Infusion Question re: amount of water

[jeffg]

Brewed an all-grain brown ale (fat tire style) this weekend. My intent was to mash 9 lbs of grain at 154 degrees in 10 quarts of water, so I added 10 quarts of 175 degree water, figuring on about a 22 degree temperature drop. I ended up with 148 degree mash, so I added successive quarts of boiling water to bring up the temperature. end result was I had to add a full extra gallon of water over a period of 20-30 minutes, so my grains actually mashed about 90 minutes instead of 60 in 3.5 gallon of water instead of 2.5.

At the end of the day I still hit my target OG of 1.050 but does anyone have any opinions/ideas of how the additional water/time in the mash may affect the beer flavor? Less body maybe or no effect at all?

I also tried a new technique of cleaning out my mashtun while the wort was boiling and then adding the boiling wort back into the mashtun at the end of boil, cooled with a wort chiller, and then drained the chilled wort into my primary so that all of the wort passed through the bed of whole hops that collected on the false bottom and then through a secondary mesh strainer/funnel sitting on the carboy. The double filtration appears to have done a good job of removing a lot of the grain sediment and other particular matter. It was already fermenting this morning with a WL California ale yeast with no starter.

 

[david_42]

I generally mash-in around 1 1/2 quarts per pound. Starting the mash thick at 148F and stepping it up might have given you a slightly sweeter more malty wort, but the extra time you let the mash sit probably drove it towards the lower body, highly fermentable end.

I'd be a little concerned about pouring hot wort producting hot side oxidation.

 

[Kaiser]

I'd be a little concerned about pouring hot wort producting hot side oxidation.

I second this.

I'd also be concerned about sanitation. But the hot wort should be good enough to sanitize a clean mash-tun.

Kai

 

[El Pistolero]

I'd be a little concerned about pouring hot wort producting hot side oxidation.

I'll third that...running almost boiling wort thru a strainer seems to me like it would maximize hot side aeration. Jeff...why did you do it this way instead of cooling in the brewpot then filtering?

 

[DeRoux's Broux]

i third it.

i'd leave the wort in the boil kettle for chilling. i use 1.33 qts per lbs of grain. the 60 to 90 minute mash will be fine, may have even helped with the lower starting mash temp.

 

[jeffg]

Interesting point--I guess I should have chilled it in the pot first--it was a spur of the moment decision. Then again, I emptied my hop bag into my mashtun and siphoned the beer into it, which is not exatly a splashy procedure, any more so than racking from primary to secondary is. And the beer was not filtered through the strainer until it was cooled. I guess time will tell. I would think you would have to foam up hort wort pretty good for there to be an issue?

 

[Baron von BeeGee]

Most likely you won't have any issues (assuming the mashtun was sanitized before you transferred the wort back). But it is a risk and probably best to avoid in the future. Besides HSA, you're increasing your risk of contamination by needlessly tranferring your wort. A lot of people have false bottoms and manifolds in their kettles in order to filter the wort which might be a good option if you like the benefits of it.