I read a simple article on beertools about over milling resulting in astrengency? How much is overmilling? I mill my own at the LHBS and it is a very nice crusher that is the the double roller powered by a drill and the speed you run it through can affect the crush. Thinking "oh the better the crush the better the efficiency," i run my grain nice and slow and get a very nice crush with efficiency around 80% batch sparging with the steel braid. I have never got a stuck sparge, but i am getting astrengency in some of my lighter beers (i realized i was over sparging and hope thats that problem). My real question is it possible to really get off flavor from over milling or should i not worry about it and just keep doing what im doing
possible to overcrush grain? (not talking about stuck sparge)
- Thread starter ekjohns
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carnevoodoo
Well-Known Member
Over-milling will just give you stuck sparges. It is possible that it could lead to some astringency, but I wouldn't think that's likely. If there's something off in your lighter color beers, consider your water as a source.
My water looks good besides a sulfate count of 128 ppm. Is there a way to take out SO4 without having to dilute water?
Incase people are interested in the article here is the link http://www.beersmith.com/blog/2008/09/21/troubleshooting-homebrewed-beer/
Incase people are interested in the article here is the link http://www.beersmith.com/blog/2008/09/21/troubleshooting-homebrewed-beer/
StAnthonyB
Well-Known Member
Fatgodzilla
Well-Known Member
In simple terms, astringency comes from the leaching of tannins from your grain. You will always get tannin in your wort, its the excessive amounts of tannins that causes astringency. Most brewers ignore the pH of the sparge because in reality, we really don't understand it. However it is important, especially in lighter beers. Heavier/darker beers often mask problems but its most likely in lighter beers because of the pH in the system. You recognised over sparging as the culprit and that looks correct. Its all to do with the pH and its an important thing to understand in home brewing. There are some good sparging articles in HBT and a couple of spreadsheets (can't find them - do a search). I don't think it is necessarily a crush problem (ie more crushing more astringency).
Sounds good. Beertools was having me do 2 sparges so i was doing about 2.8 gal mash in 1.2 gal mash out, 1st sparge - 4.9 gal, 2nd sparge 2.8 gal (rough estimates) which was giving me a final pre-boil volume of about 9 gal for 10 lbs of grain. This also caused me to boil for 2 1/2 hours which can furth lead to bitterness which i think makes the astrengency even more noticable. I have sence fixed beertools and will give it another shot. Is it recommended to use 5.2 stabilizer on light beers?
You have to select "lock" in the batch sparge window so that it figures the sparge amount based on your recipe's preboil volume requirement.
