2 hour mini-mash

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david_42

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I did the Old Dog Brown mini-mash finally. Total time 2 1/4 hours.

2 1/2 lb 2-row
1/2 lb Crystal 90L
1/2 lb Brown Malt
1/2 lb Victory
1/4 lb Chocolate Malt
5 lb pale LME

1 1/2 oz. Willamette Bittering
No aroma or finish hops.
Nottingham Dried

Mashed in 152F with 2.5 gallons of water 45 minutes
Heated another 3 gallons to 175F while mashing
Drained first wort to the kettle & started heating
Batch sparge 10 minutes, removed grain bag and stirred in extract
Added sparge & extract to kettle

The recipe called for 60 minutes for the bittering hops, with 2 gallons. Since I batch sparged, I had 5.0 gallons. I chose to adjust the time, rather than the hops.

Actual boil 25 minutes with 1/2 tsp Irish Moss the whole time.
 
Why would you change the time not the amount?
The boil time should stay the same no matter the size of the batch....
It allows the chemical reactions to finish...
 
Utilization of the alpha acids depends on both time and wort gravity. You can think of the isomerization process as a slow peeling away of layers of resin. Once a layer is isomerized, it dissolves and does not change much more. If you look at any of the online calculators, all hop additions add some bittering. If the gravity of the wort is lowered (as I did by boiling 5 gallons rather than 2), the process speeds up.

The biggest change will be in the aroma oils. By boiling a shorter time, I retain more aroma.

I could have reduced the bittering hops to one oz. and boiled 60 minutes and added the other 1/2 oz. at 30 minutes and had much the same result.
 
That's a pretty good time. My extract only brews take that much time.

I have a question on the hop utilization: If I can't do a full boil (only about 2.5 gallons), can I boil a percentage of the hops in another pot along with a few cups of DME to get better hop utilization? Is this what is known as hop tea?
 
david_42 said:
I did the Old Dog Brown mini-mash finally. Total time 2 1/4 hours.

2 1/2 lb 2-row
1/2 lb Crystal 90L
1/2 lb Brown Malt
1/2 lb Victory
1/4 lb Chocolate Malt
5 lb pale LME
Do you know what kind of efficiency you got. That is great that you completed the brew that quick!
 
I haven't calculated the efficiency, but I hit the OG (1.052) dead-on. This was another austinhomebrew kit. TG 1.012

Chillhaze - the short answers, yes & yes. If you boil hops for equal times in water and 1.100 wort, you'll get about double the IBUs in the water.
 
david_42 said:
I haven't calculated the efficiency, but I hit the OG (1.052) dead-on. This was another austinhomebrew kit. TG 1.012

Chillhaze - the short answers, yes & yes. If you boil hops for equal times in water and 1.100 wort, you'll get about double the IBUs in the water.
I would say you got good efficiency then. :mug:
 
So by this theory I could boil for only 5 minutes if I adjusted the hops??

http://***********/mrwizard/785.html They also say that the boil should stay the same no matter the size...
 
Making small batches is a different case. The gravity isn't changing.

And yes, if you increased the hops by a factor of five, you would get the same bittering in 5 minutes as you normally do in 60. The aroma and flavor would be radically different, as I noted above.
 
Berliner Weisse traditionally isn't boiled at all (though quite sour). I would think in 25 minutes you would pass most of the break and drive off DMS (though I really don't know how long that takes. It would certainly sanitize the wort.

Having said that, I think a longer boil results in precipitation of break and releasing of DMS and a more stable beer. I don't do less than 75 - ~15 for the break, then I start hopping and boil 60 more.
 
The 25 minutes is after the break. I never start the hops until the break occurs, learned that one the hard way. Waiting also lets me boil harder. DMS, I go by smell.

It's down to 1.016 and still hasn't shown any banana dispite the fast, hot ferment. Got to love Nottingham!
 
I run a mini mash like this for most of my beers. The best I ever did was 75% efficiency. 50-65 is far more common.
 
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