did first mini-mash... I Got a question

LS_Grimmy · 01-22-2007, 05:37 PM

Hey fellas,

I did my first mini-mash and I must say it was pretty awesome. I really enjoyed the process and found it facinating. Although my house smelt like a dope house when I started tossing in my hops, lol. It's very time consuming but I found it very rewarding. I wish I would if used a recipe from a book instead of doing one myself because I think I messed it up.

My problem is that the recipe I made using a beer calcualor said my SG would be around 1.057. When I finished it all and took my OG with temp correction is was at 1.030!!! I'm not sure what I did here because my temp for my mash was between 150-155F the whole time (mostly @ 150f). I'm thinking I miss calculated my fermentables....Oh ya and I used a roller to break up the grains which was a lot of work.

Here is my ingredients and process. If anyone sees what went wrong any feedback would be great.

IBU's 20
SRM's 35
5 gallon batch

Ingredients:
2 lbs American Pale Malt
1 lbs Crystal Malt L80
1 lbs Crystal Malt L120
1 lbs Munich Malt
4 lbs Light Liquid Malt Extract
Irish Moss 1 tsp
1 oz Fuggles (AA%4.0)
0.5 oz Fuggles (AA%4.0)
0.5 ozFuggles (AA%4.0)
WYeast 1728 Scottish Ale

Procedure:
-Boild 7 litres of water and did mash @ 150-155F for 60 minutes
-Sparged with 2 litres of water @ 170F
-Removed kettle from heat, and added Liquid malt extract
-Started rollover boil with below hop schedule
1 oz Fuggles (AA%4.0) - 60 min
0.5 oz Fuggles (AA%4.0) - 15 min
Irish Moss 1 tsp - 15 min
0.5 ozFuggles (AA%4.0) - 5 min
-Added to primary with remaining water to make 23 litres
-Made yeast starter 2 days before and pitched

Any Ideas what happened here? I had to add tons of dextrose at the last min to get the gravity up. Was the beer calculator off? did I enter info wrong in it maybe?

Either way I enjoyed it and I should get some pretty good beer out of it. Well way better than my usual extract beers anyway.

Cheers,
LS_Grimmy

boldone · 01-22-2007, 06:59 PM

You gravity should have been in the 1.053 - 1.057 range. What most likely went wrong was you got poor efficiency (way under 50% by my calculations). This could be a result of the grain crush or your sparging method. I would bet on the grain crush.

How did you mash and sparge? This is important info to troubleshoot your efficiency.

My first and only mini-mash I hit 50%. My first AG I hit 51%. My second I hit 81%.

The mini mash my temps were too low, the first AG my temps were too high and I used too much water. My last batch that I hit 81% I just took my time to make sure everything was done exactly right.

The more you do it the better you will get.

**RichBrewer** · 01-22-2007, 09:40 PM

I would have used about 6 liters for the mash and about 9 1/2 to ten liters of sparge liquor. A total of 15 1/2 to 16 liters. Some where in the neighborhood of 2 liters would be absorbed by the grain. With this method you will end up with about 14 liters in the brew pot.
I think you converted the grains just fine you just didn't have enough water to rinse all the sugars.
You have 2 pounds of crystal malt. That is a lot. I would be very curious what that will do to your beer. That wouldn't effect your efficiency but I just wanted to mention it.

LS_Grimmy · 01-23-2007, 01:01 AM

I used a rolling pin to crush my grains and put them in a grain bag. I also used 2 liters of sparge water. I just put the bag in a strainer and poured the water over it.

LS_Grimmy · 01-23-2007, 01:03 AM

Ya I think that was to much crystal malt... it's gunna be a heavy beer

. O well I'm happy with my first try once I figure out how to get my efficiency up. Maybe I didn't sparge enough and long enough. I tell ya one thing it's damn dark beer, lol. I'll send you some pics when fermentation dies down.

what do you guys think?

LS_Grimmy · 01-23-2007, 01:07 AM

Here are the links of the crushed grain I did with roller and a copy of my log for the steps I followed:

Beer Log
Grain Crushed Pic 1
Grain Crushed Pic 2

**RichBrewer** · 01-23-2007, 01:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LS_Grimmy

Here are the links of the crushed grain I did with roller and a copy of my log for the steps I followed:

Beer Log
Grain Crushed Pic 1
Grain Crushed Pic 2

That could be part of your problem as well. The grains don't look crushed enough. Next time get them crushed by your LHBS and see if that helps.

NEPABREWER · 01-23-2007, 02:50 PM

can anyone post the expected (approx) gravity contribution of 1lb of crushed pale malt to a brew? ie if I use 5 lbs of extract will 2lbs of pale malt held at 150 for 60 and cllander sparged with 170 deg H20 brinkg me to a respectable gravity ie 1.040-1.050?

Not trying to hijack - thought is was relevant and more efficient than a new post

boldone · 01-23-2007, 03:08 PM

Of course your efficiency would affect the answer, however I ran the numbers and you should be at about 1.056 with 5 lbs of DME and 2 lbs of 2-row.

% Weight Weight (lbs) Grain Gravity Points Color
71.4 % 5.00 Light Dry Malt Extract 45.0 2.0
28.6 % 2.00 American Two-row Pale 11.1 0.7
7.00 56.1

It would be at 1.045 if you used LME.

So 1lb of 2-row pale malt at 75% efficiency is approx. 5.5 gravity points.

Rhoobarb · 01-23-2007, 03:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RichBrewer

That could be part of your problem...

I agree. Although you can get a good crush using a ziplock bag and a rolling pin. When I did PM's and mini's, that's all I used; I never had the HBS do it. Just crush the heck out of them! Here is a great example of a grain crush that Brewpastor posted.