Hi!
First post here!
A little background : the batch I brewed today was my 2nd, but actually the first non-kit (the kit one was the Canadian Red Ale from BBS -- it's currently in the bottling phase, and I guess it went great with the exception of the ****LOAD of trub/grain/yeast/things you don't want in your bottle anyways that ended up in the glass carboy. I finally bottled only 8 beers, and while the mash phase made me crazy (stovetop, meaning the temperature was ranging from 148F to 170F, depending on whether I measured the top or the bottom of my "tun". ) I nevertheless ended up with an OG of 1.071 (...but really, really lacked water, so I added chilled boiled water to the carboy, thus ending up with 1.059 after the relevant calculations were made (and temperature-adapted, too). I tasted good, albeit probably a lil' too sweet for what it should be. FG of that one is 1.011... so yeah, it went well.
Well... that leads us to today. I'm a 1-gallon batch guy, BTW.
As the mashing went bad the first time, I decided to purchase a 2-gal cooler that I'll use as a mash tun. Also decided working with a bag (in a decidedly non BIAB setting...), just in case I had to heat the whole thing.
And... boy.
After 25 minutes, my temperature went down 11 degrees, from 149F to 138F. so I took some boiling water and added it to the mash, bringing the temperature to 148F. Which I figured was okay.
40 minutes later... Mash temp is again in the 130'sF territory. So I pulled the bag out of the wort (in some pot, and recuperated it afterwards). I heated the whole mash water to 160 and put it back in the tun. I ended up leaving the bag in for 10 minutes, then proceeded to sparge.
Some might wonder why 148F : that was on purpose, as I was brewing a Saison. I had heated my mash tun with 175 water prior the dough-in, but I was stuck "resetting" the mash water. So I might have ended up not heating it enough.
It might be useful to precise that my Pre-boil Gravity was 1,031, that it, two point below target, and I purposefully put in a lil' more water because I was sure I had underevaluated evaporation loss (I did).
The boil went well, the cool-down went extremely well (chilled down to 78 in less than 20 minutes, compared to the whopping 45 minutes it took for the BBS one), and that's the last time I'm NOT siphoning in the glass carboy. Oh, OG was 1.053, which was 3 points below target, and now that I think about it, my weight data for grains was pre-milling. Which might skew things a bit. I tasted the beer and it was ... dry, dry and somewhat spicy/pepper. Quite a bit actually. In other words, exactly what I wanted --- See recipe below. I can easily manage to keep temp around 75-to-80F in the summer, which is perfect for a Saison.
Yeah, long story short : what effects could my ... odd mash have on my beer. I wanted a dry beer anyways, I just don't want something ridiculous either. I'm a bit afraid of oxidation due to low temp == does it matter pre-boil?
_____________
Oh, btw, here's my recipe -- anybody has an opinion on it? I figured it myself (well... general guidelines and all...)
1 lbs 7,6 oz Pilsner (2 Row) Ger (2,0 SRM) Grain 1 69,4 %
7,2 oz Munich Malt - 10L (7,0 SRM) Grain 2 21,2 %
3,2 oz Wheat, Flaked (1,6 SRM) Grain 3 9,4 %
0,06 oz Horizon [12,00 %] - Boil 60,0 min Hop 4 15,1 IBUs
0,06 oz Horizon [12,00 %] - Boil 20,0 min Hop 5 9,2 IBUs
0,05 oz Sterling [7,50 %] - Boil 20,0 min Hop 6 4,8 IBUs
0,05 oz Sterling [7,50 %] - Boil 5,0 min Hop 7 1,6 IBUs
0,03 oz Horizon [12,00 %] - Boil 5,0 min Hop 8 1,5 IBUs
0,05 oz Sterling [7,50 %] - Steep/Whirlpool 0,0 min Hop 9 0,0 IBUs
0,45 pkg Danstar Belle Saison
Type: All Grain
Batch Size: 1,00 gal
Boil Size: 1,79 gal
Boil Time: 60 min
End of Boil Vol: 1,09 gal
First post here!
