Two mashes or reiterated mash?

[jerrylotto]

OG of 25P and 20l of Wort. Im so bloody excited. Hope is high

With such a high initial gravity make sure you oxygenate really well and pitch more than enough yeast.

 

[Brewshna]

Shook the **** out of it. Fermentation started nicely, first bubbles after a few hours

 

[Brewshna]

I do a lot of recipes like this and I reiterate. First mash is almost always 100% base, I save all the specialty grains and additives for the second. After the first mash is sparged, I heat up a second batch of sparge water and measure the right volume of runnings to do the second mash. It's important to have a decent concentration of bicarbonate to buffer for the second mash or the the runnings may be too acidic.

So you set PH on first mash to be right and then have to buffer on the second round because of the dark malts?

 

[BrewDrinkRepeat]

Not sure why you stopped sharing the recipe... makes a lot of the thread now useless, as we can't see what you were trying to accommodate.

 

[Brewshna]

Didn't stop. Will check

 

[Brewshna]

Strange

 

[Brewshna]

Here's a copy

 

[Brewshna]

I mixed base malts just because I didn't have more pale. Normally I'd only use pale malt for a stout. Marris otter even, if I could get it easily

 

[jerrylotto]

So you set PH on first mash to be right and then have to buffer on the second round because of the dark malts?

Exactly. Roasted and acidulated malts need a lot of buffering or the pH gets too low.

 

[jerrylotto]

Here's a copy

Something odd about the hops in that recipe. It almost looks like the hop additions are reversed.

 

[Brewshna]

Why's that?

 

[jerrylotto]

Why's that?

I have always used Magnum as a bittering hop and Columbus for flavor. Don't really see the point of a 5-minute Magnum addition.

 

[Brewshna]

Oh, it use C/T/Z ad bittering hops. Magnum is just had left over

 

[Rob2010SS]

Don't want to hijack OP's thread here, but I'm considering a reiterated mash on a big stout. However, everything I've read, I can't find the answers to the questions that I still have...

1. I understand that you're splitting the mash into 2 parts. Are you splitting each grain type evenly so you have identical mashes OR are you doing roasted grains separately?
2. I use a bag in my mash tun during mash. Makes removal of grains easier. To get the most out of the first mash, is it ok to squeeze the bag to get the most volume out of it?
3. pH will be adjusted at the first mash. What about the second mash? Will you not have to worry about mash pH in the second mash because you already adjusted it once for the first one?



In my scenario, the recipe has 49.75 lbs of grain. Would a reiterated mash for me look like this...?
1. Split each grain type evenly into 2 identical mashes with 24.875 lbs of grain each.
2. Add minerals to strike water for water profile and pH adjustment.
3. Dough in on mash #1
4. Towards end of mash #1, raise temp back up to Strike temp for mash #2.
5. Skip sparge on first mash and pull out grain bag and squeeze to get as much volume out.
6. Begin 2nd mash by placing grain bag with new grains in mash tun which still contains wort from first mash.
7. Perform full mash, mashout and sparge as usual to achieve desired pre-boil volume.

Is it really that simple?

 

[jerrylotto]

Don't want to hijack OP's thread here, but I'm considering a reiterated mash on a big stout. However, everything I've read, I can't find the answers to the questions that I still have...

Inline:

1. I understand that you're splitting the mash into 2 parts. Are you splitting each grain type evenly so you have identical mashes OR are you doing roasted grains separately?

>1A - splitting evenly by weight but first half is all base and the second half is remaining base + roasted grains.

2. I use a bag in my mash tun during mash. Makes removal of grains easier. To get the most out of the first mash, is it ok to squeeze the bag to get the most volume out of it?

>2A - I use a basket recirculation system so sparge - no squeeze. I guess the answer to your question is a function of your crush and your bag mesh. I see no problem with squeezing a bag as long as what comes out is mash liquor.

3. pH will be adjusted at the first mash. What about the second mash? Will you not have to worry about mash pH in the second mash because you already adjusted it once for the first one?

>3A - this is an important question - your pH will be different on the way out. It needs to be checked and potentially buffered further. I use fresh water sparge for both halves and take the sparge liquor first to make up the strike for batch 2. Once you get the strike volume right (by adding first runnings to the collected sparge from step 1) and mixed in well, check and adjust your pH and take into account that roasted grains will lower the pH more than the base grains.

