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Author Topic: How much of a difference does mash thickness make?  (Read 21694 times)

Offline saintpierre

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Re: How much of a difference does mash thickness make?
« Reply #15 on: June 21, 2012, 05:28:11 am »
Mike St. Pierre, P.E.
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Offline DrewG

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Re: How much of a difference does mash thickness make?
« Reply #16 on: June 21, 2012, 06:38:44 am »
That seals the deal on naming that beer.

In Gordons book I pretty sure theres a recipe using the same base malts to create an amber, pale and brown ale by just changing up the character malts. If I remember he wrote that you can add them in after the 1st run off. That might be the way to go
"Well, the Mexicans got a saying - what cannot be remedied must be endured."

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Offline ccfoo242

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Re: How much of a difference does mash thickness make?
« Reply #17 on: June 21, 2012, 06:48:07 am »
That seals the deal on naming that beer.

In Gordons book I pretty sure theres a recipe using the same base malts to create an amber, pale and brown ale by just changing up the character malts. If I remember he wrote that you can add them in after the 1st run off. That might be the way to go

Yep. I tried something similar last weekend but added cold-steeped malts to the boil. It made calculating the pre-boil volume interesting, and adding a gallon of room-temp liquid stopped my boil for about 5 minutes. Not sure I'm going to bother with that again and may just do like you mentioned and add them after first runnings.
Intra cervisiam est deus.

Offline denny

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Re: How much of a difference does mash thickness make?
« Reply #18 on: June 21, 2012, 10:18:57 am »
Session IPA = Pale Ale?

Yep, AFAIAC.  Or "Extra Hoppy Pale Ale".
Life begins at 60.....1.060, that is!

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Offline DrewG

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Re: How much of a difference does mash thickness make?
« Reply #19 on: June 21, 2012, 11:08:38 am »
Mine is only 4% ABV, so it doesn't even qualify as a Pale Ale.
"Well, the Mexicans got a saying - what cannot be remedied must be endured."

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Offline micsager

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Re: How much of a difference does mash thickness make?
« Reply #20 on: July 09, 2012, 11:03:50 am »
Session IPA = Pale Ale?

I'm unsure of that.  "IPA" generally means lots of hops, lots of bitter.  "Session" generally means low alchohol.

I've "tried" to brew a session IPA.  Came out at 5.5%ABV.  But for me, that IS a session. 

Offline erockrph

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Re: How much of a difference does mash thickness make?
« Reply #21 on: July 09, 2012, 12:02:51 pm »
Session IPA = Pale Ale?

I'm unsure of that.  "IPA" generally means lots of hops, lots of bitter.  "Session" generally means low alchohol.

I've "tried" to brew a session IPA.  Came out at 5.5%ABV.  But for me, that IS a session.

The lines between Pale Ale, IPA and IIPA are really starting to get blurry. My "session IPA" is probably closer to a session DIPA, although I've just come to think of it as a hoppy pale ale. Every time I brew it it gets dryer and dryer. At this point I don't even want any crystal malt in the same room as I brew it. And while my IBU's may not be in the 80's, my BU:GU ratio is a bit over 1.

It may not work for judging, but for my tastes I pretty much see the hoppy American ales as a continuum, and as long as the malt bill is balanced (not too thin/not too malty or sweet), then there is a wide range of gravities and hopping levels that will work.
Eric B.

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Offline micsager

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Re: How much of a difference does mash thickness make?
« Reply #22 on: July 09, 2012, 02:35:42 pm »
Session IPA = Pale Ale?

I'm unsure of that.  "IPA" generally means lots of hops, lots of bitter.  "Session" generally means low alchohol.

I've "tried" to brew a session IPA.  Came out at 5.5%ABV.  But for me, that IS a session.

The lines between Pale Ale, IPA and IIPA are really starting to get blurry. My "session IPA" is probably closer to a session DIPA, although I've just come to think of it as a hoppy pale ale. Every time I brew it it gets dryer and dryer. At this point I don't even want any crystal malt in the same room as I brew it. And while my IBU's may not be in the 80's, my BU:GU ratio is a bit over 1.

It may not work for judging, but for my tastes I pretty much see the hoppy American ales as a continuum, and as long as the malt bill is balanced (not too thin/not too malty or sweet), then there is a wide range of gravities and hopping levels that will work.

Hard to disagree with any of that.  I was re-listening to an old episode of "Can You Brew It" where they cloned the Maharaja From Avery.  The brewer had an interesting statement.  Basically he said an IIPA would be high in ABV, with normal IPA bitterness.  Whereas a DIPA would have normal ABV, but high bitterness.

I liked that way of saying things.  What do the rest of you think?


Offline denny

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Re: How much of a difference does mash thickness make?
« Reply #23 on: July 10, 2012, 10:05:42 am »
I think it makes no sense....
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Offline Alewyfe

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Re: How much of a difference does mash thickness make?
« Reply #24 on: July 10, 2012, 10:56:47 am »
I think it makes no sense....

You and my DH. Before the NHC I specifically tried to instruct him to pay attention and not order the "D"s
and the "I"s. (He's a session bitter and IPA drinker and has little idea or interest in what all the other stuff is)
He spent a lot of time on his own and sure enough I found him slurring ;-).......but happy.
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Offline gordonstrong

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Re: How much of a difference does mash thickness make?
« Reply #25 on: July 10, 2012, 10:58:41 am »
IIPA and DIPA mean the same thing.  We picked IIPA in the Style Guidelines in 2004 when they were relatively new to the market, but it seems like the market has settled more on DIPA.  So it could change in the future.  If you read the comments of the guidelines, it basically says we just picked something arbitrarily since we needed to call it something and there didn't appear to be standardized usage in the industry.

No matter what name you pick, people will always pick something else just so they can say they are different and special.  Expect it.
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Offline jeffy

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Re: How much of a difference does mash thickness make?
« Reply #26 on: July 10, 2012, 12:42:27 pm »
IIPA and DIPA mean the same thing.  We picked IIPA in the Style Guidelines in 2004 when they were relatively new to the market, but it seems like the market has settled more on DIPA.  So it could change in the future.  If you read the comments of the guidelines, it basically says we just picked something arbitrarily since we needed to call it something and there didn't appear to be standardized usage in the industry.

No matter what name you pick, people will always pick something else just so they can say they are different and special.  Expect it.
Watch of for the Cross Dressing Amateurs.
Jeff Gladish, Tampa (989.3, 175.1 Apparent Rennarian)
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Offline DrewG

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Re: How much of a difference does mash thickness make?
« Reply #27 on: July 10, 2012, 01:03:55 pm »
When I get home I'm going to ponder all this over a Session ESB
"Well, the Mexicans got a saying - what cannot be remedied must be endured."

-Barbarosa