First Time Mini-Mash

[RishoBrew]

Greetings fellow brewers,

Two questions:

1. Just watched a Mini-Mash video and the host suggested to place the stainless steel pot with grain in the nylon bag into an oven on warm setting which he said was about 150 deg. F. Wouldn't the nylon bag melt?

2. When sparging, most videos, recipes suggest to place the bag in a strainer and poor additional water over it. Why can I just place the grain bag in separate pot with certain amount of water?

 

[FirstAidBrewing]

1. Not at all! Nylon can handle heat higher than that. My LHBS owner even tells me to buy stockings from the grocery store instead of buying mash bags.

2. You could also do that. Just ensure that the fresh water is about the same as you would use if you were rinsing, then combine with the wort. Two ways of doing the same thing (sparge), although the rinse is closer to a normal sparge and you certainly wouldn't be able to do the other method with a full 5/10-gallon mash.

 

[CA_Mouse]

Pouring the sparge water over the grain will better rinse the sugars from it. It is the same if you read all the arguments about fly sparging and batch sparging.

 

[chickypad]

Pouring the sparge water over the grain will better rinse the sugars from it. It is the same if you read all the arguments about fly sparging and batch sparging.

Well lots of folks get comparable efficiency batch vs. fly sparging (me included). For small batches (i.e. 3 gal or less, or 5 gal PM's) I find I actually get better efficiency with a dunk sparge than trying to pour it over through a colander.

OP I do both techniques you describe, though the lowest setting my oven will do is 170 so I preheat to that then turn it off right before I put the mash in. You want to be sure to measure your sparge water with the dunk sparge - it's essentially a batch sparge, so you don't want to overshoot or you will lose some gravity points in the extra water. You'll also want to open the bag and stir the crap out of it.

Edit: just realized your PM'ing so probably topping off anyway so the sparge volume isn't as critical.

 

[chickypad]

Two ways of doing the same thing (sparge), although the rinse is closer to a normal sparge and you certainly wouldn't be able to do the other method with a full 5/10-gallon mash.

You mean the rinse is closer to a fly sparge, but I would consider batch sparging and fly sparging both normal ways to sparge. I would agree batch sparging (i.e. dunking) a full 10 gal BIAB batch would be hard but it's certainly doable with a 5 gal grainbill in an extra bucket.

 

[RishoBrew]

Thank you for all your valuable input!!!

 

[RishoBrew]

It came out really good, I thought except that didn't have much hoppy taste or aroma. I used Magnum 1 oz. @60, Saaz 1 oz. @15 and @0.

What do I need to do to increase the hoppyness? I understand there are ways to quantify that, but would know how? So basically I 'm looking for mild to medium hoppyness. akin to the bottled kind. Thanks!

 

[chickypad]

You just brewed this yesterday? First off I'd wait until it's done and carbonated before making any decisions about how it turned out. You don't list the rest of the recipe or the style you are going for, but I will say that Saaz is a noble hop so it is going to be more subtle than the big american varieties. Not sure if that is what you are meaning in terms of the hoppiness of "bottled" beer. It would help to know the recipe and what kind of beer you were aiming for.

 

[CA_Mouse]

Magnum is a very neutral bittering hop. It is mainly used for a very clean bitterness without much flavor. Saaz is a Noble Hop from Europe (yes I know, there is an US Saaz - basically an American version of the same hop). Noble hops are very low in aroma and I've, generally, found them to be floral and spicy/peppery, so you won't get the intense aroma that you get from Amarillo or Citra (for comparison). Depending on the style of beer that you brewed, dry hopping can give you more aromatics, but a German Pilsner wouldn't benefit from dry hopping with Chinook or Cascade.

 

[RishoBrew]

You just brewed this yesterday?

No, this was supposed to be a different post but somehow it ended up piggybacked here. I brewed this one a while back it was lagerring in a fridge for about 5 weeks. Sory for the confusion.

 

[RishoBrew]

As I already mentioned, this was supposed to be a different topic. Anyway, the recipe was for a Czech pilsner that a local store put together. I showed them th BYO recipe for Pilsner Urquell and was told I can't steep some of the grains so they improvised.

 

[chickypad]

Ah okay, now I see the post title. Do you consider Pilsner Urquell "hoppy"? Just wondering if it's a style issue - the hop schedule looks pretty typical, certainly should be plenty of bittering.

 

[RishoBrew]

Do you consider Pilsner Urquell "hoppy"? Just wondering if it's a style issue - the hop schedule looks pretty typical, certainly should be plenty of bittering.

Urguell has the flavor I was trying to reproduce and imagine the original recipe is locked behind thick concrete walls so what is available is probably a reversed engineered guess. Anyway while mine came out good, it lack the bitter taste that I was after.