First Mini Mash - how did I do?

[javedian]

Honey Nut Cheery Ale

Recipe Honey Nut Cheery Ale Style Northern English Brown Ale
Batch 5.00 gal

Recipe Characteristics
Estimated Recipe Gravity 1.064 OG
Estimated FG 1.016 FG
Recipe Bitterness 25 IBU Alcohol by Volume 6.4%
Recipe Color 17° SRM Alcohol by Weight 5.0%

Ingredients Quantity Grain Use
4.00 lb Light malt extract extract
0.50 lb Flaked oats mashed
0.50 lb Flaked wheat mashed
0.38 lb Crystal 80L mashed
0.37 lb Crystal 20L mashed
0.25 lb American chocolate malt mashed
2.00 lb American two-row mashed
1.50 lb Honey extract
0.50 lb Crystal 120L mashed
Quantity Hop Form Time
1.00 oz Fuggles pellet 60 minutes
0.25 oz Cascade pellet 60 minutes
0.25 oz Cascade pellet 30 minutes
0.25 oz Fuggles pellet 30 minutes
0.25 oz Fuggles pellet 5 minutes
0.50 oz Cascade pellet 0 minutes

Quantity Misc Notes
1.00 unit Ale yeast Nottingham Dry
1.00 unit Cinnamon Stick 10 min

ACTUAL
Mashed 2.5 lb grain in 2gal Igloo added 6qt @175dF.
Temp at 30min was 138dF, so I pulled some wort out and heated to 180, then added back in.
Temp at 60 min was 147dF, pulled / heated some more to 180dF.
Temp at 90 min was 156dF - did nothing, dinner time!
Temp at 120 min was 146dF, drained and sparged with 170dF water to full line.

Spent grains still felt a little starchy, so I guess I didn't get great conversion. Grains were in fine mesh bag. Each temp check they also got mixed / mashed.

My mash produced about 3 gal, not exactly sure. Gravity was 1.028, QBrew for just the mash, using trial and error with efficiency, puts that at about 60%. How was that for first attempt?

Boil was just with mash water, extract & honey boiled for last 15 min. Actual boiling time was probably closer to 90 min, got sidetracked early in boil.

Actual OG at pitching was 1.057, so I probably boiled down more than expected, and / or didn't add enough water to fermenter (estimated 5gal mark). All gravity measurements are temp adjusted.

My observations:
Don't use more than 2lbs grain in 2gal cooler - I should have used about 6oz more water than actually fit. The Crystal 120 was added to bump up color a little more, QBrew estimate was a little low for batch.
Initial mash water should be a little hotter.
Sparge water could have sat on grain a little longer - I only left about 5 min.

With batch mash, do you just sparge once, even if adding more water still produces? I had about 1 qt sparge water left, so added it after draining part of sparge.

Overall, how did I do for a first PM? BTW, this is my first brew in about 5 years. Fermentation is active 24 hrs after pitching.

 

[david_42]

Not bad for a first try. A couple tricks to consider. Put boiling water in the cooler first to heat it up. Pour the water off and adjust the temperature, then put the grain in the cooler and add 1.3 quarts per pound of grain. Stir gently, but well. Keep the rest of the water around 170F and use it to bump the temperature. Drawing wort out & heating it can denature the conversion enzymes.

I'm a little confused. You have 4.5 lbs. of grain listed, but only mashed 2.5? I would have mashed the 2-row, oats & wheat. The crystal and chocolate can just be steeped.

Most of the time one sparge is enough for my tun, but I use a bigger cooler and more sparge water. I leave it in for about 15 minutes and stir the mash twice. With your setup, I'd sparge once & drain. Check the gravity of that run. If it's over 1.020, I'd sparge a second time with another gallon of water.

Sounds like you need a bigger cooler.

 

[javedian]

Thanks, it was a typo, I did use all 4.5 lbs of grain (mixed well before the mash to distribute the oats and wheat so they wouldn't clump together)

A bigger cooler is on horizon, the one I used was borrowed from parents. Just minimizing $$ now. The preheat idea came to me when I saw the low initial temp. The denaturing enzyme issue - I only removed liquid, about 1-1.5 qt. Didn't see any other way without a bigger cooler.

Is there a downside to using more water than 1.3qt : 1lb? If I had similar issue in larger cooler, I could have just added hot water, but I was already full.

Guess I will have to try again...

Thinking of a porter or stout, but might try a lager, since I have a extra fridge for at least a little while.

 

[david_42]

The enzymes are in the liquid once the mash starts. They dissolve first & process the starches & complex sugars as those dissolve.

You can raise mash temperatures by doing a decoction. Remove some of the grain without the liquid, I just scoop grain into a sieve, then heat the grain to boiling (carefully) and add it back. If you do this with about 1/3 of the grain at a time, you can raise the temperature nicely. It changes the flavor a bit and tends to add more body.

More water isn't a problem. The concentration of enzymes is reduced, but for modern grains and a 60 minute mash, it doesn't matter much. Temperature is far more important.

As I mentioned, you can separate out the grains that don't need mashing and steep them. Palmer has a good chart on PPG for steeping vs. mashing.