I Have Pliny The Elder Brewing Questions

[Shepherd5]

I am brewing Pliny:

Questions:

1.) If I am using a 10 gallon cooler for the mash, what should my strike water temp be for the 60 minute mash so my mash is at 150 - 155?

2.) What should my strike water temp be prior to the 10 minute mash so temp is around 175?

3.) I am using 14 lbs of grain, so is 4.2 gallons the right amount of water for the initial mash? I am using 1.2 qts. per pound of grain, is this right?

The recipe calls for 1.1 lbs of corn sugar. When should I add this, at the beginning of the boil?

That is all for now, but I will ask more questions as I go, thanks!

 

[kryolla]

1) was is the temp of your MT and temp of your grains , how much volume of water, are you pre-heating your MT lol seriously about 10* higher than mash temps, its all part of being intimate with your system.

2) How much volume of water and grain mass is in MT and how much volume of water you plan to add, put that into some crazy forumula will give you the temp lol seriously about high 180's

3) you need to take into accout grain absorbtion as well.

 

[Yooper]

1. I like to preheat my cooler, so I add 175 degree water and let it cool to 11 degrees above my desired mash temperature and then add the grain. I find that with my cooler, about 11 degrees is about right with a larger grain bill.

2. I have no idea- why do you want to do that?

3. I use 1.25 quarts per pound, so that would be 17.5 quarts. Or 4.38 gallons. So, that seems about right.

4. Corn sugar in the boil is fine.

 

[spiny_norman]

I am brewing Pliny:

Questions:

1.) If I am using a 10 gallon cooler for the mash, what should my strike water temp be for the 60 minute mash so my mash is at 150 - 155?

2.) What should my strike water temp be prior to the 10 minute mash so temp is around 175?

3.) I am using 14 lbs of grain, so is 4.2 gallons the right amount of water for the initial mash? I am using 1.2 qts. per pound of grain, is this right?

The recipe calls for 1.1 lbs of corn sugar. When should I add this, at the beginning of the boil?

That is all for now, but I will ask more questions as I go, thanks!

1. Vinnie says to mash at 152 (at RR they only mash for 20 mins and get full starch conversion). I mash at 149 for around 90 mins when I do my Pliny clone (to keep it dry and to help get 80% attenuation).

2. I use this to calculate my strike temp:

http://www.tastybrew.com/calculators/infusion.html

 

[Shepherd5]

Thanks! My mash is now at 154. I am using 5 gallons for the mash because is seems to be an average of what I have read about.

My second batch sparge will be the remaining water. The recipe calls for a preboil volume of eight gallons, so how much water do I need for the second sparge? I figure the grain will retain about a gallon, is this about right?


Is a 90 min mash ok, or is 60 sufficient?

I am really nervous

 

[spiny_norman]

Thanks! My mash is now at 154. I am using 5 gallons for the mash because is seems to be an average of what I have read about.

My second batch sparge will be the remaining water. The recipe calls for a preboil volume of eight gallons, so how much water do I need for the second sparge? I figure the grain will retain about a gallon, is this about right?


Is a 90 min mash ok, or is 60 sufficient?

I have 8 gallons marked in the boil kettle and just run off the second runnings until I've collected all 8. But if you sparge with 5 gallons and you should collect about 8 gallons in total.

60 minutes is sufficient. Be sure to pitch enough yeast with this one; it needs to fully attenuate to get the FG down (my first few Pliny clone's were too sweet).

 

[phatuna]

once you drain your mash, you will know how short you are. Next time you should use a calculator to do this work for you prior to firing up the burner.

with 5 gallons of mash water, you will likely get 2.5 - 3 gallons of mash drained. So this leaves you with a double batch sparge of about 2.75 gallons (X 2) to get you up to 8 gallons pre-boil. Remember that your first sparge addition should be close to 190F to get your grains from 145 - 150 up to 165 - 168F. Your second sparge can be closer to 170F when you pour it in.

Hope that helps, 90 min. mash is ok and 60 minutes is sufficient.

 

[wildwest450]

Man, invest $20 in brewing software. Plug in your numbers and it will do all the heavy lifting for you. Especially nice when doing an expensive beer like Pliny.

 

[Shepherd5]

Thx, everything is going great!

 

[JayInJersey]

This beer will ruin you...

I can't even think about my Stout now.poor thing just sits there on tap and all my attention goes to Pliny.

 

[Shepherd5]

Ok, I had a successful day with a OG of 1.079, instead of 1.074, not too shabby! I noticed at about 45 minutes into the boil, a light colored precipitate formed. I used hop bags, so it wasn't hops I was seeing. Can anyone tell what caused this precipitate? BTW, I used all pellet hops in this batch, so maybe some of the hops escaped through the mesh hop bags.

The beer turned out a bit darker than I was expecting, like an amber color instead of a golden color. Anyone care to elaborate on this?

I added Whirlfloc the last fifteen minutes of the boil, which seemed to make it clearer in the fermenter, but my yeast have yet to stir things up.

 

[Yooper]

Ok, I had a successful day with a OG of 1.079, instead of 1.074, not too shabby! I noticed at about 45 minutes into the boil, a light colored precipitate formed. I used hop bags, so it wasn't hops I was seeing. Can anyone tell what caused this precipitate? BTW, I used all pellet hops in this batch, so maybe some of the hops escaped through the mesh hop bags.

The beer turned out a bit darker than I was expecting, like an amber color instead of a golden color. Anyone care to elaborate on this?

I added Whirlfloc the last fifteen minutes of the boil, which seemed to make it clearer in the fermenter, but my yeast have yet to stir things up.

Well, the precipitate you saw sounds like hot break material. Kinda like egg drop soup, but smaller pieces?

It could be a bit darker than you expected if you burnt some wort, or used some crystal malt that is dark. What was the grainbill?

I use whirlfloc in the last 15 minutes of the boil also. It seems to really help give me a great cold break and clear wort in the end. Sounds like you had a very good day!

 

[Shepherd5]

 

[Shepherd5]

No, I did not burn wart on this. What color is Pliny the Elder?

The grain bill I used was
13.3 lbs of north american 2 row
.04 lbs of carapils
.32 lbs of crystal 40L

 

[Yooper]

Mine, according to my notes, had an SRM of 7. It used mostly 2-row, with only a tiny bit of crystal 40L (2%).

 

[Shepherd5]

Ok an SRM of 7 to 8 looks like what I have here, even though the beer looks darker in the carboy.

 

[paradoc]

The color in your picture of the carboy looks about right. It will look a lot lighter in the glass.

Your recipe is a bit different than the one originally printed in Zymurgy. See the discussion here for the recipe from Zymurgy, along with adjustments other have made.

Enjoy your beer in a couple of weeks! This is meant to be drunk "green", don't age it too long or you will loose all your hop flavor.

Cheers!