Did Not Achieve Ideal Mach Temp - Reduce Hop Additions?

[RobH]

Hi All,

My mash strike temp was not as high as I had intended it to be (66c) ... it ended up being about 63c after I had stirred the mash in. I did quickly heat up another 5 litres to about 75c & add it - but had to drain 5 litres from mash tun in order to fit it in.
I didn't want to let more heat escape, so didn't leave the lid off the tun long enough to take a decent temp reading after that.

After 1 hour mash I sparged with the 5 litres of runnings that I had to take out at the beginning, plus another 6 -7 litres of water, all heated up together to about 90c. The spent grain tasted drier (not as sweet) as the spent grain from an identical grain bill (my previous brew last weekend) ... so i am guessing I will end up with a drier beer.


Here is the grain & hop bills. (Hop bill is like it is as I am using up what is leftover)

Grain Bill
----------------
3.500 kg Pilsner (68.63%)
1.000 kg Vienna (19.61%)
0.300 kg Carapils (Dextrine) (5.88%)
0.300 kg Wheat Malt (5.88%)

Hop Bill
----------------
10.0 g Amarillo Pellet (8.6% Alpha) @ 45 Minutes (Boil) (0.4 g/L)
10.0 g Saaz Pellet (3.7% Alpha) @ 45 Minutes (Boil) (0.9 g/L)

10.0 g Amarillo Pellet (8.6% Alpha) @ 20 Minutes (Boil) (0.7 g/L)
25.0 g Saaz Pellet (3.7% Alpha) @ 20 Minutes (Boil) (1.3 g/L)

20.0 g Amarillo Pellet (8.6% Alpha) @ 0 Minutes (Boil) (0.9 g/L)
5.0 g Saaz Pellet (3.7% Alpha) @ 0 Minutes (Boil) (1.7 g/L)

This got me calculations of about 23 IBU in 23 Litres final volume.


Wondering if I should reduce some hops somewhere, or leave as is...

45 min adds go in in 10 mins from now...

 

[RdeVjun]

Probably getting too late to matter but I wouldn't change it anyway. Yeah it could be dry-ish but not worth working up a lather IMO, plus we've all got to chalk a few up to experience anyway, so just RDWAHAHB. :icon_cheers:

 

[RobH]

I only slightly modified the Hops adds - the 45 min stayed the same, 20 min I reduced the Saaz to 15g, 0 min I reduced the Amarillo to 10g, and the Saaz ended up being about 12g.
Final volume ended up being 20 Litres in the fermenter, at 1.048 ... fairly different result to last weeks 1.052 in 22.5 Litres, and I am sure the difference is due to the difference in mash temp and sparge routine.