National Comp & Powels Malts
- Thread starter Darren
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Darren said:
TD, just following up on the above misleading statement.
FWIW, the Port Dock hotel won the best stout a couple of years back at the IBA. They were ALL extract then.
I really want to know how Powells faired in blind judging. If they did well I may buy some. If not I will stick with the imported malts.
cheers
Darren
T.D.
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Fair point Darren.
It does appear that Powells is picking up quite a few awards though. I did my first brew with Powells on the weekend. All seemed to go well (from a quality point of view - my efficiency was terrible!). I am looking forward to trying it when it is done. Just that efficiency - the worst I have ever had (would you believe 52%!). I only ran it through the mill once (BC on stock roller spacing) and it looked like a good crush. I am doing another brew on Wednesday which I will mill the grain twice for. Lets hope things improve a bit. As I have said before, the malt smells great and seems like a real goer on paper, but if the efficiency remains low I am going back to Joe White, no question about that.
It does appear that Powells is picking up quite a few awards though. I did my first brew with Powells on the weekend. All seemed to go well (from a quality point of view - my efficiency was terrible!). I am looking forward to trying it when it is done. Just that efficiency - the worst I have ever had (would you believe 52%!). I only ran it through the mill once (BC on stock roller spacing) and it looked like a good crush. I am doing another brew on Wednesday which I will mill the grain twice for. Lets hope things improve a bit. As I have said before, the malt smells great and seems like a real goer on paper, but if the efficiency remains low I am going back to Joe White, no question about that.
Justin
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Yeah try your mill spacing T.D.
For some reason my mill wouldn't pull the grain through on Sunday morning on the setting I had it on (I forget if it was my normal setting or not-a mate comes round and mills on it as well and insists on grinding the hell out of his malt and double milling-ie. flour, so he messes with my spacing. I suspect it was left on the narrowest gap for the second milling so wouldn't pull uncrushed grain through).
Anyway, I was in a rush so just opened the gap to factory setting and crushed away. Did a double batch of stout and my efficiency was 60%- I haven't been that low ever (that I recall anyway). So I'll be closing the gap up a bit more again- I suspect the low efficiency was my coarse crush but it did look quite ok. I think I'll stop my mate adjusting my mill all the time because it messes up my efficiency/consistency.
But narrower than factory is a better setting. I usually have the little marks on the adjusters 2-3mm narrower than factory and that was giving me a good crush and efficiency as well as feeding the malt well.
Just to bring this slightly back to topic, I was going to use Powells malt for the stout but didn't have the specs in Promash (I'll do that today) so I used JW Trad Ale. The next batch will be with Powells as I have to agree with most of the statements above-it smells fantastic.
I suspect a powells pale ale in the near future.
Cheers, JD
For some reason my mill wouldn't pull the grain through on Sunday morning on the setting I had it on (I forget if it was my normal setting or not-a mate comes round and mills on it as well and insists on grinding the hell out of his malt and double milling-ie. flour, so he messes with my spacing. I suspect it was left on the narrowest gap for the second milling so wouldn't pull uncrushed grain through).
Anyway, I was in a rush so just opened the gap to factory setting and crushed away. Did a double batch of stout and my efficiency was 60%- I haven't been that low ever (that I recall anyway). So I'll be closing the gap up a bit more again- I suspect the low efficiency was my coarse crush but it did look quite ok. I think I'll stop my mate adjusting my mill all the time because it messes up my efficiency/consistency.
But narrower than factory is a better setting. I usually have the little marks on the adjusters 2-3mm narrower than factory and that was giving me a good crush and efficiency as well as feeding the malt well.
Just to bring this slightly back to topic, I was going to use Powells malt for the stout but didn't have the specs in Promash (I'll do that today) so I used JW Trad Ale. The next batch will be with Powells as I have to agree with most of the statements above-it smells fantastic.
I suspect a powells pale ale in the near future.
Cheers, JD
T.D.
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Great post Justin, exactly the sort of info I was after!
I'll adjust my mill so that the dial is 2-3mm from stock and give that a try. That is very interesting that using JW Ale you got 60% efficiency at the stock spacing - I have heard that when using Powells you can expect up to 5-10% less efficiency, which makes my 52% seem quite plausible.
So Justin, at the closer spacing, you only put the grain through once right?
Also, what is your efficiency usually?
Thanks :beer:
I'll adjust my mill so that the dial is 2-3mm from stock and give that a try. That is very interesting that using JW Ale you got 60% efficiency at the stock spacing - I have heard that when using Powells you can expect up to 5-10% less efficiency, which makes my 52% seem quite plausible.
So Justin, at the closer spacing, you only put the grain through once right?
Also, what is your efficiency usually?
Thanks :beer:
Justin
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Hi T.D.
Yeah I was a bit surprised by the efficiency drop but I really do put it down to the roller gap. I was going to mill it again when I set it at the factory setting but looking at the malt it looked to be alright so I left it. Not sure why I chose the factory spec instead of going a bit tighter, I think I was just in a rush so knew it would feed properly at the factory spec and I didn't want to mess about too much because I was already late (brewing at someone else house). But it is normally a bit closer (the 2-3mm from stock that I mentioned).
