Step Mash Mystery

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guinnessface

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Folks-

I've run in to a bit of a mystery here and I could use your help!

I set out to brew a 5.5 gal tripel today and planned a step mash using the Grainfather system. This was my third attempt using it and I had great success with my first two single mash brews (I'm a fairly experienced all grain brewer). I used fifteen pounds of grain and a pound of candi sugar, with an 82% efficiency planned, I was looking for an OG of around 1.082......I got 1.06!!!!! Here's the only thing I can think of that went wrong, my mash schedule was:

30 min @ 122
35 min @ 148 sacch rest
35 min @ 156 sacch rest
12 min @ 170 mash out

I had 7# pilsner malt and the rest was a mix of wheat, oats, flaked barley and carawheat. The mash was a bit thin at 6.2 gallons and I did a 90 minute boil. I hit all my temps and times dead on. I think the ph was around 5.4. and pre-boil was 1.05.

In my research, I found several temp ranges for step mashing, but this closely followed the decoction schedule in Beersmith as well as a profile in a Northern Brewer recipe. I figured the time at 156 alone would've been enough to convert more sugar that to sit at 1.06.

Were my times not long enough? I mashed a similar grain bill last month for an hour at 150 and hit 1.08.....I'm baffled!

Any ideas where I went wrong or suggestions for a better step mash profile would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Guinnessface
 
I think the mash schedule is fine, not sure how much the protease rest at 122 helps though.

I would guess the problem is elsewhere, did you really have 15 lbs of grain total? Could you have forgotten the flaked barley or oats? Is you hydrometer still calibrated? Are your temps accurate? Is it possible the thermometer/temp probe is off?
 
@cshamilton-

Thanks for your reply, these are all good points. I did the protease rest to break down the oats a little better (supposedly). I think the temps were right on as it was registering 212 at the boil. The hydrometer is good, I just had two very successful batches this month. Lastly, I'm sure the grain was at 15#, I weighed it twice.....so the mystery remains I guess?
 
You want 62/72/77 °C for 25/30/10 min respectively.
 
Did you sparge? The bigger you go, in general, the lower your efficiency. Not a grainfather user, but if I am below 10 lb I estimate 80% efficiency, and about a point drop for each additional pound of grain. My scotch ale at 20 lb was 68% :-/

This is why some breweries did small beers, taking third runnings from a big beer.
 
Did you do a starch test? was all the starch converted to sugar? As said above the bigger you go the lower your efficiency.

Here's how I step mash: (is a bit different for every beer but it's a basic schedule)

Mash in at 122 keep temp for 15 minutes as you said it helps to break down some of the grains especially if u use belgian or german malt.
Raise temp to 144 for about 35-45 minutes
Raise temp to 160 for 35-45 minutes

If I mash 35 minutes on 144 i will always mash for 45 minutes at 160 when using a big grain bill and vice versa.
This is about the same mash schedule as the BIAB pilsner step mash in beersmith.
To be honest i think that when you use the decoction mash in beersmith you actually need to do a decoction mash to get the best results because there's some conversion in the whole boiling thing.
 
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