In my scenario, the recipe has 49.75 lbs of grain. Would a reiterated mash for me look like this...?

> Big batch! I think you can see the difference in our process from the above so I didn't comment on your process but no sparge batch 1 is NOT how I do this.

 

[Brewshna]

1. I split mine evenly this time and that worked for me. Fixed PH on first mash, second won't change it much
2. I didn't use a bag but my all in one lauter basket. I pushed down to get as much as possible with as little as possible sparge.
3.see 1.

Mines fermenting away and seems very happy. The brew day was a bit chaotic but play the rest by heart. Sparged the first until I had 30l, drained 4l for my second sparge. Mashed in second lot for apr. 75 mins and sparged with the Wort until I had 24.5l. Boiled for 60ish min and voila 25P Wort, tasting of chocolate and hops.

 

[Rob2010SS]

Inline:



>1A - splitting evenly by weight but first half is all base and the second half is remaining base + roasted grains.

1. I split mine evenly this time and that worked for me. Fixed PH on first mash, second won't change it much

So you guys do it differently. Why add roasted grains to only one vs splitting in both?

Sorry for all the questions. I can't mentally bring myself to do something without knowing the Why's.

 

[jerrylotto]

Using base malt only for the first half has less impact on pH and the sparge is cleaner. Most of the sugars come from base malt anyway.

 

[Brewshna]

I think both variants are doable. I might try the other Variante next time. Also I have had the idea of mashing twice and storing the first mash in a fermenter while the second is going, hence the threads title.

 

[bwible]

In Randy Mosher’s book “Radical Brewing” he calls it a “double double”. It says the process is wasteful of time and men, and at times it was illegal.

I’ve only done it once. A long time ago. There was substantial sugar remaining in the grain and efficiency was low. If you have 2 mash tuns, you could make your strong beer and then re-run both mashes again and make a second “normal” beer. Would make for a long brew day though

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

Recipe on p 135: "Ignoble doble-doble".

 

[Brewshna]

Wouldn't take that much longer than reiterated mashing. If you pre heat the mash water. And efficiency should be good, as its two normal mashes. Maybe I'll try some day. Here's the eff. of my last brew

 

[jerrylotto]

Another consideration is that you have more water to boil off...

 

[bwible]

Another consideration is that you have more water to boil off...

Right. You don’t combine 2 1.050 mashes and get 1.100

 

[brewman !]

I've done several reiterative mashes. Check my posti g history. They are great for attaining high gravity at high efficiency.

The highest gravity I hit was 1.120. The highest gravity I'll do with a non reiterative mash is 1.075. Anything higher than that get double mashed.

The second mash converts very quickly because the enzymes are already active in the mash liquid. Nevertheless, I use long mash times because I always do and it's easy to do on my system.

 

[Brewshna]

FG is at 9P at the moment. I don't think it's going to change a lot in another week. So came out a little to high, still tastes very bitter at this point (but that will change a lot while lagering) shook fermenter and hoping for 8P,but don't think it'll get there.

 

[Beer666]

Never heard of anyone adding nibs to the mash before. Did you get anything out of it? I always roast mine too to avoid putting them in vodka.

 

[Brewshna]

I roasted them too. Also some roasted going in after fermentation is over. I read about it somewhere and wanted to try it. Will look for the article

 

[Brewshna]

https://brewhq.ca/blogs/academy/brewing-with-chocolate
https://www.google.com/amp/s/beerandbrewing.com/amp/adding-flavors-to-your-stout/
Just two I know

 

[jerrylotto]

I've done several reiterative mashes. Check my posti g history. They are great for attaining high gravity at high efficiency

I get 1.127 - 1.129 pretty reliably from my stout recipe reiterative mash after the (2 hr) boil. I use a total of 7.5 gal of water (3.3 gal water strike 1, 2.0 gal water sparge 1, 3.3 gal runnings for strike 2, 2.2 gal water sparge 2) and each grain bill is about 12#. I also add about 2# DME after the mash and keep the boil vol over 5.5 gal.