My third try

[hausman]

New to homebrewing, new to the forums! Hooray

My first batch, a Northern Brewer American Wheat Extract, has finished its 2 weeks in the fridge. I noticed it had a fruity off flavor. I can only assume that's from a high fermentation temperature (72-74) using Safale US-05.

I took more care with my second batch, a Northern Brewer Caribou Slobber Extract. After getting my feet wet with the Wheat I had a better idea of what to do. Its been in primary for 3 weeks and I'm going to bottle it tonight. Being an Extract Kit, I didn't get an OG.. But it sure does smell delicious

Last night I tried a partial mash? from a recipe given to me at my LHBS. I had 6.6 pounds of LME and the rest was milled grains. Since there were no turn-by-turn instructions on the sparging and LME addition process I kinda just winged it based on what I've seen in youtube videos.

(brew in a bag method)
Water temp 155 deg F.
Add grain, 30 mins
Remove grain, capture as much liquidy goodness as possible from bag.
Add LME and bring to boil.

-- At this point I didn't know how long to boil the LME before adding hops. I think I had it at boil for about 5 minutes before starting the 60 minute hop schedule.

Added 1oz Nuggets at 60, 1/2 oz Williamette at 30 and 1/2 oz Williamette at 5.

I hope I didn't screw this up! The wort looks good though. I'm awaiting some krausen.

 

[Revvy]

My first batch, a Northern Brewer American Wheat Extract, has finished its 2 weeks in the fridge. I noticed it had a fruity off flavor.

What do you mean two weeks in the fridge? How long was it in bottles out of the fridge?

If you have an off flavor, leaving it at room temps will allow the beer to condition and often cleans up off flavors.

 

[unionrdr]

What you did wasn't partial mash,it was extract with steeping grains. 6.6lbs of LME is more than a PM kit would use. And late extract addition with at least half the LME would make lighter colore,tastier beer,but time for that.
And your first batch,two weeks in the fridge? I hope you conditoned/carbed them for a few weeks at room temp first?

 

[hausman]

What do you mean two weeks in the fridge? How long was it in bottles out of the fridge?

If you have an off flavor, leaving it at room temps will allow the beer to condition and often cleans up off flavors.

Yes, the first batch did the 2-2-2 schedule. The second batch is currenting on course for a 3-2-2 schedule.

 

[hausman]

What you did wasn't partial mash,it was extract with steeping grains. 6.6lbs of LME is more than a PM kit would use. And late extract addition with at least half the LME would make lighter colore,tastier beer,but time for that.
And your first batch,two weeks in the fridge? I hope you conditoned/carbed them for a few weeks at room temp first?

For total disclosure, this was the recipe provided.

Founder's Breakfast Stout Clone
38% 5LB Briess Pilsen Light DME (LHBS subsituted LME for this)
30% 4LB American Two-row Pale
11% 1LB 8oz Flaked Oats
8% 1LB Chocolate Malt
6% 12oz Roasted Barley
4% 8oz Debittered Black Malt
4% 8oz Crystal 120L

OG is slated to be 1.072 and I ended up with 1.070

 

[Revvy]

two weeks is usually NOT enough time for a beer to carb and condition....Some beers even need months.... If you have an off flavor, more than likely your beer is green. Take it out of the fridge, let it warm back up, and leave it for a few weeks. Betcha your "off flavor" vanishes.

 

[stratslinger]

Hmmm, that does sound like a partial mash recipe, but it sounds like you approached it like an extract with steeping grains brew... It'll be interesting to see what you get from it. Just how much water did you soak those grains in? It is possible to get full conversion in only 30 minutes, but if you had your full volume, rather than rougly 3 gallons of water in the kettle, you had too much water to get really good conversion.

You could wind up with a rather high FG on that brew. Or, you may luck out and wind up with exactly what you're gunning for!

 

[unionrdr]

The way you described it in the middle of your first post,especially at only 30 minutes,is a steeping schedule. Steeping is done at the same temps as PM,but mashing involves less water per pound of grain,no mention there. Mashing is typically done for at least 60 minutes.
Interesting they had you do it for only 30. Details were a little fague to start with,so it sounded like you confused steeping with mashing. not at all uncommon around here.

 

[hausman]

The way you described it in the middle of your first post,especially at only 30 minutes,is a steeping schedule. Steeping is done at the same temps as PM,but mashing involves less water per pound of grain,no mention there. Mashing is typically done for at least 60 minutes.
Interesting they had you do it for only 30. Details were a little fague to start with,so it sounded like you confused steeping with mashing. not at all uncommon around here.

