Screwed up my Hefe multi step mash

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megavites

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Well, this will be a miracle if this one ends up OK.

I'm brewing a Hefe with multi step infusions and I did just about everything wrong.:(
First, I went high on the protein rest at 130 deg instead of 122.
I hit the sach. rest dead on at 152, but this was supposed to be an equal
batch sparge and I wound up leaving all the water in the cooler.
So, I drained some into my keggle and then mashed out at 168 deg.

SG was 1.037, so, I'm going to boil for 90 min to get the gravity up to 1.044.
I'm just not sure what the missed batch sparge and higher initial protein rest will do.

If someone would like to step in and slap me in the back of the head, pls do.
I'd like to understand batch sparging with multi step mashing.
I think I should have lowered my water amounts intially, and then batched to make up the addt'l amount. Right??
Here's the recipe
Amount Item Type % or IBU
6.00 lb Wheat Malt, Ger (2.0 SRM) Grain 50.0 %
3.00 lb Pilsner (2 Row) Ger (2.0 SRM) Grain 25.0 %
2.00 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) Bel (3.0 SRM) Grain 16.7 %
1.00 lb Munich Malt (9.0 SRM) Grain 8.3 %
1.00 oz Hallertauer [2.70%] (60 min) Hops 9.3 IBU
1.00 oz Williamette [4.00%] (15 min) Hops 6.8 IBU
5.00 gal Jackson, NJ Water
1 Pkgs Hefeweizen Ale (White Labs #WLP300) Yeast-Wheat


Beer Profile

Est Original Gravity: 1.054 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.013
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 5.2 %
Bitterness: 16.1 IBU Calories: 229 cal/pint
Est Color: 5.1 SRM Color: Color


Mash Profile

Mash Name: Double Infusion, Full Body Total Grain Weight: 12.00 lb
Sparge Water: 2.13 gal Grain Temperature: 72.0 F
Sparge Temperature: 168.0 F TunTemperature: 72.0 F
Adjust Temp for Equipment: TRUE Mash PH: 5.4 PH

Name Description Step Temp Step Time
Protein Rest Add 12.00 qt of water at 140.6 F 130.0 F 30 min
Saccrification Add 9.60 qt of water at 189.5 F 154.0 F 45 min
Mash Out Add 7.20 qt of water at 209.9 F 167.0 F 10 min
 
Well, I did end up hitting 1.044, but if some one would be so kind to explain
the math when batch sparging with a multi step mash, I'd be most thankful.

I think my error was adjusting up the infusion amounts to get a full 7 gal.
I think I should have left the amounts alone, mashed out and then
batch sparged for the addt'l amount. Right?
 
Check out this site: http://hbd.org/cascade/dennybrew/

What you did is called "no sparge". It's easy and it works but at the expense of efficiency.

For batch sparging using 2 equal volumes which is the most efficient you need to know:

1) How much water you have added to your grain
2) How much water your grain absorbs
3) How much water your system "absorbs"

eg for your recipe:

1) You had 21.6Q of water added to your mash tun
2) 12# of grain absorbs about 0.1g/# which = 1.2gal = 4.8Q
3) I'm guessing 1 quart you cannot drain out of your system

This works out to 21.6 - 4.8 - 1 = 15.8Q or 3.95 gal.

With no mash out you could drain this off and then add 3.95 gal of 170F water, mix, settle, vorlauf and drain for a total of 7.9G of wort. You would then have to boil this down.

You could reduce the amount of water you have in your original mash by using a smaller volume of boiling water to bring your mash up to your sach rest and adjust the volumes accordingly. Using the volume you did resulted in a thin mash of 1.8q/#, usual range is 1-1.3q/#

hope this helped...
 
Well, I found my problem.
I'm running BeerSmith and I had put the recipe together with proper amounts
of water at the protein rest and the sach. rest, but I didn't open the brewsheet preview. And right there it says, drain mash tun, sparge with two equal batches
of 2.42 gal.
My mistake on brewday was looking at the recipe and saying, hey, I need to adjust this thing because I don't have enough water in my infusions.

Next time I will trust the software. I think this batch will turn out fine. Maybe I'll redeam myself and toss a Dunkelweizen wort on this yeast cake. MMMmmmm. :mug:
 
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