Wables
Well-Known Member
I have a quick question for anyone on the board with more experience with big beers than me. I have been AG brewing for a bit over 2 years with 30+ batches under my belt. I brew mostly Pale Ales and IPA's topping out at about 1.060. Two weeks ago I brewed an IIPA with a pretty big grain bill (10 gallon), but I didn't want it to end up with a FG of 1.020 or so, so I decided to mash at a lower temp than usual. Here was the grain bill:
30# Rahr 2-row
1# Crystal 40
1# Crystal 60
1 metric ton of Galena, Cascade, and Amarillo
I mashed thick at about 1.1 qt/# as I was not sure how much room I was going to have in my keggle tun. My mash temp settled out at about 149, but my evening mash routine get extended because I couldn't get my son to sleep after I started the mash. I ended up mashing for 105 minutes before recircing and adding heat to the tun to bring it up to 168. I lost maybe 2 degrees over the 1 3/4 hours of mash time. I batch sparged, did a 1 hour boil, aerated with my mix-stir, and pitched two packets of pre-hydrated S-05 in each 5 gallons. I left it in the primary for 2 weeks at 68 degrees. The OG after the boil was 1.076 (12 gallons). Tonight, I measured the FG and it was 1.010. I was shooting for a low FG to put more emphasis on the hops, but I wasn't expecting it this low. I typically brew 1.05-1.06 beers mashing at 153 and rarely fall below an FG of 1.014.
The beer tastes awesome. I delayed transfering to the secondary because I ran out of hops and I was waiting for my hopsdirect order to arive for the dry hops. I almost don't need the dry hops, but what is an IPA without that extra zing? I don't taste or see any evidence of an infection, but I really didn't expect a FG this low. Do I need to be concerned?
As an aside, my efficiency really suffered with the bigger grain bill. I can usually hit 83 to 85%, but this ended up in the 70's. It is too bad I didn't have some DME on hand to hit the 1.080 mark.
30# Rahr 2-row
1# Crystal 40
1# Crystal 60
1 metric ton of Galena, Cascade, and Amarillo
I mashed thick at about 1.1 qt/# as I was not sure how much room I was going to have in my keggle tun. My mash temp settled out at about 149, but my evening mash routine get extended because I couldn't get my son to sleep after I started the mash. I ended up mashing for 105 minutes before recircing and adding heat to the tun to bring it up to 168. I lost maybe 2 degrees over the 1 3/4 hours of mash time. I batch sparged, did a 1 hour boil, aerated with my mix-stir, and pitched two packets of pre-hydrated S-05 in each 5 gallons. I left it in the primary for 2 weeks at 68 degrees. The OG after the boil was 1.076 (12 gallons). Tonight, I measured the FG and it was 1.010. I was shooting for a low FG to put more emphasis on the hops, but I wasn't expecting it this low. I typically brew 1.05-1.06 beers mashing at 153 and rarely fall below an FG of 1.014.
The beer tastes awesome. I delayed transfering to the secondary because I ran out of hops and I was waiting for my hopsdirect order to arive for the dry hops. I almost don't need the dry hops, but what is an IPA without that extra zing? I don't taste or see any evidence of an infection, but I really didn't expect a FG this low. Do I need to be concerned?
As an aside, my efficiency really suffered with the bigger grain bill. I can usually hit 83 to 85%, but this ended up in the 70's. It is too bad I didn't have some DME on hand to hit the 1.080 mark.
