failed mash. 12# grain and OG is only 1.034 WTF?

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yeah...pretty sure I mashed WHOLE GRAIN...:eek::eek::eek:
I'd expect to see many whole kernels or large grain pieces and am surprised you didn't notice when stirring the mash or dumping it out...

And surprised you even got 1.035.
 
I'd expect to see many whole kernels or large grain pieces and am surprised you didn't notice when stirring the mash or dumping it out...

And surprised you even got 1.035.
I'm so used to milling right after I pull the grain bill and then dumping it in when I wake up...

I didn't even look at it. I just opened the lid and dumped into the BIAB and dropped the dissuser plate on top and fired up.

When I dumped the grain bag I did note that is felt heavier than I expected...

As for getting 1.035....it was mashing for 10 hours...
 
I'm so used to milling right after I pull the grain bill and then dumping it in when I wake up...

I didn't even look at it. I just opened the lid and dumped into the BIAB and dropped the dissuser plate on top and fired up.

When I dumped the grain bag I did note that is felt heavier than I expected...

As for getting 1.035....it was mashing for 10 hours...
Yeah, well at least you had your grain basket in place before dumping in the grains. Early one morning, on a day way in the past, I had dutifully crushed my grains, heated up the strike water in my trusty AIO, and then proceeded to dough-in. After accomplishing this task, I wondered why my malt pipe and screens were still sitting beside the mash tum on the outside of the AIO.

Don’t do that.
 
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Hate it when that happens.
It wasn’t so much the “first attempt at LA/NA beer” that hurt. It was having to siphon off the wort/strike water, salvage as much grain as possible, clean the AIO, scrub the scorched grain off the electrical elements, and then reassemble the whole contraption and restart the mash. Made for a pretty long brew day.
 
Haha. I either had my mill gap open or I forgot to check the gap and got super low eff once before. Even the same as my old mill it was lower eff so I tightened it up to 0.030 and it’s where I expect.
 
This thread did get me wondering, though. What if you WANTED to put some portion of unmilled grain in your mash? For example, I already have all the grains for my next brew milled and ready to go, but the place I bought the grains from also sent me 100 grams of a really aromatic malt as a sample of a new product they're getting in, and it just so happens that those grains would go really well in the recipe. Adding it would make it 2.9% of the grain bill, but I already have all the fermentables I need. I could just put it in my blender and get it "milled" that way (I do BIAB, so that wouldn't be a worry), but I could get my current estimated OG and FG by adding it without milling it, right? I have to assume it would add flavor and color since there are plenty of grains that you can steep without milling. Hm...
 
This thread did get me wondering, though. What if you WANTED to put some portion of unmilled grain in your mash?
You'd get a bunch of unconverted starch, I suspect. Maybe if you removed the whole kernels and then did a normal mash afterwards?

Cold extraction is a way to leave the starch and take the color/flavor. I've enjoyed the results mixing a cold extract with a small normal mash for 1-3% ABV. But people have had mixed results.
 
You'd get a bunch of unconverted starch, I suspect. Maybe if you removed the whole kernels and then did a normal mash afterwards?

Cold extraction is a way to leave the starch and take the color/flavor. I've enjoyed the results mixing a cold extract with a small normal mash for 1-3% ABV. But people have had mixed results.
Well, my idea would be just doing this for 2.9% of the grain bill (hence why I said "some portion" and not "the whole mash"). And my inspiration for thinking about this was that I was thinking of just adding the flavor (and color too) of a small sample I received to a recipe I made (which would result in 97.1% of it being milled and 2.9% of it being unmilled). But the more I think of it, even if it adds flavor and no fermentables, milling it would add more flavor, so if I do decide to add it, I should probably just use my blender to turn it into a powder (since BIAB solves any issues of grinding up the malt too much). Right now I'm kind of leaning towards just saving it for a future recipe where I consider that from the very beginning since I expect it should be good for at least a year.
 
I'd consider a 3% drop in OG basically undetectable : )

That's 1.0485 instead of 1.050
Right. It might only be a 0.1% or 0.2% ABV difference at most, so at least alcohol and body-wise it'd definitely be undetectable. And honestly at 3%, any difference in flavor would also likely be negligible.
 
I have to assume it would add flavor and color since there are plenty of grains that you can steep without milling.
What grains can (do?) you steep without milling and get something out of it?
The husk has very little flavor, but may add some color if very dark or perhaps smoked.

But at only 3% of the grain bill, I doubt it would be noticeable unless you crush it before mashing.

It's the endosperm we're after... and that demands crushing before mashing or steeping.
 
I have to assume it [mashing with uncrushed malts] would add flavor and color [...]
A 60 min cold steep of the uncrushed malts might be interesting.

In my explorations of cold steeping crushed crystal / roasted malts, I found that after about 30 minutes in a 60 min cold steep, "almost all" of the color and gravity points were extracted. (Note that I'm comparing extraction rate over time, not "cold steep" vs "hot steep").
 
What grains can (do?) you steep without milling and get something out of it?
The husk has very little flavor, but may add some color if very dark or perhaps smoked.
I've never personally done it, but I was just remembering things I've read online about some people having steeped unmilled grains in the mash for extremely potent flavors like peated malts (though you can think it'd be obviously easier to just mill them and use a smaller amount). I'm pretty sure I've also seen it for some pretty dark roasted malts too, though peat is the main one that comes to mind.
 
FWIW, an overnight cold steep of some whole Chocolate 350L.

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This thread did get me wondering, though. What if you WANTED to put some portion of unmilled grain in your mash? For example, I already have all the grains for my next brew milled and ready to go, but the place I bought the grains from also sent me 100 grams of a really aromatic malt as a sample of a new product they're getting in, and it just so happens that those grains would go really well in the recipe. Adding it would make it 2.9% of the grain bill, but I already have all the fermentables I need. I could just put it in my blender and get it "milled" that way (I do BIAB, so that wouldn't be a worry), but I could get my current estimated OG and FG by adding it without milling it, right? I have to assume it would add flavor and color since there are plenty of grains that you can steep without milling. Hm...

well...I mashed uncrushed grain for 10 hours are got basically next to nothing out of it...

So adding a small amount of uncrushed grain is not going to do squat...
 
well...I mashed uncrushed grain for 10 hours are got basically next to nothing out of it...

So adding a small amount of uncrushed grain is not going to do squat...
Hey, if you'd asked me what gravity you'd get for mashing 12 pounds of uncrushed grain before this thread, I would have guessed something close to 1.000, so 1.034 is way higher than I expected. I mean, the beer I'm cold conditioning right now had an OG of 1.038 and that was (mostly) intentional (sure, it was crushed grain and it wasn't 12 pounds of it, nor was it mashed for 10 hours).
 
Hey, if you'd asked me what gravity you'd get for mashing 12 pounds of uncrushed grain before this thread, I would have guessed something close to 1.000, so 1.034 is way higher than I expected. I mean, the beer I'm cold conditioning right now had an OG of 1.038 and that was (mostly) intentional (sure, it was crushed grain and it wasn't 12 pounds of it, nor was it mashed for 10 hours).
true but I mashed with a LARGE amount of uncrushed grain.

if you are just tossing in a pound or 2 of uncrushed grain...you ain't gonna get much of anything measurable...minimally so...
 

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