bnscherm
Active Member
Hello All,
I'm new to the forum, but I've been lurking for long time. I've been brewing for about two years, and just recently made the move to all-grain.
I've got about 5 all-grain brews under my belt all of which turned out pretty good, but not great. My most recent beer was a pumpkin ale which I modified from one of the Northern Brewer Irish Red ale all-grain recipe kits. I've got the beer kegged, and have tried a couple of tastes, and have noticed that it tastes very dry and bitter for a red. I was hoping for a rich malty taste to help balance the bitterness and pumpkin flavor.
I'm mashing in a 10 gallon rubbermaid cooler and maintained the range of 154-152F for 60 minutes. If I'm looking for more malt flavor without using darker grains it sounds like maybe I should have been mashing at a higher temperature. Could someone recommend a temperature, or possibly some grain additions that could help give me that maltiness (think Sam Adam's Oktoberfest) that I want without getting into the darker heavy malts?
Also, my well water is very hard. Is there any chance that this is messing with the mash pH and causing some of these problems? Could this be part of the extra bitterness that I taste?
Thanks for the help!
I'm new to the forum, but I've been lurking for long time. I've been brewing for about two years, and just recently made the move to all-grain.
I've got about 5 all-grain brews under my belt all of which turned out pretty good, but not great. My most recent beer was a pumpkin ale which I modified from one of the Northern Brewer Irish Red ale all-grain recipe kits. I've got the beer kegged, and have tried a couple of tastes, and have noticed that it tastes very dry and bitter for a red. I was hoping for a rich malty taste to help balance the bitterness and pumpkin flavor.
I'm mashing in a 10 gallon rubbermaid cooler and maintained the range of 154-152F for 60 minutes. If I'm looking for more malt flavor without using darker grains it sounds like maybe I should have been mashing at a higher temperature. Could someone recommend a temperature, or possibly some grain additions that could help give me that maltiness (think Sam Adam's Oktoberfest) that I want without getting into the darker heavy malts?
Also, my well water is very hard. Is there any chance that this is messing with the mash pH and causing some of these problems? Could this be part of the extra bitterness that I taste?
Thanks for the help!