Question on "mashing", "steeping", etc. - Page 2

jharres · 01-05-2009, 01:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Edcculus

Lactose does not contribute to efficiency. Take the lactose out of beersmith. Since it is unfermentable and because you added it in don't take it into account. Effenciency is geared more toward how much extraction you got from your grain. The only reason I add lactose into beersmith is to see how it will affect my gravity. 1 lb of lactose will raise your OG and FG since it is in solution. If you had a OG of 1.070 with the lactose, your "fermentable" OG is probably a point or so lower.

My apologies, it wasn't beersmith, rather it was promash that I got my numbers from (I've been evaluating both and got confused). Once I removed the lactose, it did drop the gravity to 1.060, however it still shows an efficiency rating of 70% to reach that level. Is it realistic to believe that I am getting 70% efficiency through my extended "steeping"?

**Edcculus** · 01-05-2009, 05:17 PM

Oh, sorry I didn't read your grain bill. Those are all steeping grains. I'm not sure what the mild malt is, but I'm guessing its a pale ale malt. You might get a little from that, but not much.

If however you wanted to calculate efficiency of a partial mash, you would leave out any extracts whether it is lactose, DME or LME. That way, you can see how efficiently you extracted the sugars.

**Bobby_M** · 01-05-2009, 05:30 PM

Right, exactly, you have to remove the "impossible to screw up" malt extract from the calculation. Essentially you'd have to take a gravity sample of the wort you were left with prior to adding the LME to really know what you got out of it.

The only grain in that bill that has any diastatic power is the ESB malt and its proportion is only 25% of the total grain bill. It would do some conversion for you but it would take at least 90 minutes. Also, how much water did you use for the steep/mash?

jharres · 01-05-2009, 06:46 PM

Thanks guys, everything you are saying makes sense. Thank you for the input. I think I'm finally starting to "get it". (doh!).

To answer your questions, the mild malt was termed ESB Malt at my LHBS, however, from what I've been able to determine, it's commonly referred to as mild malt. I'm not sure of it's significance past that, as this is the first time I've used it and I did so at the recommendation of my LHBS.

I used 2.5 gallons of water for my steeping. Based on the ratio of 1.25 to 1.5 quarts per lb of grain, it looks like I used about a gallon too much water for a mash, even on the high end.

I pulled up my recipe in promash and removed both the lactose and LME and it left me a expected gravity of 1.018. I can see that the grand majority of fermentable sugars came from the LME. I guess, even though the grains steeped for 60 minutes at 155, all I really ended up doing was adding flavor and color. Although, I did notice that even with 2.5 gallons of water, the wort that was created from my steeping was fairly thick. Would this mainly be due to particles from the grains being suspended in the water? I'm guessing this is the case based on the amount of trub I have in the bottom of my fermenter.

Again, thanks for all your input.

**Bobby_M** · 01-05-2009, 07:14 PM

Thing about promash and any software for that matter is that it asks you for the efficiency you think you'll get. It's probably defaulted to 70% which is why it says 1.018, but unless you actually measured it with a hydrometer, you'll never know.

Certainly in the future, if you'd like to do a partial mash, keep your ratio closer to 1.5qts/pound, hit the right temps, and make sure there's at least some "base" grain in the mix like 2-row, 6-row or pale.