hefevice
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- 4/1/06
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Finally after 3 years of procrastinating...err...wait...planning and building...I finally gave up waiting until I finished building the all singing, all dancing automated, bling laden brewing system, pulled my finger out and plunged head long into the world of all grain brewing (whew)! With 3 extract batches under the belt, and comfortable that boiling and fermentation were under control, I figured if I kept waiting for equipment perfection, I would never get started (especially considering I can't weld for shit).
So, wanting to brew that perfect Hefeweizen with great banana/clove balance (requiring a ferulic acid rest at 45C), and no fancy recirculating mash system, I decided to give decoction mashing a go (single infusion is for pussies
h34r: ).
Here is the ghetto decoction set up (beer is a Belgian Pale Ale from batch #3)...
Mash tun is a converted 80L Willow cooler with home made slotted copper manifold.
Lesson # 1 - it is too big for 20L batches; the grain bed is too shallow (under 10cm), and it is difficult to hold temperature with so much air between the top of the bed and the lid.
Lesson #2 - mounting the thermometer in the outlet is not a good idea if you are not recirculating. Unless there is flow over the end of the probe, the thermometer doesn't register the temperature of the body of the mash.
Plan was to brew a simple Hefeweizen; 2.54kg of Weyeremann Pilsner and 2.54kg of Weyermann Wheat Malt (from Brewing Classic Styles). Beertools suggested this wouldn't quite give the OG required (and I had no idea of my system efficiency), so I played it safe at the last minute and used 2.7kg of each.
Schedule was supposed to be dough in @25C, raise to glucan rest (38.7C) with boiling water infusion, raise to 45C (ferulic acid/protein rest) with first decoction, raise to 67C for saccrification rest using second decoction, the mash out at 77C using boiling water infusion. Simple, huh?
First couple of rests went fine, however I struggled getting to the saccrification rest and mash out temps due to the larger volumes and I suspect heat losses in the mash tun. Result was I had to virtually do a triple decoction to get to mash out temp (I'm sure there was a bit of boiling water in there as well, but it is a bit of a blur).
Lesson #3 - if you plan to change the amount of grain, ensure you recalculate decoction and infusion volumes.
Lesson #4 - pull more than you need (30-40%) for each decoction, and boil more water than you need for infusions.
Lesson #5 - try to balance the rests so that the volumes for each decoction are around the same. To get up to the saccrification rest I had to pull over 60% of the mash volume (and that turned out not to be enough).
Lesson #6 - make sure you use a decoction pot bigger than you think you need (mine was about 1L too small).
Anyway, after a mashing schedule designed to take 3 hours took over 4 hours, it was outside to the ultra getto sparging and brewing system (see what lack of welding ability can do to a person..)
Mash tun goes on top of the storage box behind the bin mounted HLT.
After all that fun, my first ever fly sparge went very well and thankfully didn't get stuck at all (which is a relief because I forgot to order rice hulls). Using tap water (Caboolture) the pH stayed well in range right throughout the mash and sparging process.
Lesson #7 - use a hose for sparging that you don't need to physically hold inside the kettle. Sparging seems to take longer when you have to hold a hose over a hot kettle.
Gravity out of the mash was well about what was required as a result of playing it safe with the grain, and a higher efficiency than used for calculations (calculated at 70%, achieved ~85%). OG. was adjusted by adding water towards the end of the boil.
After starting the day at around 10am (building last minute gear like a sparge arm), doughing in at 2:30pm, everything was done and dusted by 11pm (pitched, and cleaned up).
Lesson #8 - decoction mashing is nowhere near as complicated and difficult as you would think.
Of course, the proof will be in the final result, which is currently bubbling away in the fermentation fridge (after a bit of a slow start as for the first time I did not make a starter - in previous batches it would have been climbing out of the fermenter the next morning - this time there was no sign of action, and the krausen was only just starting to form after 18 hours).
Many thanks to Ross for talking me out of BIAB for my first all grain batch :beerbang:
So, wanting to brew that perfect Hefeweizen with great banana/clove balance (requiring a ferulic acid rest at 45C), and no fancy recirculating mash system, I decided to give decoction mashing a go (single infusion is for pussies
h34r: ).Here is the ghetto decoction set up (beer is a Belgian Pale Ale from batch #3)...
Mash tun is a converted 80L Willow cooler with home made slotted copper manifold.
Lesson # 1 - it is too big for 20L batches; the grain bed is too shallow (under 10cm), and it is difficult to hold temperature with so much air between the top of the bed and the lid.
Lesson #2 - mounting the thermometer in the outlet is not a good idea if you are not recirculating. Unless there is flow over the end of the probe, the thermometer doesn't register the temperature of the body of the mash.
Plan was to brew a simple Hefeweizen; 2.54kg of Weyeremann Pilsner and 2.54kg of Weyermann Wheat Malt (from Brewing Classic Styles). Beertools suggested this wouldn't quite give the OG required (and I had no idea of my system efficiency), so I played it safe at the last minute and used 2.7kg of each.
Schedule was supposed to be dough in @25C, raise to glucan rest (38.7C) with boiling water infusion, raise to 45C (ferulic acid/protein rest) with first decoction, raise to 67C for saccrification rest using second decoction, the mash out at 77C using boiling water infusion. Simple, huh?
First couple of rests went fine, however I struggled getting to the saccrification rest and mash out temps due to the larger volumes and I suspect heat losses in the mash tun. Result was I had to virtually do a triple decoction to get to mash out temp (I'm sure there was a bit of boiling water in there as well, but it is a bit of a blur).
Lesson #3 - if you plan to change the amount of grain, ensure you recalculate decoction and infusion volumes.
Lesson #4 - pull more than you need (30-40%) for each decoction, and boil more water than you need for infusions.
Lesson #5 - try to balance the rests so that the volumes for each decoction are around the same. To get up to the saccrification rest I had to pull over 60% of the mash volume (and that turned out not to be enough).
Lesson #6 - make sure you use a decoction pot bigger than you think you need (mine was about 1L too small).
Anyway, after a mashing schedule designed to take 3 hours took over 4 hours, it was outside to the ultra getto sparging and brewing system (see what lack of welding ability can do to a person..)
Mash tun goes on top of the storage box behind the bin mounted HLT.
After all that fun, my first ever fly sparge went very well and thankfully didn't get stuck at all (which is a relief because I forgot to order rice hulls). Using tap water (Caboolture) the pH stayed well in range right throughout the mash and sparging process.
Lesson #7 - use a hose for sparging that you don't need to physically hold inside the kettle. Sparging seems to take longer when you have to hold a hose over a hot kettle.
Gravity out of the mash was well about what was required as a result of playing it safe with the grain, and a higher efficiency than used for calculations (calculated at 70%, achieved ~85%). OG. was adjusted by adding water towards the end of the boil.
After starting the day at around 10am (building last minute gear like a sparge arm), doughing in at 2:30pm, everything was done and dusted by 11pm (pitched, and cleaned up).
Lesson #8 - decoction mashing is nowhere near as complicated and difficult as you would think.
Of course, the proof will be in the final result, which is currently bubbling away in the fermentation fridge (after a bit of a slow start as for the first time I did not make a starter - in previous batches it would have been climbing out of the fermenter the next morning - this time there was no sign of action, and the krausen was only just starting to form after 18 hours).
Many thanks to Ross for talking me out of BIAB for my first all grain batch
:beerbang:
