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 fucked up when all the shit 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 shit 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 shit 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 fucked up when all the shit 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 shit 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 shit 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.
