Fly Design?

[bracconiere]

So i just got done deculming my malt for brewing tomorrow. ended up with 20.5lb's of twice kilned pale malt...not as expected, but it needed another sesh to dry down enough for deculming and milling....

any way i wanted to give a side by side with the exact same recipe of store bought....(but with a couple more pounds of base malt due to my lower effec)

anyway seems my best bet now is to add crystal 60 in 1 oz increments, until the colors match? anyone ever try designing a recipe kinda on the fly/reverse? i was think i'll dough in with the pale in my mash tun, then draw off a sample and add the crystal and ounce at a time, till i get the color i want?


what do you think? (original was 8oz's, 10 gallon batch. so i'm thinking i might just need 4-5 with this one, do to the longer kilning)

 

[eric19312]

if it is just for color I'd add small small amounts of black malt. midnight wheat, black patent etc. Maybe do a 1 quart mash to start off with to try to estimate the quantity (get out that gram scale) needed to get a color match.

 

[bracconiere]

LOL now you're just trying to make me look like a troll warrior.... man, it's just a 10 gallon batch so it'll be gone in a week. but i was thinking, just brewing to color. and no it's not just for color, i'm looking for similar level of carmel, not roast.

but i gotta say i 1 quart mash, and a gram scale for malt is good stuff!

(and i do apreciate the input)

i think midnight wheat, would not produce a good side by side.


damn it man! now you just gave me the idea of recirculating, with a sight tube and just milling into the mush tun! lol

 

[eric19312]

maybe I don't understand what you mean by twice kilned. Maybe the answer is to re-kiln some or all of the comparator base malt.

 

[bracconiere]

well i had my malt drying for 10-12 hours, usually i let it go 24-48...this time after 12 hours at ~160-170f, it was still wet enough to where the rootlets wouldn't break off, so i couldn't clean it...so i tossed it back in the oven for another 12 hours, so i think it might have a bit more color....

was really asking if anyone ever brewed a batch by adding small increments of crystal malt until desired color was reached pulling out of the mash tun....


(on a side note i just weighed out 550mg's of my pale, and 33mg's, one kernel of the crystal 60...had to do a LOT of math to figure out the pounds/qt ratio...but i might have lost the one kernel when i smacked the 14 pale, with the one crystal kernel. but i'm just going to do the recipe with the 8 oz's and save the gradual addition for a different experiment)

and i'm still curious if anyone's tried the brew on the fly idea?

 

[eric19312]

I don't think your double kilning would have same impact as making crystal. I though you make crystal by getting enzyme activity in the malt (which you might have done at those temps) followed by kilning at a temperature that would carmelize the sugars. That would be mid 300s I think.

It sounds to me like your process might be closer to how you might make munich malt.

 

[bracconiere]

I don't think your double kilning would have same impact as making crystal. I though you make crystal by getting enzyme activity in the malt (which you might have done at those temps) followed by kilning at a temperature that would carmelize the sugars. That would be mid 300s I think.

It sounds to me like your process might be closer to how you might make munich malt.

you are very right on both counts.

 

[bracconiere]

well i'm cooling my wort...i ended up pulling a few samples, looking at it...and going with 6oz's 60....the samples from the MT, looked a bit darker but not by much, so decided on 6oz's...

pulled 82% effec too! whoo who! pretty good for homemalt!

(i'll post a pic of store bought compared to this one in about 4-5 days when it's done fermenting and kegged....)

edit: double checked the refrac with a hydro, only 1.058 instead of 60....so unfortantly 80%, still respectable though.....