the mash. So if your water contains 160ppm, plus the 35ppm from the malt, that puts you way over the recommended range for calcium. I also suspect the calcium content of the malt is why some people claim good results brewing with extremely soft water.

1722

Ingredients / Re: Deciphering the various water spreadsheets

« on: February 23, 2012, 07:49:57 PM »

You're adding both chalk and acid to the mash. One negates the other. I never add alkalinity to the mash. Calcium and sulfate are a bit higher than I would go, but not awful.

1723

All Grain Brewing / Re: Applely Starters

« on: February 23, 2012, 10:38:35 AM »

any idea why one would recommend direct pitch and the other re-hydration?  I always rehydrate everything, regardless of what the instructions say.

It's just marketing. Some people are afraid of rehydrating and will buy the yeast if the manufacturer says you don't need to rehydrate. It's like how people will pitch vials without making starters. It's "acceptable" but maybe not "best practice." Dry yeast packs contain twice as much yeast, but if you pitch it without rehydrating you'll kill about half of them, making the number of cells about equal with a single vial.

1724

Yeast and Fermentation / Re: Brew day Starter?

« on: February 23, 2012, 09:23:33 AM »

Nice to have the yeast going strong when you pitch into the fermenter.

Agreed. A small active starter is better than a large sluggish starter.

1725

All Grain Brewing / Re: Applely Starters

« on: February 23, 2012, 09:03:55 AM »

Expounding with maximum verbosity:

Thanks for the explanation. That's interesting. What did you ferment them at? I know a lot of people love Notty, but I've never enjoyed it. I've fermented it at 68-70*F and it was maybe the worst yeast I've used. I might try it again at 60* and see if that's better.

I've also gotten much better results with all dry yeast by rehydrating prior to pitching. It seems to help yeast health as well as density.