High Mash-In Temp Issues?

RM-MN · Jan 13, 2022

Pilsner malt is the main culprit. If you use lots of that, you need the longer boil. Since DMS is still created while the wort is hot, you need fast cooling after the boil is over, no hopstands for you. Then more DMS is scrubbed in the foam during the boil. No anti foaming agents for you either. You can reduce the DMS during fermentation too but that works best with open fermentation. The temperature of the beer during the fermentation is also important. If you are doing a Pilsner and keep the fermentation cool like you should for a lager, you don't scrub nearly as much DMS as a much warmer ferment. You can offset that by using table sugar in the beer.

My source for this is, "How to Prevent DMS in Beer" by Scott Janish

SRJHops · Jan 13, 2022

RM-MN said:
Pilsner malt is the main culprit. If you use lots of that, you need the longer boil. Since DMS is still created while the wort is hot, you need fast cooling after the boil is over, no hopstands for you. Then more DMS is scrubbed in the foam during the boil. No anti foaming agents for you either. You can reduce the DMS during fermentation too but that works best with open fermentation. The temperature of the beer during the fermentation is also important. If you are doing a Pilsner and keep the fermentation cool like you should for a lager, you don't scrub nearly as much DMS as a much warmer ferment. You can offset that by using table sugar in the beer.

My source for this is, "How to Prevent DMS in Beer" by Scott Janish

Interesting. I knew that about the boil time, but not the other things. The good news is that I am making ales, so the fermentation temps are warm. I also use table sugar in most of them! (I mostly make Belgians.) I do cool them pretty fast and don't use anti-foamers. No open fermentation, though, unless you count when I should have used a blow-off tube and it blows off the lid!

RM-MN · Jan 13, 2022

That article I referenced was worth reading in its entirety. Here's the link to it:

http://scottjanish.com/how-to-prevent-dms-in-beer/

GrowleyMonster · Jan 17, 2022

marc1 said:
If you use a giant whisk you can stir everything in really fast. Dump it all and mix it.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001VZ8S1Q/

I ordered that same whisk and it is a BEAST! Worked great. First I heated my strike water to 164 and then dumped all 3 lbs of oats in and whisked it all in. Took all of maybe 6 seconds to get it broke up and wetted. Then the specialty malts, 3 lbs. Dumped and whisked. Fast, fast. Checked the temp, then dumped all 13 lbs of my base malt all at once. Using a plunging motion seems to get it started good when you have a mountain of malt floating on top of the strike water. Then I used a two handed grip to break up the lumps. Total time to get all 19 lbs mashed in, maybe two minutes. Temp check showed 154, about two degrees higher than my target. I let it stand. It is cold today and it dropped the two degrees while I was in the house looking for the kettle lid. Thanks for the whisk recommendation, it was a good one.

So this time I ground my grains a LOT finer. The Corona had worn in and loosened up a great deal, and I never noticed. I set it barely metal on metal and the difference was VERY obvious while grinding. I took a lot of breaks and I had been going straight through non-stop on the last several batches.

Between the improved mashing and the improved grinding, I think I should end up at my 1.09 target gravity.

GrowleyMonster · Jan 18, 2022

Brewed yesterday, no-chilled overnight, transferred to fermenter a half hour ago, measured 1.090 with the Tilt. Lots of trub, though. That's okay.

The previous batch all got bottled, and my intention was to innoculate my starter with the harvested yeast, but on tasting the beer, there was a huge citrus note. It's not really grapefruit, sort of like if I was inventing a new citrus fruit and this was it. Finally, I get the dreaded citrus! It actually tastes great, but different from what I was aiming for, that's for sure. So the house yeast is dead, long live the house yeast! Probably the yeast was not the problem but hey, yeast doesn't cost that much.

Back to the brew, I was going to grind the 3 lbs of rolled oats but didn't. I never have before and I used to always hit my target. The other 16 lbs of grain, all malt, was ground as fine as the Corona will grind, and that was almost like flour. I heated the 6 gallons of strike water to 164, stirring with the giant whisk to get even heating. Dumped the oats. Dumped the specialty malts, Stirred quickly with the giant whisk, which is a real game changer. No more pot spoons for me. Then all 13 lbs of pale 2 row ale malt got dumped all at once. I used a toilet plunger motion to get the floating mountain of malt all wetted, and a vigorous two handed stirring with the Giant Whisk to break up the lumps. Mashed in temp was 154. After 45 minutes, temp was 144 and I heated to 147, with the burner, and it overshot to 149. At one point the temp dropped back down to 145 and I heated again, ended up at 153 degrees. I pulled the BIAB bag, drained, and squeezed, and had a bit over 4.5 gallons in the kettle. I sparged into another kettle and squeezed good, ended up with about 6.5 gallons.

I went for a 90 minute boil and brought it up quickly to a hard boil and when the foam was almost going over the top of the 14 gallon kettle, I reduced to a gentle boil. After 45 minutes, I dropped the hop sock containing an ounce or Sterling. The last half hour was at a vigorous boil, no foam evident. I pulled a quart for the starter and chilled in the sink, and transferred the rest to the cube. I was a little short so I added boiled water to top it up and minimize the head space.

I decided to start a new house strain. I had some T-58, some BE-134, and some Voss Kviek. I don't have my favorite, the BE-256. I decided to pitch the Voss on the starter and it was of course hard at work after just a couple of hours. At pitch time this morning, the Voss was actually getting done with the quart of starter, the krausen about half fallen. Pitched it on the wort and tossed the Tilt in there. 67 degrees cause the wort was outside all night. Gravity 1.090. Perfect. Total in the BMB, a hair over 5.5 gallons.

I expect the Voss to take off slowly due to the low temp in the BMB, but I just checked and now, a half hour later, it is already up to 69 degrees, but not bubbling yet.

So it looks like I am on track for a good beer, again, and a higher ABV than any previous batch. The last batch is all bottled, because no empty keg. The one on tap is almost empty so I guess I need to do another brew day soon. Thanks to everyone who offered their knowledge and opinions. Now I got a fermenter and kettles to clean. See ya.