A little background : the batch I brewed today was my 2nd, but actually the first non-kit (the kit one was the Canadian Red Ale from BBS -- it's currently in the bottling phase, and I guess it went great with the exception of the ****LOAD of trub/grain/yeast/things you don't want in your bottle anyways that ended up in the glass carboy. I finally bottled only 8 beers, and while the mash phase made me crazy (stovetop, meaning the temperature was ranging from 148F to 170F, depending on whether I measured the top or the bottom of my "tun". ) I nevertheless ended up with an OG of 1.071 (...but really, really lacked water, so I added chilled boiled water to the carboy, thus ending up with 1.059 after the relevant calculations were made (and temperature-adapted, too). I tasted good, albeit probably a lil' too sweet for what it should be. FG of that one is 1.011... so yeah, it went well.
Well... that leads us to today. I'm a 1-gallon batch guy, BTW.
As the mashing went bad the first time, I decided to purchase a 2-gal cooler that I'll use as a mash tun. Also decided working with a bag (in a decidedly non BIAB setting...), just in case I had to heat the whole thing.
And... boy.
After 25 minutes, my temperature went down 11 degrees, from 149F to 138F. so I took some boiling water and added it to the mash, bringing the temperature to 148F. Which I figured was okay.
40 minutes later... Mash temp is again in the 130'sF territory. So I pulled the bag out of the wort (in some pot, and recuperated it afterwards). I heated the whole mash water to 160 and put it back in the tun. I ended up leaving the bag in for 10 minutes, then proceeded to sparge.
Some might wonder why 148F : that was on purpose, as I was brewing a Saison. I had heated my mash tun with 175 water prior the dough-in, but I was stuck "resetting" the mash water. So I might have ended up not heating it enough.
It might be useful to precise that my Pre-boil Gravity was 1,031, that it, two point below target, and I purposefully put in a lil' more water because I was sure I had underevaluated evaporation loss (I did).
The boil went well, the cool-down went extremely well (chilled down to 78 in less than 20 minutes, compared to the whopping 45 minutes it took for the BBS one), and that's the last time I'm NOT siphoning in the glass carboy. Oh, OG was 1.053, which was 3 points below target, and now that I think about it, my weight data for grains was pre-milling. Which might skew things a bit. I tasted the beer and it was ... dry, dry and somewhat spicy/pepper. Quite a bit actually. In other words, exactly what I wanted --- See recipe below. I can easily manage to keep temp around 75-to-80F in the summer, which is perfect for a Saison.
Yeah, long story short : what effects could my ... odd mash have on my beer. I wanted a dry beer anyways, I just don't want something ridiculous either. I'm a bit afraid of oxidation due to low temp == does it matter pre-boil?
_____________
Oh, btw, here's my recipe -- anybody has an opinion on it? I figured it myself (well... general guidelines and all...)
1 lbs 7,6 oz Pilsner (2 Row) Ger (2,0 SRM) Grain 1 69,4 %
7,2 oz Munich Malt - 10L (7,0 SRM) Grain 2 21,2 %
3,2 oz Wheat, Flaked (1,6 SRM) Grain 3 9,4 %
0,06 oz Horizon [12,00 %] - Boil 60,0 min Hop 4 15,1 IBUs
0,06 oz Horizon [12,00 %] - Boil 20,0 min Hop 5 9,2 IBUs
0,05 oz Sterling [7,50 %] - Boil 20,0 min Hop 6 4,8 IBUs
0,05 oz Sterling [7,50 %] - Boil 5,0 min Hop 7 1,6 IBUs
0,03 oz Horizon [12,00 %] - Boil 5,0 min Hop 8 1,5 IBUs
0,05 oz Sterling [7,50 %] - Steep/Whirlpool 0,0 min Hop 9 0,0 IBUs
0,45 pkg Danstar Belle Saison
Type: All Grain
Batch Size: 1,00 gal
Boil Size: 1,79 gal
Boil Time: 60 min
End of Boil Vol: 1,09 gal
