Partial Mash Mistake

[scasey1972]

I recently made two five gallon batches of "partial mash" beer. However, I did not do things correctly...

1) I did use beer smith to calculate the amounts of mash and sparge water, striking temp, etc. This part I did correctly...

2) I warmed up water to ~ 170 degrees and added a bag of grain (probably shoking the enzimes).

3) The water stablized at 152 degrees and I did the best I could to maintain that temp on the stove top.

4) I removed the grain after an hour and sparged the grain with 170 degree water. That sparge water was collected into the same pan as the wort.

I see the biggest problem as being that I never filtered to transfered my wort to other container. Have I totally screwed up these two batches? I am pretty sure my conversion was poor. This process was more like steeping than, mashing...

I am now reading, in detail, steps on how to do partial mash single infusion with an insulated cooler (duh!). I can tell I made a bunch of mistakes.

 

[rudu81]

I'd suggest reading DeathBrewer's thread: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/easy-partial-mash-brewing-pics-75231/

 

[frazier]

How long was the mash? If you left the grains in the water for about an hour, you did fine.

A partial mash is really just a controlled steep. Congratulations - you will have beer!

There are two ways to gauge the effectiveness of your mash (too late now though). One is the iodine test, which will tell if all the starches have been converted to sugar - the other is a hydrometer reading, which will tell you the Specific Gravity of your mini-wort. I recommend doing both.

 

[TANSTAAFB]

I recently made two five gallon batches of "partial mash" beer. However, I did not do things correctly...

1) I did use beer smith to calculate the amounts of mash and sparge water, striking temp, etc. This part I did correctly...

2) I warmed up water to ~ 170 degrees and added a bag of grain (probably shoking the enzimes).

3) The water stablized at 152 degrees and I did the best I could to maintain that temp on the stove top.

4) I removed the grain after an hour and sparged the grain with 170 degree water. That sparge water was collected into the same pan as the wort.

I see the biggest problem as being that I never filtered to transfered my wort to other container. Have I totally screwed up these two batches? I am pretty sure my conversion was poor. This process was more like steeping than, mashing...

I am now reading, in detail, steps on how to do partial mash single infusion with an insulated cooler (duh!). I can tell I made a bunch of mistakes.

Sounds like you nailed the process to me man! :rockin:
In AG brewing (same principles apply to partial mash or BIAB-brew in a bag) you overheat the water so when you stir in your grain it stabilizes at your desired mash temp...exactly what you did. You won't "shock" the enzymes, if anything you will create more non-fermentables and therefore sweeter beer by mashing higher, but it takes time to change the enzymatic character of the mash. I frequently use strike temps of 168-170 to hit my #'s. You can deactivate the enzymes at the end of the mash by heating UP to 170ish (mashing out). 152 is a great temp for a balanced beer.

The insulated cooler will help maintain temps but my first (and only-I went AG right away) PM is still one of my favorite brews. I think I have 2 or 3 bottles hiding in the back of my beer fridge...might just have to pop the top on one today!!!

Welcome to your new obsession

BTW, most modern malts will reach full conversion in a 60 min mash.

 

[dcp27]

you didn;t do anything wrong and filtering is over-rated, it'll all settle out

 

[jonmohno]

what about rest periods are they neccarsary?, or only with wheat-like protein rests?.when you have to lower and raise the temps.are these unneccesary with malted grains thn as opposed to unmalted?confused about the method because some call for it and some dont.

 

[RM-MN]

If the grain isn't fully malted, you need the protein rest. If you malt your own barley, you most likely need the protein rest but the maltsters have the process down pretty well and are unlikely to sell grain that isn't fully malted.

 

[scasey1972]

I brewed an Oktoberfest beer. I kept the beer in the primary for 7 days, and then transferred it to a secondary carboy for 2 more weeks. It has been in a bottle for around 4 weeks. The beer is very hazy. It also tastes "funny". I am wondering if the wort did not ferment fully???

I appreciate the encourage, but still think I screwed something up. Why is the beer so cloudy?

I am thinking about purchasing a cooler mash tun, to improve my ability to mash...

 

[TANSTAAFB]

I brewed an Oktoberfest beer. I kept the beer in the primary for 7 days, and then transferred it to a secondary carboy for 2 more weeks. It has been in a bottle for around 4 weeks. The beer is very hazy. It also tastes "funny". I am wondering if the wort did not ferment fully???

I appreciate the encourage, but still think I screwed something up. Why is the beer so cloudy?

I am thinking about purchasing a cooler mash tun, to improve my ability to mash...

Haze has a lot to do with yeast strain and how flocculant it is. It can also be chill haze but I wouldn't worry about clarity too much right now (though a little irish moss in the boil @ 15 min will help with that).

Worry about taste. I can't diagnose "funny"...need more info man! I can say give it more time and see how it ages. Another suggestion is to leave your beer in the primary for 3-4 weeks--the yeast have a lot of cleaning up to do and bulk aging really helps the beer out. This issue has been beaten to death around here with a lot of people coming down squarely on either side, but many suggest skipping the secondary altogether unless you are adding fruit or a true secondary fermentation w/ brett or something. Many even dry hop in the primary.

