Partial Mash Outcome

[BrewFrisco]

So I brewed with my first partial mash last night and have the following corrections to make - I wonder what this beer will end up like!

Dogfish Punkin Clone:

Mash: 5# 2-Row, 1# Special, and 1# Victory
LME: 3.3# Pale
Additions: 1.25# Brown Sugar / 60oz Libbys Pumpkin

Strike Water - Got this up to roughly 170 (First Mistake) - should have went up to 178(ish). After mashing in - my overall mash temp dropped to 146. So I removed water and added more hot water - temp remained at 148ish for the 1st 45min. I was able to eventually get the temp up to 150 and left it on for another 45min at this temp.

Mash Tun - Since I did not have a false bottom built, I used a large grain bag - poured the hot liquor right on top of the grains - stirring it nicely. At the end of the mash, I sparged by simply pouring the remaining strike water in the grain bed...hope this didn't screw anything up too much!

Used 30oz pumpkin in the strike water and the remaining 30oz about 30 min into the boil.

Hallertau at 60min and then at 5 min - 1oz each. I also dropped .5os cascade in at 15min (experimental).

Lot's of equipment changes to be made - lessons learned but I just hope the beer is still worth something.

 

[Justibone]

Sounds pretty good, but you know that Dogfish adds spices to that beer, too, right?

I wouldn't sweat the low start on the mash, as long as you got to the temp you wanted after a few minutes.

 

[bernerbrau]

With those mash temps you should be fine. You basically did a beer-in-a-bag partial mash. To be sure that conversion has happened, you can add a few drops of iodophor to a tester dish with a sample of your wort, which will turn purple if conversion has not completed (do not drink the tester). You might have gotten better extraction by transferring the wort before sparging, but especially in PM it isn't a huge idea.

I've never made a pumpkin beer, but I'd have added all the pumpkin during the last 15 minutes since all you really want to do is sterilize it.

That hop schedule is interesting, but I'm guessing the cascade flavor is going to be very subtle.

 

[BrewFrisco]

I did add spices - dogfish suggests 1tbs each of All-Spice, Nutmeg, and Cinnamon - Other recipies call for 1tbs of pumpkin spice. So I added 1tbs of pumpkin spice and 1 tbs of my mix the the other three spices - so met in the middle.

On the sparging - what I did was released the wort that was in my MLT slowly - due to my equipment, the grains clogged the spout so there was a lot of 'moving' of the grain bag. I essentially poured 158 degree sparge water into the MLT as the wort was draining. I guess I got about 3 solid gallons of wort. I started with 4 gallons of hot liquor. Got a bit of grain into the boil (maybe 1/2 cup in total).

 

[BrewFrisco]

Oh...and I have not pitched the yeast yet. I did not plan for a full-proof cooling method so I just poured the wort and remaining water into the primary and let it sit over night.

Checked it this morning and it was still in the high 80's. Plan to pitch this evening.

Is that ok...or another rookie mistake?

 

[bernerbrau]

Oh...and I have not pitched the yeast yet. I did not plan for a full-proof cooling method so I just poured the wort and remaining water into the primary and let it sit over night.

Checked it this morning and it was still in the high 80's. Plan to pitch this evening.

Is that ok...or another rookie mistake?

Some people on here do no-chill brewing, but it's important to keep the container airtight for sanitation reasons (an airlock or blowoff is insufficient due to suck-back), so they generally use containers that can deform temporarily and bounce back. If your wort doesn't taste off, I'd say go ahead and pitch as soon as it hits 70.

Do you have a way to control temperature while it ferments? If not, you will very likely taste esters in the final product.

 

[BrewFrisco]

I don't have a fermentation chamber of any sort - since this is an ale, I figure storing it in a closet. My home is typically mid 70's.

I am glad I did this partial mash (even if the beer fails) - now I know what to fix and processes to refine.

 

[bernerbrau]

70s are fine, but ales do ferment a bit cleaner in the upper 60s.

 

[Justibone]

If you can get a big bucket or tote or Rubbermaid(tm) or something, you can fill it with a few gallons of water, put your fermenting bucket inside that, and then use ice to keep that water slightly cooler than room temp. Wrapping it in a towel and then pointing a fan at it will also keep it cool (swamp cooler).

Temperature control will improve your beer more than anything other than sanitation... listen to the bernerbrau!

 

[BrewFrisco]

So I pitched the yeast last night - so the beer will have been in the primary for 24 hours, is it too late to drop the temp or has the damage been done?

I forgot all about the swamp method.

 

[bernerbrau]

You'll probably benefit regardless, but you'll want to do it sooner rather than later. Early in the fermentation process is when most off flavors due to temperature are produced.

 

[Justibone]

You can drop the temp. Some of the damage may have been done, if any were going to be done, but it's still worth doing, for the first week at least.