| |
Main
Date: 06 Jul 2006 18:25:45
From: pfa
Subject: Low mash temp
|
I just did my first all grain (Belgian Wit...thanks to KAB for the tip
on getting a wit bier looking like a wit bier). I cooked the
ingredients in a cooler. My only problem was although my water was
around 170 (maybe higher) the resulting mash was only about 140. I
added another pan of hot water to try and get it above 150 but I think
at best I got around 145-146. I proceeded with the recipe's
instructions except that my next problem was my brew pot (which I used
to use for extract brews) wouldn't hold the entire wort (you can tell
I'm new at this) so I had to split it into different pots. As I only
had 2 bags to handle hops and coriander/curacao I decided to
concentrate on the larger pot and let the other pots cool.
Fermentation started within 12 hours which I thought was very
promising. Colour looked good. After a week I transferred to 2nd carboy
where bubbling stopped after about 4 days. The following day I took a
reading. It was barely over 1 (supposed to be around 1.008...and before
you ask I didn't take an initial reading...I'm a slack tart) so I
decided to bottle. I tasted the sample and though not horrible did
taste a bit wheaty (in a raw sense).
FYI the yeast I used was Wyeast 3725 Biere De Garde
My questions are:
1. What effect would not reaching the 150+ temp have on the mash?
2. The boiling stage...does it matter that I didn't boil the entire
wort or is that just to get the hops and other flavours into the brew?
3. If I was hasty on the bottling is there anything that can be done?
(e.g. store at certain temp; wait longer than 2 weeks; release pressure
on each bottle over the next day or so)
4. Should I just throw it out and start again? ;-)
|
|
| |
Date: 07 Jul 2006 02:05:20
From: QD Steve
Subject: Re: Low mash temp
|
"pfa" <peter@falson.net > wrote in message
news:1152235545.265384.297920@s16g2000cws.googlegroups.com...
>
> 1. What effect would not reaching the 150+ temp have on the mash?
> 2. The boiling stage...does it matter that I didn't boil the entire
> wort or is that just to get the hops and other flavours into the brew?
> 3. If I was hasty on the bottling is there anything that can be done?
> (e.g. store at certain temp; wait longer than 2 weeks; release pressure
> on each bottle over the next day or so)
> 4. Should I just throw it out and start again? ;-)
>
145-146 is not too low, you should get reasonable conversion providing it
didn't drop too low over the mash period.
You didn't actually state whether you mixed the unboiled wort with the
boiled stuff, but I presume you did and then fermented the lot. You could
end up with excessive protein in the beer which may make it cloudy. Hops
should be okay because you did boil them. You might get other unwanted
flvours from not boiling the wort, other people may explain better. Hasty
bottling is not such a good idea for quite a few reasons.Nevertheless,
providing fermentation had finished it shouldn't be too bad, it will take
longer to mature and you could get excessive sediment.
Steve W (in Aus)
|
| |
Date: 07 Jul 2006 14:23:34
From: John 'Shaggy' Kolesar
Subject: Re: Low mash temp
|
On 6 Jul 2006 18:25:45 -0700, <peter@falson.net > wrote:
> I just did my first all grain (Belgian Wit...thanks to KAB for the tip
> on getting a wit bier looking like a wit bier). I cooked the
> ingredients in a cooler. My only problem was although my water was
> around 170 (maybe higher) the resulting mash was only about 140. I
> added another pan of hot water to try and get it above 150 but I think
> at best I got around 145-146.
This will get easier with some experience. It just takes a bit of getting
used to your system so that you know what water temp you need to start with
in order to hit your target mash temp. A mash of 145-146 should be alright.
> I proceeded with the recipe's
> instructions except that my next problem was my brew pot (which I used
> to use for extract brews) wouldn't hold the entire wort (you can tell
> I'm new at this) so I had to split it into different pots. As I only
> had 2 bags to handle hops and coriander/curacao I decided to
> concentrate on the larger pot and let the other pots cool.
