Messages

46

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

« on: January 23, 2013, 07:57:39 am »

If you have extra wort laying around from a previous batch, then making a starter isn't such a bad thing to do if you really want to.  But if you don't have spare wort, then keep in mind that you are blowing extra money on extract to make the yeast starter.  Dry yeast is all about high quality, less fuss and less money.  If you're going to mess around making a yeast starter, well, you're wasting your time AND money IMHO.

47

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

« on: January 22, 2013, 07:29:23 pm »

I find that for a given volume recipe (e.g., 5 gallons), assuming all other variables remain the same (e.g., crush, pH, mash temperature, etc.), brewhouse efficiency is inversely proportional to the intended original gravity or weight of grain used.  You will not get consistent efficiency unless/until you aim to brew a consistent gravity beer.

My experiments have also proven to me, on my system, that if I mash for 20 minutes or 40 minutes or 60 minutes, it makes zero difference in efficiency.  Mash time is a limitation that you might need to figure out for your own system to see what you can get away with.  I think the reasons for the 60-minute rule of thumb is that 1) it will work on all systems, as well as 2) general American laziness and preference for nice round numbers, e.g., you can specify "mash for about 1 hour" versus "mash for at least 0.67 hours".

Furthermore, the reason we don't just mash for 15-20 minutes, even if conversion is "good enough" at that point, is that the sugars that have been generated through enzymatic action at that point are still fairly complex ones and need more breaking down to improve fermentability.  For example, it does no good to get 90% efficiency after just 15 minutes mash time if your OG=1.060 beer can only ferment down to FG=1.030 because many of the sugars are too much for the yeast to handle.  So, while you may have a good sweet wort after just a few minutes, it's not something you'll enjoy drinking at the end of fermentation.  So we mash for 60 minutes (or me, I mash for 40) so that we can get down to that FG=1.015 that we want for an easier drinking brew.

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.

By the way, a good pH number at mash temperature is about 5.2 to 5.5, with 5.3 being the "ideal".  This can be measured with a fancy chemical gauge, or you can use the cheap pH paper.  Adjustments can be made with the different brewing salts or with acidulated malt, etc.  For most water and most styles, your pH will naturally fall pretty close to this range on its own without added stuff.  But if your water isn't great then it might do strange things to your efficiency.  Most of us don't worry too much and are actually fine in not worrying.  But it is worth finding out what your typical pH is anyway, if nothing else just to rule it out as a possibility.

You can tighten your crush as much as you want, the limiting factor being the dreaded stuck sparge.  I brewed for years using my friggin blender to "crush" the malt, and made many award-winners that way.  The stuff you might read about tannin extraction is largely blown out of proportion and is primarily an issue for fly spargers who sparge too much, not batch spargers and certainly not for batch spargers of big beers where the pH and gravity are very unlikely to reach the limits to where tannins get pulled out.

How's that for a data dump!

48

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

« on: January 22, 2013, 02:35:50 pm »

I find conversion is done in 15-20 minutes, and certainly within an hour.  Mash time is not a factor in my experience.  YMMV?

49

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

« on: January 22, 2013, 11:54:32 am »

It could be a pH thing, but I'd look at the crush being different from different shops.  The differences in crush can have a huge impact.

50

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

« on: January 22, 2013, 11:20:54 am »

Depending on how you calculate efficiency, your volume measurements can also have a huge impact.  For example, if you expect to make 5 gallons at an original gravity of 1.060 but you boil too hard and only ended up with 4.5 gallons, then your gravity will look way high by a ratio of 5/4.5, so you might get 1.067, which makes it look like you got like an extra 10% efficiency, when in fact your efficiency is probably the same as it always was, you just boiled it down too hard.  It can happen if you don't account for volumes in your measurements.  Think about it.

51

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

« on: January 22, 2013, 11:11:49 am »

Extending the mash time won't help at all.  The thing you really need to consider for big beers is whether to sparge more, and thusly boil more.  For a big beer I will often boil for 2 to 2.5 hours, and sparge enough to account for the longer boil time.  Then you can still get your efficiency in the 70s or maybe even 80s.

As for fermentation time, don't rush it.  The yeast will tell you when they are done.  As a general rule, I'd give it a good 3 to 4 weeks before even thinking about secondary or bottling/kegging, and even then, check your gravity every few days to see if it is still changing.  Warming the beer up near the final gravity is also a great idea.  Even for lagers, you can safely take the beer up into the upper 60s at the end of the fermentation without ill effect to help the yeast finish up their job.

52

All Grain Brewing / Re: First two BIAB batches low efficency (55-60%). Top reasons for low?

« on: January 22, 2013, 06:05:25 am »

Efficiency problems usually involve the crush or the volume measurements.  Did you get the volume you expected?  If not this could have a huge impact on your efficiency calculations.  If it is not those two things, then consider a squeeze of the bag or a slight rinse of the grain bag next time.

53

Yeast and Fermentation / Re: 48hrs no fermentation.....Advice?

« on: January 21, 2013, 09:46:55 am »

Get a second pack of dry yeast and throw it in there IMMEDIATELY.  Nottingham ale yeast has quality issues and isn't alive on occasion.  It is for this reason that I don't use Nottingham anymore.  US-05 works great in a pinch like this.  Or Munton's or S-04 would be a little more English/Irish in character if you've got either of those.

