Kristal Schwarzbier And Ale

[cubbie]

I have just completed my 3rd partial and until I can get my mush/lauter tun sorted I am after a few more. At the moment I am suffering from poor efficiency (around 50% on my last 2) which I have put down to 3 possible reasons.

1. Poor sparge. I am batch sparging, to process that I am using is mash in my esky (65-68c 1hr) then transfer to my bucket which I have drilled holes in, collect the wort and poor back over grain (to filter it). I then transfer back into the mash tun with sparge water (70-75c) for 15min and then collect the wort via my bucket.

2. Poor grain crush. I get my HBS to crush the grain, last time I had him run it through twice.

3. I am not calculating the efficiency correctly. Taking a hydro reading after I collect the wort (adjusting it for temp)


Anyway looking at getting 3 more beers in ready for Christmas.

My ideas area a

1. Kristal Wheat

2. Schwarzbier

3. ? Pale Ale, Red Ale, Belgian Ale or Belgian Pale Ale - well you get the idea some sort of ale.

At the moment I have

350g Melanoidin
400g Carafa Sepcial 2
250g TF Crystal Wheat (i think)

Chech Saaz 65g
Tettnanger 35g
Styrian Goldings 80g

wyeast 3944
wyeast 3942
wyeast 1028
wyeast 3068

I would love some recipe ideas for the above beers using some/all of my current ingredients. I realise I may need another yeast for the schwarzbier.

Doc, my first partial was based on you smoked Dunkel Weizen (minus the smoked malt) it was a bloody rippa.

Cheers.

 

[pint of lager]

Do not worry about your efficiency. Mini mash equipment gives lower results. 50% was all I managed too.

You are getting lots of grain flavour into your brews, which is the aim of partial mashes. Once you move onto ag, get used to your equipment by doing a few batches, then revisit effeiciency. The most important point is not to oversparge in the search for higher efficiencies.

So often, people get worried about poor efficiencies when they are beginning. Higher efficiencies come with fine tuning your equipment and techniques. It is more important initially, to concentrate on not oversparging, getting consistant results, formulating recipes, getting the hops: sweetness balance right. Then go back and check your efficiency. It is relatively low priority in the first few brews.

As you have already picked up, a big part of efficiency is in the crush. Then, the way your equipment extracts the sachaarides from the mash. Then, how efficient your gear is at extracting the wort from the hot/cold break and from the hops without giving harsh flavours.

The hydrometer correction factors when taking readings at higher temperatures are notoriously inaccurate. It is best to crash cool a sample in a plastic bag in an ice bath to 20 deg C, then take your hydrometer reading.

A krystal wheat beer means a wheat beer that is clear, rather than cloudy. It would typically contain 40-60% wheat malt, rather than crystal wheat grain. You may like to have a crack at one and use a few kilos of Morgans wheat LME. Then do a partial mash with pale ale for the rest of the ingredients, maybe including some of your crystal wheat grain.

 

[cubbie]

I have had a look around and have come up with this for a schwarzbier

Coopers LME - light 1.5kg 32.4%
Pilsner Malt 2.5kg 54.3%
Carafa Special II 0.25kg 5.4%
Wheat Malt 0.2kg 4.3%
Melanoidin Malt 0.15kg 3.3%

Tettnang 3.9% 46g 60min 27.1 IBU
Tettnang 3.9% 10g 15min 1.4 IBU
Saaz 3% 10g 5min 0.7 IBU

DCL s34/70

It will be my biggest partial so far. I would just do a single infusion mash at 66c for 60min and then batch sparge.

Thoughts anyone.

 

[cubbie]

Idea for my wheat beer.

This is based on my dunkel hefe-weizen, minus the dark bits.

Coopers LME - Wheat 3kg 70.6%
Weyermann Pale Wheat 0.5kg 11.8%
Weyermann Vienna 0.5kg 11.8%
TC Crystal Wheat 0.25kg 5.9%

Tettnang 26g 45min 11 IBU
Czech Saaz 10g 10min 0.8 IBU

Wyeast 3068

 

[pint of lager]

For your schwartzbier, you may want to cut back on the carafa a bit.

Weyermann recommend 1-5% of Carafa in that style of beer, and 5.4% is pushing that limit.

weyermann link

 

[Troob]

5.4% is fine, but replace the melanoidin with cararoma

 

[cubbie]

Cheers guys,

Troob i am trying to use some of my existing grain.