My 1st Mad Scientist Experiment w/ grain

[Aloha_Brew]

I've made 3 successful batches of beer using liquid malt extract and specialty grains only. So, after reading up on everything I decided to kind of dip my toes into the all-grain brewing by doing a kind of half-mash brew. This was a major change in what I have done previously because I put together my own recipe and used liquid yeast for the first time as well. Here's my recipe:

7lbs dark malt extract
2lbs Roasted Barley
1lb Munich Malt
1lb Crystal 80L
6oz Black Patent
6oz Belgian Special B
2oz Honey Malt
WP004 Irish Ale Yeast
2oz Galena pellets
1oz Nugget pellets

So, I used my 5 gallon steel pot to get my water up to around 155 and steeped the Roasted Barley and Munich Malt for an hour with 1.5 gallons. Temperatures were very unstable as I didn't have a constant way to monitor and ranged from 150-165. But I rolled with it, sparged with another .5 gallons to produce about 1.6 gallons of wort. I put this into my primary and let it sit for a couple days until I was ready to make the remaining wort.

I put my other 4 grains in a bag and steeped in 3 gallons for 30 minutes at about 150-155. I then added all the malt extract except for a cup, which I set aside for my starter. After stirring till it mixed well, I boiled the wort for an hour. During this I added 1oz Galena at the start of boil, 1oz Nugget at 30 min remaining, and 1oz more of Galena at 5 min remaining. I then poured this into my fermenter to make about 4.5 gallons total.

The next day I mixed the one cup malt extract with 4 cups (2 pints) and boiled for 10 minutes and cooled to room temp (about 76-78 degrees, though maybe a little cooler since I put it on ice and waited a few minutes before pitching the yeast). In the same pot I added less than half a tsp of nutrients (which on the package it says half a tsp for one gallon), pitched the yeast (after having had it sit for several hours), and shook it around a bit to mix in some O2. I then covered it with some plastic wrap, leaving about an inch of space on two sides, and shook it every 4-6 hours until the next day.

I then added 2 tsp of nutrients to the wort and poured it to my bottling bucket back and forth about 6 times total to mix in some oxygen. I took my starter and then added it into the wort, closed up my fermenter and waited. My fermenter is water cooled between 68-70 degrees.

So, here is where I'm worried. My gravity measured around 1.078-1.080 before I closed up my fermenter, which is a little higher than what I expected but fairly close. The first day the airlock bubbled a little bit. The next day I hardly noticed any bubbling. This makes me wonder if I might have stuck fermentation later on only due to the fact that my starter had a distinct alcohol scent to it before I mixed it with my wort. I know it's too early to really worry all that much but I just wanted to see if the results so far compare with anyone elses batches. Any recommendations or words of advice??? Besides waiting...

 

[wonderbread23]

Take a peak in the bucket... If there is krausen, it's actively fermenting. A lot of times, buckets won't seal properly making the airlock a poor indictor of fermentation.

I'd be most concerned about letting your initial mash sit around for a few days unboiled and without yeast. It most likely soured over that period and may cause some unwanted funk. Also, 2 lbs or roasted barley and 6 oz patent is a lot... Might be a bit acrid.

 

[Aloha_Brew]

Well, I really wanted to try something new! I didn't think the wort sitting for a few days at 70 degrees would cause it to sour though. I didn't notice much krausen on the starter but should I notice about the same in the fermenter?

 

[DrinkinSurfer]

My words of advice would be to follow a more conventional timeline for your procedures. If you are making a starter, go ahead and do it a couple-three days before you brew. Here in HI a big problem we face is temp control, do you have a way to maintain your fermentation temperatures? I use a 15 gallon trash can I got from home depot for a few bucks, put my brew bucket in it, fill up water just below the level of wort in the bucket, and swap out a few frozen water bottles a few times a day. I hope your recipe fits your taste, 2 lbs of roasted barley is on the high side of things, but it shouldn't be a deal breaker. You could add some lactose (unfermentable milk sugar) to add a little sweetness and balance out the toastiness of the roasted barley, between 8oz and 1 lb could do. I like your style with the addition of Special B, it has a sneaky way of making it in to most of my brews. I have to make a point not to use it every now and then as a matter of fact. Take a gravity reading and make sure it is fermenting, or just trust the yeasts are doing their thing.

 

[AnOldUR]

Any recommendations or words of advice???

Research diastatic power.

 

[wonderbread23]

Research diastatic power.

I don't think this is an issue. The munich should have adequate DP to self convert, and steeping is fine for all the other grains...

 

[AnOldUR]

I don't think this is an issue. The munich should have adequate DP to self convert, and steeping is fine for all the other grains...

So, I used my 5 gallon steel pot to get my water up to around 155 and steeped the Roasted Barley and Munich Malt for an hour . . .

Oops. I mistook the 155 degrees for an hour as trying to mash the Roasted Barley and Munich. Looking back, I see that the OP has a complete understanding of starch conversion and was only attempting to steep these grains.

Thanks for the correction.

 

[Aloha_Brew]

I'm going to check the fermenter this weekend and take a gravity reading, possibly to rack things up to get the yeast stirred up some more. I'll see if I might need to do something like add some more yeast or other ingredients.

I was aiming for a bitter dark stout with high alcohol, but I also tried to sweeten it up with the crystal 80 and the honey malt (which I would have used more of but it smelled sweet enough that I decided not too). I have both my primary and secondary in plastic tubs filled with water that I have cycling through water pumps into my mini-fridge's freezer. This keeps my temps steady at 68-70 degrees. So, my next thing today will probably be to put some ice in the tub to drop the temp down to 66-68 degrees for a few days, to see if it makes a difference since the optimum temp of the yeast is 66-68. I don't want to sweeten it yet if I can help it, just to see how it really turns out.

I'm confused about the Munich Malt and Roasted Barley comment, though. Well, I guess I used the term steeped where I should have used mashed. I used the 3 lbs of grain with 1.5 gallons of water and mashed for an hour at about 155 degrees. I got the information from the John Palmer's "How to Brew Beer," about what grains could be mashed vs. steeped. Was this something above and beyond what I should have done? Plus, is it normal to have a starter that was somewhat open to air still smell like alcohol?

 

[Aloha_Brew]

Ok, so I also contacted White Labs about my starter and they said the alcohol smell is probably an indication that the starter didn't do what it should have. I followed the directions for making a starter fairly closely: using 4 cups of water(2 pints) to 1 cup DME. But they said something may have caused the yeast to start fermentation rather than growth, known as the "Crabtree Effect." So, they recommended I add a new vial of yeast.

I checked the fermenter and racked it a few times to stir up the yeast that was in there. While doing that I noticed a lot of residue on the bottom, possibly as much as one inch. Also, there was a slight dark film on the top and not the familiar lighter colored krausen I've seen before.

So, today I'm going to pick up some yeast and just pitch it in and hopefully this will fix the one problem. Still don't quite understand how much damage I did to the fermentation by mashing the 2 lbs of Roasted Barley though.