Mash in my fermenter Y/N?

[Brewdog77]

There's about 4inches of mash that I syphoned into my 5gallon carboy and I'm wondering if that will foul my batch. I have a second carboy I can transfer to but I'm excited to see that I have a solid fermentation going this just being my second attempt at home brew, and I don't want to mess up a good thing. Any suggestions?

 

[brownni5]

That's trub, not mash, at least I hope it's trub. Mash shouldn't make it into the boil, let alone the fermenter. Trub is fine, some even say beneficial.

 

[Brewdog77]

Oh ok. I just boiled a red grain to make an ale here and syphoned straight from my pot to the carboy. So hopefully that's trub as you say. Might have my terms confused at this early stage.

 

[brownni5]

Oh ok. I just boiled a red grain to make an ale here and syphoned straight from my pot to the carboy. So hopefully that's trub as you say. Might have my terms confused at this early stage.

Uh, something doesn't sound right here. You boiled the grain? Care to elaborate step-by-step? You may not have an ale at all. You might have unfermentable porridge.

 

[day_trippr]

"Popcorn, stat!"

 

[Brewdog77]

Went to my local brew craft store purchased an english red grain, can't remember exactly what it's called. Milled all the grain in store. Got my 10gal pot a little over half way filled with water and brought it to a rolling boil. Added the grains and let them boil for a little over an hour.I added pellet hops for about the last half hour of the boil then Put the pot in an ice bath to cool quickly. Then I put the whole pot back on the fire till it was 75° hydrated my dry yeast for 15 min. Took a hose and syphoned from pot to carboy and pitched the hydrated yeast. Capped it with my air lock.

 

[Snark_Wolf_Brewing]

Well...I hate to say it, but the method you just described isn't going to make a good beer.

 

[Brewdog77]

Yep I'm learning as I go here. Appreciate the feedback

 

[Brewdog77]

Well...I hate to say it, but the method you just described isn't going to make a good beer.

"isn't going to make a good beer"... poor taste, no alcohol, not good in what sense? I'm trying to figure out If I should or should not transfer what I have to a secondary.

 

[schmurf]

You missed the mashing step. Here is one, of many, instruction videos of BIAB brewing process

 

[Snark_Wolf_Brewing]

 

[Snark_Wolf_Brewing]

You were sorta of on the right track, but not quite. You don't need to boil the grains.

 

[Gnomebrewer]

To put it simply, grain has carbohydrates that yeast can't eat (un-fermentable).
Grains also have enzymes (enzymes are chemicals that cause reactions to occur).
The enzymes work to convert the un-fermentable carbohydrates into (mostly) fermentable carbohydrates (sugar). This only happens between about 140F and 160F. Above this temperature, the enzymes are destroyed.

So, for brewing, we soak the grains at somewhere between 140F and 160F (called mashing), then drain off as much liquid as we can (or remove the grains from liquid), and boil the remaining liquid with hops in it (called wort). The grains are thrown away.

In your case, you've extracted lots of un-fermentable carbohydrate (starch and others) but haven't converted it to sugar. So you won't get much fermentation or alcohol, and might get an infections from something that can eat starch. If you want to, for sh**s and giggles, you could add a packet of glucoamylase, which is an enzyme that will convert the starch to fermentable sugars. I still doubt it'll lead to good beer though!

 

[Brewdog77]

Thanks very much! This has been educational. Will be interesting to see what I learn on the next batch.

 

[OnePlate]

http://www.howtobrew.com/

Read through that or buy the 4th edition of the book and you'll be off to a much better start.