The Vorlauf Effect - Pt. 2: Testing The Extreme | exBEERiment Results!

[Brulosopher]

Results from the first vorlauf xBmt showed us the method seemed to have little impact on distinguishability. Curious just what it would take to produce a difference, we designed an xBmt to test the limits, adding over 8x the amount of grain a typical vorlauf filters out to one boil and comparing it to the same beer made with a normal vorlauf. Results are in!

http://brulosophy.com/2016/03/28/the-vorlauf-effect-pt-2-testing-the-extreme-exbeeriment-results/

 

[oceanic_brew]

Thanks for doing this. Like yourself I will still vorlauf.

It would be interesting (and almost a waste of time) to see if doing a beer with a grain bill that would offer more astringency itself and then coupling that with hard water and a resulting high PH if then an experiment with even less spent grain in the kettle would result in a more pronounced astringency.

Just wondering how much those factors play in the result. Like I said, not that valuable to my brewing either. But it's very valuable to know from your experiment that even if I did get a bit of grains in the kettle it's not gonna be the reason why I got an astringency and I should then look elsewhere:

 

[bobeer]

I vorlauf if I have the extra time but I never let grain into my boil. I figured it wouldn't have that big of a negative affect since you boil the thick mash in decotion mashing but I still don't want the extra junk in my boil.
One day I started brewing and had to hurry through the vorlauf step because I suddenly had things to do. I think I only recirculated a quart or so of wort before I had to just let the runnings go into the kettle. I put a thin-mesh strainer over the kettle to catch any grains that weren't caught in the grain bed. Once the sparge was done I continued as I normally would have. In the end I found no difference in the beer. I've continued to do this no vorlauf practice when time is short and use a strainer to catch any grain and my beer is still just as good as it was before. I find after you let out a little less than a gallon the grain bed settles and you don't get any grain coming out anyway.
If your wort comes out cloudy then there's still starches that haven't converted yet and you should let the mash sit for a little longer until it runs clearer. That has nothing to do with the vorlauf though!

Thanks for your experiments!! They're very interesting to read about.

 

[Spartan1979]

I'll still vorlauf but mainly because I adjust the rate of the wort flowing from my mash tun during that process. Too fast or too slow affects my efficiency and I am more concerned with consistency than overall efficiency.

 

[iijakii]

Years ago I was using a crappy BIAB bag and it ripped, my entire mash stayed in the kettle. I fished almost all of it out with a strainer before boiling, but there was lots of fine particulates and still a decent amount of straggler grains in there. Beer turned out perfectly normal.