Something strange

Gents,

I did a Nut Brown the other day where I roasted the grains to get a nuttier flavor added.
Got my first stuck sparge but also ended up with a really crappy OG like 1.020.

Here's the recipe:
6 gallon batch.
Amount Item Type % or IBU
10.00 lb Pale Malt, Maris Otter (3.0 SRM) Grain 72.73 %
1.00 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM) Grain 7.27 %
1.00 lb Munich Malt - 10L (10.0 SRM) Grain 7.27 %
1.00 lb Oats, Flaked (1.0 SRM) Grain 7.27 %
0.50 lb Victory Malt (25.0 SRM) Grain 3.64 %
0.25 lb Chocolate Malt (350.0 SRM) Grain 1.82 %
1.00 oz Williamette [5.50 %] (60 min) Hops 16.8 IBU
1.00 oz Williamette [5.50 %] (15 min) Hops 8.3 IBU
1.20 items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 15.0 min) Misc
1 Pkgs Whitbread Ale (Wyeast Labs #1099) [Starter 1892 ml] Yeast-Ale
Single Infusion, Medium Body, Batch Sparge 154F

Notes:
Roast all grains for 30-60 minutes at 375-400F. Can be removed when smoking

I figure I can add some rice hulls to solve the sparge issue but not sure what happened with the OG.

See anything glaringly wrong here?

Cheers,
Tim

I would suggest taking another reading. 1.020 is roughly 20% eff. which is hard to believe.

You roasted ALL of the grains? You probably cooked away most of the starches that you would have been converting to sugars. I believe if you roasted a lb or 2, you would have achieved the flavor you wanted. Only thing I can suggest now is boil up some DME to get your OG up where it belongs. Not sure what the taste will be like.(Is supernutty a word?)

Actually, I took several readings cause I just couldn't believe it. I also use a refractometer to check the brix which also showed a crazy low OG.

On like the third day of fermentation I saw zero activity so I figured something was wrong with my starter for some reason so I added some Nottingham just to remove that doubt.

Still after a week zero activity.

Guess I messed up somewhere but still haven't figured it out yet.

I brewed a similar batch today with no roasting at home. this yielded a 1.053 wort at 6 gallons (80%+ efficiency) which was right on target for me. Did you hit all your temps? starch conversion test?


5 lbs 4.2 oz Pale Malt, Maris Otter (3.0 SRM) Grain 48.5 %
1 lbs 4.3 oz Vienna Malt (3.5 SRM) Grain 11.7 %
1 lbs 2.4 oz Caramel Malt - 60L (Briess) (60.0 SRM) Grain 10.6 %
1 lbs 2.1 oz Brown Malt (65.0 SRM) Grain 10.4 %
1 lbs 1.4 oz Victory Malt (25.0 SRM) Grain 10.1 %
11.0 oz Golden Naked Oats (10.0 SRM) Grain 6.4 %
4.0 oz Chocolate Malt (350.0 SRM) Grain 2.3 %
1.25 oz Williamette [5.50%] (60 min) Hops 20.6 IBU
1.00 oz Williamette [5.50%] (20 min) Hops 10.0 IBU
1 Pkgs European Ale (Wyeast Labs #1338) Yeast-Ale

Chester could you put up your Brewsmith recipe so i could give it a go?

Maris Otter and Munich start out with very low diastatic power. (They can convert themselves, but not too much else).
If you roasted all of your grains for 30 - 60 min and 375 - 400, I would suspect that you destroyed most of the enzymes responsible for converting the starches into sugars.

-a.

Over roasting is exactly my thought as well. When I roast for a nut brown I usually do just the oats. It provides this great nutty flavor. I've also heard use a lbs or so of the base grain. Cooking your whole grain bill essentially turned your grist into all crystal malts. Not so good. I couldn't even imaging baking 10+lbs of grain. My cookie sheet is maxed out at a little over a pound.

Recusit8m said:

Chester could you put up your Brewsmith recipe so i could give it a go?

Click to expand...

Well this was from the hip. The LHBS of was a couple pounds short of marris otter and I subbed in the Vienna cause it sounded like a good idea. I saw the golden naked oats and got those instead of flaked.

I wont start a thread unless its good but you are welcome to the file.

nut brown

ajf said:

Maris Otter and Munich start out with very low diastatic power. (They can convert themselves, but not too much else).
If you roasted all of your grains for 30 - 60 min and 375 - 400, I would suspect that you destroyed most of the enzymes responsible for converting the starches into sugars.

-a.

Click to expand...

this sounds like a very reasonable explanation to me

OK, thanks everyone.

I kinda thought roasting all the grains might not be the best idea.

Didn't know the technicals of why roasting would hurt but now I know.

Thanks,

Cheers!