Splitting it up between pots shouldn't hurt anything. I would have boiled
all of the pots though, not just the one with the hops. Still, it might not
have caused any problems. Boiling the others would just be for sanitation,
IE killing any potential bacteria.
> Fermentation started within 12 hours which I thought was very
> promising.
Yep, good sign.
> Colour looked good. After a week I transferred to 2nd carboy
> where bubbling stopped after about 4 days. The following day I took a
> reading. It was barely over 1 (supposed to be around 1.008...and before
> you ask I didn't take an initial reading...I'm a slack tart) so I
I'm going to guess that you did something wrong when you took the 1.001
SG reading. That seems pretty strange.
> decided to bottle. I tasted the sample and though not horrible did
> taste a bit wheaty (in a raw sense).
As long as it tasted OK, you should be fine. IMO a Belgian Wit probably
will taste a bit wheaty.
> 1. What effect would not reaching the 150+ temp have on the mash?
Lower mash temps will give you a more fermentable wort, which means that
the final beer will be a bit drier and the FG will be a bit lower than
expected.
> 2. The boiling stage...does it matter that I didn't boil the entire
> wort or is that just to get the hops and other flavours into the brew?
I would have boiled it all at least to kill off any potential bacteria. I
wouldn't worry about it too much for this beer, nothing you can really do
about it now. Keep it in mind for next time though.
> 3. If I was hasty on the bottling is there anything that can be done?
> (e.g. store at certain temp; wait longer than 2 weeks; release pressure
> on each bottle over the next day or so)
Store the bottles at room temp for 1 - 2 weeks. If you open one and it is
very over carbonated, or if it starts gushing, then you might have a problem.
In that case, put all of them in the fridge to help slow down further
creation of pressure and post back here for some help.
> 4. Should I just throw it out and start again? ;-)
Nah, it's always a good idea to be patient. You wouldn't believe how many
times I've heard stories about beers that tasted absolutely awful at racking
or bottling time that the brewer almost gave up on, but after they let it
age for a bit it turned out to be a pretty good beer.
John.
>
|
| |
Date: 07 Jul 2006 03:18:09
From: GeoffT
Subject: Re: Low mash temp
|
My first all grain was a hefeweizen and it was a very similar story to
yours. I thought it was completely messed up the way i was haphazardly
adding boiling water and not hitting the right temperatures. It turned
out to be the best beer I ever made though.
As long as you learn from your mistakes, all is not lost!
|
| |
Date: 06 Jul 2006 22:19:03
From: pfa
Subject: Re: Low mash temp
|
Thanks for that...I feel a little better. Yes I did mix the unboiled
with the boiled. I'm wondering if what I'm tasting has anything to do
with that. I also wondered if I sparged too quickly as what was left in
my bucket (after a couple of hours) was some pretty cloudy liquid which
might have had some worth flavour wise to the wort (or is that just par
for the course?)
As it's my first all grain I'm not going to fret too much, just try and
learn from my mistakes.
BTW, QD isn't an extra abbreviated Queensland is it? If so I'm from NW
but living in OR (US).
QD Steve wrote:
> "pfa" <peter@falson.net> wrote in message
> news:1152235545.265384.297920@s16g2000cws.googlegroups.com...
> >
> > 1. What effect would not reaching the 150+ temp have on the mash?
> > 2. The boiling stage...does it matter that I didn't boil the entire
> > wort or is that just to get the hops and other flavours into the brew?
> > 3. If I was hasty on the bottling is there anything that can be done?
> > (e.g. store at certain temp; wait longer than 2 weeks; release pressure
> > on each bottle over the next day or so)
> > 4. Should I just throw it out and start again? ;-)
> >
> 145-146 is not too low, you should get reasonable conversion providing it
> didn't drop too low over the mash period.
