My First Mini-mash!

[James Squire]

Hello all,

I just put down my first ever mini mash on the weekend!!!! :super:

Being that im an impatient fella (and inexperienced with brewing at this level), I thought id call on some of you (enviably) more experienced brewers to give me a rundown of what to expect from my first partial. :unsure:

The beer style i was aiming for was a Czech Pilsner.

My intention was to do this with 1kg Pilsner grain and 1kg Vienna, but unfortunately the closest HBS to me only had a small selection of grain available and I wound up bringing home the 1kg vienna and 1kg pale grain instead. This leads me to my main question of what differences should i expect from this replacement???

I steeped the grain in about 7 litres of water, for one hour, at a temp range of about 69*C to 66*C (at 45min mark added 500ml boiled water to pick up temp again) in my homemade "Budget mash tun" *See below*

At the end of the mash I ran off a couple of litres and poured back onto the grain bed before running all out into my stock pot and commencing boil.

Boiled vigourously for 45mins with hop additions at different times throughout the boil. Began with 15gms Hallertau and 10gms Saaz at beggining of boil, then with 30mins remaining added another 15gms Hallertau and then 10mins remaining another 20gms Saaz. Question number two, with these hop additions what should i expect???

Cooled down in ice bath, strained into fermentor, added 1.5kgs LLME, topped up to 21 Litres and pitched Bohemian Pilsner Liquid yeast.

How are things looking for me??? Thoughts and advice appreciated.

Here's the photos of my super tightass "budget mash tun"

 

[cubbie]

Nice looking bucket for a mini. I would mix in a sparge next time.

 

[dreamboat]

I'd go along with that. Definately do a bit of a sparge... how was your OG reading?

So long as you ferment at the right temp, and lager around 2C for a few weeks after fermentation is finished... you should get a good quality brew out of this. Keep in mind that you may also need to do a diacetyl rest to get the best out of it.

Good luck!

dreamboat

 

[James Squire]

Thanks for the advice,

I'll give a sparge a go next time. With the diacetyl rest should i be CC'ing for a few weeks then bring back to room temp for 2-3 days? Is that right???

Also, on another point. What do people think about dry hopping this brew in secondary? Should I? If so what are people's suggestions? I understand some feel that dry hopping with Saaz will produce a 'greenness' into the beer, is this correct?

Cheers and Beers,

JS

 

[Ross]

Thanks for the advice,

I'll give a sparge a go next time. With the diacetyl rest should i be CC'ing for a few weeks then bring back to room temp for 2-3 days? Is that right???

[post="118254"][/post]​

Not quite - once the fg of your wort drops below 1020, raise the temp to approx 18c (room temp will suffice) for 1-2 days. Then back into the fridge for CC'ing for a few weeks.

With regards to the dry hopping - not really true to style (lagers rarely dry hopped) but if you fancy it, go fot it. Saaz pellets can leave a grassy taste, especially if not fresh. Plugs are definately preferable...

cheers Ross

 

[James Squire]

DB, OG was about 1.053... is this ok for the style?

Ross, cheers for the correction! Will do as you recommend. Also will skip dry hopping for the sake of sticking true to style.

Questions:

With regard to the hop additions I have made, will the bitterness be up enough for the pils style?

After racking, can I throw the next brew (similar but with some recipe modifications... suggestions anyone?) onto the yeast cake and reuse? Anything i need to know about this process?

Thanks and sorry for all the Q's!

JS

 

[DJR]

DB, OG was about 1.053... is this ok for the style?

Ross, cheers for the correction! Will do as you recommend. Also will skip dry hopping for the sake of sticking true to style.

Questions:

With regard to the hop additions I have made, will the bitterness be up enough for the pils style?

After racking, can I throw the next brew (similar but with some recipe modifications... suggestions anyone?) onto the yeast cake and reuse? Anything i need to know about this process?

Thanks and sorry for all the Q's!

JS

[post="118572"][/post]​

1.053 should be ok - on the heavy end but not too much. IBU's look about right without calculating (but you haven't out your AA's in), to get a proper IBU reading get Promash (there is a 30 day trial i think) which will calc your IBU's or just use the calculator on the Grumpy's site. You should be getting between 30-45IBU for a BoPils.

You can put the next brew onto the yeast cake, only problem is that the left over stuff that isn't yeast may affect the quality. You're better off draining some of the crud and stepping it up with a wort starter. Next time step up and split your yeast - you can get about 4-6 pitchable vials out of the 1 purchase.

 

[Trough Lolly]

DB, OG was about 1.053... is this ok for the style?
[snip]
After racking, can I throw the next brew (similar but with some recipe modifications... suggestions anyone?) onto the yeast cake and reuse? Anything i need to know about this process?
JS

[post="118572"][/post]​

JS,
Congrats on a job well done.

The pale grain will result in a slightly different beer, but hell, it ain't the end of the world!! Just make sure you get some pilsner malt next time and see if you can taste the difference if you repeat the recipe faithfully...That's part of the fun - experimenting and doing tweaks until you make a beer you really like.

As was said, you should drain the mashtun and then mix a sparge in before the boil so you get better fermentable extraction from the grains - but don't sweat the efficiency issue now - you really want to focus on getting your mashing technique down pat before you try to work on improving technical issues like mash efficiency, and a sparge is an important step of the mashing process.

From what you wrote, you did a 45 min boil - so the bittering will not be as much as what you'd get from a 60 min boil, so next time I'd recommend you doing a full hour boil. The upside though is that you didn't have a highly concentrated wort prior to the boil...all the stock pot had was the mini mash and sparge liquor so you probably had the same hop bittering levels with a extract free boil over 45 mins compared to a full hour boil with everything in the kettle.

How big is your boiler/kettle? I noted that you added your malt extract at the end of the boil, to the fermenter. As I mentioned above, you'd be much better off adding the malt extract to the boil - you want to "key in" the hop bitterness oils through all of the malt if possible, so perhaps next time you add the malt extract to the stock pot, after the mash has concluded and then boil the lot - you will need to increase the amount of hops to compensate for the added malt (higher gravity boils tend to reduce the utilisation / bittering efficiency of the same relative amount of hops). If that sounds confusing, grab some recipe software and it'll work it all out for you - or use the beer recipator online...

That's a great frugal mashtun - whatever does the job, is good!

Cheers and welcome to brewing with grains!!

TL

 

[Trough Lolly]

Nearly forgot!! You can repitch a fresh wort onto the same yeast cake as long as you have good sanitation in the fermenter from the start.

I often repitch since it's easier to do than make a starter - just plan ahead and do the light beers first and the darker beers at the end, eg, a pale ale followed by an IPA and then a Stout if you like.

I tend to avoid repitching more than 3 times as you ramp up the risk of yeast mutation and undesireable effects, each time you repitch. Instead, I harvest the slurry and give the yeast a good wash before decanting and storing in stubbies in the fridge - have a search for Chiller's excellent yeast harvesting thread...

Cheers,
TL

 

[pint of lager]

Unless you have good temperature control, pitching onto a yeast cake is not a good idea as there is so much active yeast, the temperature will run away on you.

Better to use only a few desertspoonfuls, and even then, light wick and stand clear. The yeast will give you a rip roaring ferment.

Make sure, if you do repitch, that as TL said, your sanitation must be spot on. For newer brewers, a fresh packet of yeast each time would be the better course of action.

Also, make sure you boil for at least 60 minutes rather than 45. There are many reactions going on in the boil. You can keep a kettle of plain water boiling and top up as your wort evaporates.