Yes. I didn't know how much water to steep or mash (whichever is correct). I googled the recipe and found a guide that said to steep/mash in 2 gallons of water for 30 minutes. It also called for rinsing the grains with 2 quarts of water after the steep/mash. This is what I did. I may have used 3 quarts of water though. I then added the LME and got it to a boil for 5 minutes. So total mash/steep and LME was a 35 minutes, and then I started the 60 minute boil throwing in the hops on schedule.

If I come away with drinkable beer I'll be OK with that. I've learned a lot and I understand much more about the process. I think I will try an AG recipe next and set up a proper mash tun for it.

 

[unionrdr]

With that much water & only 30 minutes,that's steeping. Mashing is done with 1.25-1.5 quarts of water per pound of grain for 60 minutes at 150-160F,about the same range as steeping.
Even though the two processes are similar,they are not the same or interchangeable. Just so you know,not peckin or anything. "Rinsing the grains" is better known as sparging,& two quarts might be ok. But since,in my case,I mashed 5lbs of grains in 1.5QTs of water per pound for 1.5 gallons (the correct volume for that amount),& I wanted 3 gallons partial boil volume,I sparged with 1.5 gallons of water at 155F. Sparge water temp shouldn't be over 170F.
As soon as you get past the hot break & it boils,you can add your extract,stir it in well,& start your 60 minute boil right then. No need to boil the heck out of the LME/fresh wort first. Hope this clears some things up.

 

[hausman]

With that much water & only 30 minutes,that's steeping. Mashing is done with 1.25-1.5 quarts of water per pound of grain for 60 minutes at 150-160F,about the same range as steeping.
Even though the two processes are similar,they are not the same or interchangeable. Just so you know,not peckin or anything. "Rinsing the grains" is better known as sparging,& two quarts might be ok. But since,in my case,I mashed 5lbs of grains in 1.5QTs of water (the correct volume for that amount),& I wanted 3 gallons partial boil volume,I sparged with 1.5 gallons of water at 155F. Sparge water temp shouldn't be over 170F.
As soon as you get past the hot break & it boils,you can add your extract,stir it in well,& start your 60 minute boil right then. No need to boil the heck out of the LME/fresh wort first. Hope this clears some things up.

It does! Thank you for your insight

 

[unionrdr]

OOps! Lil typo there,1.5 qts of water per pound for 1.5 gallons of water I used for mashing. My mistake on that one. Gotta go fix that.

 

[stratslinger]

With that much water & only 30 minutes,that's steeping. Mashing is done with 1.25-1.5 quarts of water per pound of grain for 60 minutes at 150-160F,about the same range as steeping.
Even though the two processes are similar,they are not the same or interchangeable. Just so you know,not peckin or anything. "Rinsing the grains" is better known as sparging,& two quarts might be ok. But since,in my case,I mashed 5lbs of grains in 1.5QTs of water per pound for 1.5 gallons (the correct volume for that amount),& I wanted 3 gallons partial boil volume,I sparged with 1.5 gallons of water at 155F. Sparge water temp shouldn't be over 170F.
As soon as you get past the hot break & it boils,you can add your extract,stir it in well,& start your 60 minute boil right then. No need to boil the heck out of the LME/fresh wort first. Hope this clears some things up.

Actually, I'd beg to differ...

Taking a look at his recipe, he's got 7.75lbs of grain. Using 2 gallons of water @ 155F, he _was_ mashing @ just a hair over 1qt per lb. Granted, it was a thick mash, but it's within acceptable parameters.

And yes, 30 minutes is a shorter than typical mash, but conversion can happen within 20 minutes (one of this past summer's BYO issues had a really interesting write up on various mash schedules that researched exactly this point - cool read!). He's actually probably good to go. Might he have been safer going the full 60 minutes, and going with a more traditional sparge? Absolutely - but chances are he got adequate conversion out of that mash, and his OG readings showed he probably extracted most of the sugars out through that sparge.

To the OP, while it sounds like you may have squeeked by with a hybrid sort of steep/mash kind of thing here, it'll help you out in the long run to do some reading here on partial mash technique. In particular, Deathbrewer has this really useful post on the subject that you may find helpful, among several others you'll probably stumble on.