54

Kegging and Bottling / Re: Added yeast at bottling/Now Diacetyl present

« on: January 20, 2013, 07:15:03 pm »

I agree with garc_mall.  Diacetyl is usually 100% gone in about 3 to 4 weeks.  Don't worry.

55

Yeast and Fermentation / Re: Favorite yeast for a Belgian IPA?

« on: January 20, 2013, 08:42:02 am »

My favorite Belgian yeasts are WLP500 and WLP530.  I have more experience with the WLP530 -- this yeast will make a nice dry beer, perfect for the Belgian way of thinking.  However it is also a somewhat fussy yeast and will need extra time to ferment -- give it a good 4 to 6 weeks to ferment out all the way or you could have a gusher.

Out of your hop options, my gut says that Apollo would turn out really nice.  While I have never personally tasted it, based on the flavor descriptions I have seen of an "orangey" and spicy character, it sounds like a great meld with Belgian IPA.  Otherwise I'd go with Amarillo which also has a certain tangerine sort of thing going on.  Reminds me of a really strong witbier or something like that.  The other hops will also be great of course, but the two "A" hops would be my personal leanings.

56

Extract/Partial Mash Brewing / Add Extract DURING a Mini-Mash to use the Enzymes?

« on: January 19, 2013, 06:40:16 am »

I am normally an all-grain brewer, but at the request of a friend, recently I came up with an extract/mini-mash recipe for Bud Light.  And then I was thinking, I might actually want to give this recipe a try in my own house, as it is just crazy enough that it might actually work.  And I want this beer to be as dry as possible, no residual sweetness to speak of, just like the real Bud Light.  All distilled water would be used, maybe even a little acid to help bring the mash pH down.  However, I also know that the various extracts in the market today have different attenuability depending on which manufacturer, i.e., some extracts won't ferment down below 1.018, no matter what you do or how much simple sugar or adjuncts you add or whatever.  But.... what if it were possible to level this playing field?  What if you could use ANY manufacturer's extract and still get reasonably consistent results in regards to high attenuation (goal would be 1.010 or less).  Since this is a mini-mash beer, what would happen if you used the following process?:

1) Steep a pound of crushed 6-row malt in a bag (mini-BIAB) in about 3 quarts of water at 147 F for 75 minutes.
2) Pull the bag out, but while the enzymes are still active, add all your extract, ensure it is all dissolved, and also let THAT sit at 147 F for another ~20 minutes.  A small amount of heat will need to be added to bring temperature up, but since there's only 3 quarts of sweet wort at this point, this is not difficult at all.
3) After "mashing" the extract for ~20 minutes using the dissolved enzymes from the grain, add all the rest of your brewing water (total of 6 gallons), bring up to a boil, and brew as normal (5 gallon recipe).

The theory is that the high enzymatic content of the 6-row will be plenty to break down any complex sugars that may be in the extract -- you could extend the extract "mash" to an hour or more if you wanted the beer to be as dry as possible, but my guess is 20 minutes would suffice.  Then add your water and brew as normal.

I have a feeling this will work, and I kind of want to try it.  What do the other all-grain mashing experts think?  Has anyone else tried anything similar to this process before?  How did it turn out??

57

Going Pro / Re: German commercial breweries batch sparging?

« on: January 17, 2013, 11:01:27 am »

BYO magazine also recently posted an article about a German lager where the step mash is performed by direct heating of the mash tun.  After several step-ups in temperature, they finally drain the sweet wort and then do a sort of triple batch sparge.  I'm describing this based on memory, but essentially what was described was that you wanted to get half your volume from the first runnings as normal, but then after that you split your sparge into three equal parts, adding a third and draining completely, then repeating this process two more times.  This process, also, sounded very much like batch sparging to me, with a twist in that they keep the mash very thick by only sparging a little bit at a time, three times.  But I bet it would accomplish pretty close to your conventional batch sparge.  This article, too, might have been written by Horst Dornbusch?  Sometimes I have a pretty good memory... other times, not so much.  But I just read the article about 10 days ago so I'm probably not too far off.

Thank you, Denny, for sharing.  Interesting seeing that the Germans are not as far off from the conventional wisdom of the rest of the world as some might believe.

58

Ingredients / Re: Vanilla extract

« on: January 15, 2013, 03:44:27 pm »

Store-bought vanilla extract is nasty and of very low flavor.  To get good vanilla flavor, you need one of two things: 1) actual vanilla beans, or 2) Mexican/Central American vanilla extract.  Otherwise I wouldn't be surprised at all if the flavor is gone as commercial vanilla extract is crap.

59

All Grain Brewing / Re: Mash Schedule help please

« on: January 14, 2013, 12:07:46 pm »

I would agree with Dave that you don't need to do a protein rest but in this case it really won't hurt either.  Personally I would skip it, but if you were to do a protein rest, personally I would limit it to 5 minutes or no more than 10 minutes for sure, as a longer protein rest will indeed hurt your head retention.   In my experience, 5 minutes should be all you really need to notice an effect, whereas 30 minutes would basically kill all the body and head retention characteristics of the beer.  In a Belgian, not such a terrible thing necessarily, as they like their beers "digestible", but since this is more of a Belgo-American thing being an IPA, you probably wouldn't want to do it.

60

Yeast and Fermentation / Re: Porter temp profile

« on: January 11, 2013, 10:58:08 am »

I ferment my porters at about 62 F the whole time, maybe raise the temperature to 65 F in the last 1/4 of fermentation but it is optional.  English yeasts are fine with the coolness.