Your beer will get better the more you dial in your process and gain experience. Also, an Oktoberfest is a lager, requiring lower fermentation temps, much longer fermentation than 7 days, and true lagering (bulk conditioning at near freezing temps) to get the flavor right. Try some simple ale recipes, darker (stouts, brown ales, etc.) is more forgiving of off flavors.

 

[scasey1972]

Here is my recipe. The beer is very cloudy, and has a husk flavor. The carbonation is good. I am guessing that since I failed to filter the beer or use a mash tun, I have a lot of "stuff" floating in the beer, messing with its flavor. Damn...

----------------------

3.00 lb Light Dry Extract (8.0 SRM) Dry Extract 30.00 %
1.00 lb Amber Dry Extract (12.5 SRM) Dry Extract 10.00 %
3.00 lb Munich Malt (9.0 SRM) Grain 30.00 %
1.00 lb Caramunich Malt (56.0 SRM) Grain 10.00 %
1.00 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 10.00 %
1.00 lb Vienna Malt (3.5 SRM) Grain 10.00 %
1.00 oz Hallertauer [3.80 %] (60 min) Hops 9.8 IBU
1.00 oz Tettnang [4.00 %] (60 min) Hops 10.3 IBU
0.50 oz Hallertauer [3.80 %] (15 min) Hops 2.4 IBU
0.50 oz Hallertauer [3.80 %] (5 min) Hops 1.0 IBU
0.00 tsp Irish Moss (Boil 15.0 min) Misc
1 Pkgs European Ale (Wyeast Labs #1338) Yeast-Ale

 

[dcp27]

how long has it been bottled and how long was it in the fermenter(s)? if its <6 weeks old, give it more time before you try assessing off-flavors, many early ones fade pretty quickly

 

[scasey1972]

I left the beer in a plastic primary fermentor bucket for ~ 7 days. I then moved the beer to a plastic secondary carboy for another 3 weeks. I then added sugar to the batch and transferred to bottles. It has been in the bottles for nearly 5 weeks. Like I said, the beer is really hazy and has a grain like flavor. I personally think I did a poor job of filtering the wort from the grain. I left a lot of sediment behind, etc...

 

[jonmohno]

if you added sugar without racking your 3 week secondary , you just mixxed up your yeast cake with it. You should have racked your secondary to a botteling vessel with the sugar in the botteling vessel to get it off the sediment/yeast. the only option you have now is to let it settle and let it settle more in the fridge so it clears and forms a tighter yeast cake. then when you pour do it carefully. that way you may not have that large amount of yeast in your glass
I would give it two weeks minimum in the fridge.

 

[str8wire]

+1 on yeast sediment being the cause of the hazyness. It doesn't take much from the bottom of the bottle to create cloudy beer.

 

[mixedbrewer]

Sometimes I bottle out of a bottling bucket that I use as a secondary. If you are not careful when adding the priming sugar, it can disturb the cake at the bottom. If you boil the priming sugar in some water, then gently disperse it into the bottling bucket while only stirring the top of the wort, it will spread throughout the wort as long as you let it sit for a good 10 minutes. I have done it that way many times. And the bottles seem to carb up pretty fast, usually within a week.

 

[jonmohno]

Sometimes I bottle out of a bottling bucket that I use as a secondary. If you are not careful when adding the priming sugar, it can disturb the cake at the bottom. If you boil the priming sugar in some water, then gently disperse it into the bottling bucket while only stirring the top of the wort, it will spread throughout the wort as long as you let it sit for a good 10 minutes. I have done it that way many times. And the bottles seem to carb up pretty fast, usually within a week.

This is how i wanted to do it from my primary bucket at first but ended up using dry sugar to the bottles, probably a mistake.Doesnt alot of the sugar settle on the cake? thats what id be afraid of. I just started transfering to a bucket with boiled sugar water and even with gently mixing it i feel it will settle and still cause the last few bottles to be overprimed.

 

[mixedbrewer]

Since its a secondary, there isnt a whole lot of yeast cake at the bottom. And, no, I dont think too much sugar settles at the bottom. The sugar water is pretty warm when I add it (160 degrees). So I am sure it hangs around the top for a little bit. Thats what I gently swirl the top of the wort . So hopefully the sugar water can disperse throughout the wort as it falls and the temprature balances over 10 minutes. And since I bottle from the spigot, the first few beers would have most of the sugar by your theory. But, they always seem the same to me.

 

[scasey1972]

I usually rack from my secondary (carboy) back to a clean and empty plastic bucket. This leaves the yeast cake and sediment behind. I then add my bottling sugar (5-6 ounces) directly to the 5 gallons in the bucket and stir the batch very slowly (mixing the sugar and beer). Finally, I rack the beer to 16 ounce bottles. This process works well. All of my bottle have carbonation.

 

[dcp27]

well its possible the huskiness you taste is astrigency: http://www.howtobrew.com/section4/chapter21-2.html
http://www.winning-homebrew.com/astringency.html

and the haze could be chill haze or incomplete conversion: http://www.howtobrew.com/section4/chapter21-1.html

not sure if anything in those descriptors sound like something you may have done