> You didn't actually state whether you mixed the unboiled wort with the
> boiled stuff, but I presume you did and then fermented the lot. You could
> end up with excessive protein in the beer which may make it cloudy. Hops
> should be okay because you did boil them. You might get other unwanted
> flvours from not boiling the wort, other people may explain better. Hasty
> bottling is not such a good idea for quite a few reasons.Nevertheless,
> providing fermentation had finished it shouldn't be too bad, it will take
> longer to mature and you could get excessive sediment.
> Steve W (in Aus)
|
| | |
Date: 07 Jul 2006 06:16:00
From: QD Steve
Subject: Re: Low mash temp
|
"pfa" <peter@falson.net > wrote in message
news:1152249543.672067.251020@m73g2000cwd.googlegroups.com...
> Thanks for that...I feel a little better. Yes I did mix the unboiled
> with the boiled. I'm wondering if what I'm tasting has anything to do
> with that. I also wondered if I sparged too quickly as what was left in
> my bucket (after a couple of hours) was some pretty cloudy liquid which
> might have had some worth flavour wise to the wort (or is that just par
> for the course?)
>
> As it's my first all grain I'm not going to fret too much, just try and
> learn from my mistakes.
>
> BTW, QD isn't an extra abbreviated Queensland is it? If so I'm from NW
> but living in OR (US).
>
You're kinda close to doing it right but a little more information would
certainly bring you closer to your goals. You've probably heard it before,
but John Palmers book, How to Brew will get you pretty much spot on and will
tidy up all those little things that are not quite right and those you don't
fully understand.
Even if this lot goes down the drain, you've learnt a heap for next time
around.
FYI, QD is an old, and now meaningless anacronym which I keep meaning to
delete but somehow never gotten around to. Now you've reminded me, I'll edit
my profile and trash it. I actually live in Adelaide.
Happy Brewing.
Steve W (in Adel)
|
| |
Date: 08 Jul 2006 23:15:38
From: David M. Taylor
Subject: Re: Low mash temp
|
"pfa" <peter@falson.net > wrote in message
news:1152235545.265384.297920@s16g2000cws.googlegroups.com...
>
> My questions are:
>
> 1. What effect would not reaching the 150+ temp have on the mash?
The beta enzymes will break down more of the starches into fermentable
sugars, and as a result, the final beer will end up with higher alcohol, but
less body. I'm not surprised your final gravity was very low.
> 2. The boiling stage...does it matter that I didn't boil the entire
> wort or is that just to get the hops and other flavours into the brew?
This is a weird one... depending on how much you boiled, you might not
notice anything strange about your beer... but I'd guess you very likely
will. Boiling is important because it coagulates proteins, causes Maillard
reactions, isomerizes alpha acids, sanitizes, etc., so if you only boiled,
say, half the wort, your final beer might end up tasting... "worty" or
something to that effect (or perhaps as you described it, "wheaty"), and
might end up cloudy, lighter in color, and less bitter than you'd expect.
It might even end up infected and nasty tasting. You might notice something
unusual, you might not. I'm curious about this, please let us know how it
turns out in the end.
> 3. If I was hasty on the bottling is there anything that can be done?
> (e.g. store at certain temp; wait longer than 2 weeks; release pressure
> on each bottle over the next day or so)
Your bottles could explode, or at least, your beer may end up being a gusher
or way overcarbonated. I've made this mistake a few times. Patience is
extremely important when it comes to deciding when to bottle. Based on
experience, I usually wait until I think the beer is done fermenting... and
then wait AT LEAST 3 or 4 more days before I bottle.
> 4. Should I just throw it out and start again? ;-)
Depends on the taste. Even if it ends up being a worty gusher, if it tastes
halfway decent to you, then it might be worth keeping. Best of luck to you.
--
Dave
"Just a drink, a little drink, and I'll be feeling GOOooOOooOOooD!" --
Genesis, 1973-ish
|
|