I only mill through once, my friend insists on double milling and changing gaps for wheat, rye and pearled barley (I've never used pearled or rye) and piss farting around so I let him go for it. I usually just mill at the one setting and in the one pass. The normal efficiencies I got with fly sparging were 80-85% with my old tun, with my new tun and manifold and going to batch sparging I've been getting around 75%+/- one or two %.
I batch sparged this one and it was a fair bit low. Just did my normal procedure so I'm guessing it was the crush. I'll tighten it up for the next batch and see how it goes again.
FWIW I've only ever had a sparging issue with a fine mill gap once and I think that was my fault anyway-rushing the sparge, the world cup rugby was on at the same time. Normally I have no probs with sparging.
Hope it gives you some starting points to work with.
Cheers, Justin
Yeah I was a bit surprised by the efficiency drop but I really do put it down to the roller gap. I was going to mill it again when I set it at the factory setting but looking at the malt it looked to be alright so I left it. Not sure why I chose the factory spec instead of going a bit tighter, I think I was just in a rush so knew it would feed properly at the factory spec and I didn't want to mess about too much because I was already late (brewing at someone else house). But it is normally a bit closer (the 2-3mm from stock that I mentioned).
I only mill through once, my friend insists on double milling and changing gaps for wheat, rye and pearled barley (I've never used pearled or rye) and piss farting around so I let him go for it. I usually just mill at the one setting and in the one pass. The normal efficiencies I got with fly sparging were 80-85% with my old tun, with my new tun and manifold and going to batch sparging I've been getting around 75%+/- one or two %.
I batch sparged this one and it was a fair bit low. Just did my normal procedure so I'm guessing it was the crush. I'll tighten it up for the next batch and see how it goes again.
FWIW I've only ever had a sparging issue with a fine mill gap once and I think that was my fault anyway-rushing the sparge, the world cup rugby was on at the same time. Normally I have no probs with sparging.
Hope it gives you some starting points to work with.
Cheers, Justin
Batz
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T.D. said:
Look guys I don't push Powells malts at all . I can afford them and I believe I brew a fairly nice beer with them as well.
I like to brew as often as I can , in my lfe style at present $20.00 for a bag of ale compared to $67.00....I can afford ! I brew heaps with Powells.
If Darren was at the Sunshine Coast with good deals , well I'll possiably buy from him.
Efficiency drop is not a fault of the grain Justin , it is a different grain you must learn too mash with , most brewers here now get exellent efficiency with Powells.
Batz
tangent
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20 bucks a bag??????
even with a drop in efficiency, you gotta be happy with that!
saying that, my introduction to my first malted grains being Scottish Maris Otter and German Pilsner certainly has given me a lot of respect for traditional malt producers as well as the diversity of malted grains. (Through work in the agricultural media, I'd been brainwashed to believe that Aussie grain is far superior to European competition, but maybe it's the maltsters that are superior???)
I'd be keen to use cheap malts to flesh out a recipe but the proper stuff is pretty damn awesome. I'm really keen to try my latest Aussie pale malt brew to compare as i am keen to support good Aussie produce and producers.
even with a drop in efficiency, you gotta be happy with that!
saying that, my introduction to my first malted grains being Scottish Maris Otter and German Pilsner certainly has given me a lot of respect for traditional malt producers as well as the diversity of malted grains. (Through work in the agricultural media, I'd been brainwashed to believe that Aussie grain is far superior to European competition, but maybe it's the maltsters that are superior???)
I'd be keen to use cheap malts to flesh out a recipe but the proper stuff is pretty damn awesome. I'm really keen to try my latest Aussie pale malt brew to compare as i am keen to support good Aussie produce and producers.
wee stu
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Darren said:
Amidst all the huff and puff of this thread, I think this comes to the hub of Darren's points.
At heart Darren is a professional scientist, he is looking for validated and peer reviewed results before making a commitment and changing well established practices. I suspect he doesn't place much credence on unsubstantiated hearsay evidence, no matter how impressive and convincing it may appear to some of the rest of us. If I am misrepresenting you Darren let us know.
In the meantime, I have some Powell's to experiment with, and I suspect it is time I did my own empirical reasearch.
God knows (and in large measure thanks to Darren) I have my own grain mountain to deconstruct :super:
hey darren, make an investment - buy a couple of bags of powells, brew some beer, then tell us what you think. perhaps even enter them in a comp. i would have thought choice of malt producers would be a small element in a winning beer.
cheers
cheers
wee stu
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Batz said:
Batz, you did win a class in a National Comp - ANAWBS, Australian NATIONAL Wine and Beer Show. Open to all brewers in Australia. Nothing to apologise about, mate. Something to bring the rafters down with :super: .
But then again, I don't really think that is what you were apologising about - was it
slainte, stu
edit: spelling, grammar, and misinterpretation
