Rocker1986
Well-Known Member
I had no problems with the Weyermann Bo Pils malt (floor malted variety). No protein rests, no decoctions, just a straight Hochkurz mash and the beers turned out perfectly fine, and the efficiency was fine as well. A little lower than I wanted but nothing in that or the finished beers that would suggest there was any need to get all fancy with the mash schedule.
I had tried doing a full step mash with one batch of it, but the urn ****** up when all the **** released from the grains caked onto the element and it wouldn't heat up. And this was at the acid rest step. I then had to get out the old stock pot, drain some of the "wort" into it, boil it and return it to the urn (did this 3 or 4 times) to bring it up to the mid 60s degrees.
Long story with that batch but it was **** compared to the following ones where I ditched the full step mash and just started it at 62/63. It never cleared up either; I had one bottle in the fridge for 3 months and it was still full of ******* haze, despite the use of isinglass and Polyclar during the cold conditioning period prior to bottling. Its flavour was also way off what I wanted. It tasted like a S&W Pacific Ale of all things. Not bad per se, but not what I want in a Bo Pils.
The later batches all turned out the way I wanted them to when I first compiled the recipe. Much, much better flavour - exactly what I would expect from a Bo Pils. They also cleared up very quickly. All batches were brewed to an identical recipe; the only thing that differed between the **** one and the good ones was the mash schedule. I'm not saying that a full step mash or a decoction can't be done with this stuff obviously, just that I don't think it's necessary to achieve a decent outcome, not because my attempt failed, but because a more standard approach worked really well for me.
I'm no expert of course but based on my experience with it, I don't think this malt is under modified and needs anything more than a single infusion, although I do like doing the Hochkurz schedule in these beers. I am gonna use it with some melanoiden next batch and see what differences appear in the finished beer, and also try a single infusion mash on one batch to see how that goes.
I had tried doing a full step mash with one batch of it, but the urn ****** up when all the **** released from the grains caked onto the element and it wouldn't heat up. And this was at the acid rest step. I then had to get out the old stock pot, drain some of the "wort" into it, boil it and return it to the urn (did this 3 or 4 times) to bring it up to the mid 60s degrees.
Long story with that batch but it was **** compared to the following ones where I ditched the full step mash and just started it at 62/63. It never cleared up either; I had one bottle in the fridge for 3 months and it was still full of ******* haze, despite the use of isinglass and Polyclar during the cold conditioning period prior to bottling. Its flavour was also way off what I wanted. It tasted like a S&W Pacific Ale of all things. Not bad per se, but not what I want in a Bo Pils.
The later batches all turned out the way I wanted them to when I first compiled the recipe. Much, much better flavour - exactly what I would expect from a Bo Pils. They also cleared up very quickly. All batches were brewed to an identical recipe; the only thing that differed between the **** one and the good ones was the mash schedule. I'm not saying that a full step mash or a decoction can't be done with this stuff obviously, just that I don't think it's necessary to achieve a decent outcome, not because my attempt failed, but because a more standard approach worked really well for me.
I'm no expert of course but based on my experience with it, I don't think this malt is under modified and needs anything more than a single infusion, although I do like doing the Hochkurz schedule in these beers. I am gonna use it with some melanoiden next batch and see what differences appear in the finished beer, and also try a single infusion mash on one batch to see how that goes.
