Second Mini Mash

[Mantis]

Did a mini mash a few months ago and have 2kg of grain left, plus other left over bits, so I thought a gold ale type, what do you reckon?

1kgJW pale ale
1kg Pale Wheat
1.5kg Coopers LLME
600g LDME
200g CaramunichIII
100g Pale Crystal

25g Amarillo 8.2% 60min
15g Amarillo 20min
15g Amarillo 10
10g Amarillo 0

US-05

Best I can (know how) to do with Beersmith gives me
OG=1047
IBU=33
EBC=14

ALC/V 4.5

I will do the mash BIAB with the crystal grains and thinking 8 litres of water for the 2.3kg of grain, is this about right.
Also thinking 74deg water for the start then adding the grain. Then wrapping the pot in a towel and leaving for an hour.
Only done one mini mash before so any advice would be welcome
:icon_chickcheers:

 

[Bribie G]

With those quantities of liquid and dried malt extract, obviously you are using the grain for body, flavour, etc rather than providing pure fermentable-to-alcohol sugars so I would suggest mashing the grains at 68 degrees and have a jug of boiling water ready in case the mash turns out too cool, and some ice water for the other possibility! 74 sounds about right but, and this is something I haven't seen on the forum .... bring the grain to room temp if you have been storing it in the fridge. I did a 2K mash with fridge temperature grain and after striking it only came up to 60 degrees and it required some quick boiling water work! Not such an issue with BIAB but keep those hot and cold liquids handy

As you are doing BIAB with full volume of liquor and not sparging, 8L sounds a bit low for 2kg of grain and bits; when I do that quantity I usually aim for as near as possible to 9L (10L pot) and keep an eye out for potential boil over. For BIAB you are going to have some of that water retained in the spent grain so I would hazard a guess and go for 9 1/2 L of original strike liquor to give you between 8 and 9L at the start of the boil.

Edit: I use an 8L Decor container - $16 from woolies - in a waterbath in an esky which is ideal for 2kg but requires sparging. In your case since most of the conversion takes place in the first 20mins, towel wrapped pot should work for what you are looking for.

 

[Mantis]

With those quantities of liquid and dried malt extract, obviously you are using the grain for body, flavour, etc rather than providing pure fermentable-to-alcohol sugars so I would suggest mashing the grains at 68 degrees and have a jug of boiling water ready in case the mash turns out too cool, and some ice water for the other possibility! 74 sounds about right but, and this is something I haven't seen on the forum .... bring the grain to room temp if you have been storing it in the fridge. I did a 2K mash with fridge temperature grain and after striking it only came up to 60 degrees and it required some quick boiling water work! Not such an issue with BIAB but keep those hot and cold liquids handy

As you are doing BIAB with full volume of liquor and not sparging, 8L sounds nearly right for 2kg of grain and bits, although when I do that quantity I usually aim for as near as possible to 9L (10L pot) and keep an eye out for potential boil over.

Edit: I use an 8L Decor container - $16 from woolies - in a waterbath in an esky which is ideal for 2kg but since most of the conversion takes place in the first 20mins, towel wrapped pot should work for what you are looking for.

View attachment 22327

My pot is 12lt so 9 litres is doable, and I will keep an eye on the temp thanks
Brewsmith is telling me that the grains will give me a bit over 50% of the fermentables with 75% efficiency, but 75% is probably shooting I tad high
Just had a play and if I drop the batch from 25lt to 23 and the efficiency to 65% it comes out about the same as above, so this batch size is probably better eh

Edit: to many eh's

 

[Bribie G]

While you were replying I edited the post because I had second thoughts about 8L of strike liquor and upped it to 9.5L because, on reflection, you will be BIABBing and some of that water will be absorbed and lost in the spent grain. I actually brew to 25 litres, bottle into 12 2L bottles and allow a litre of waste in the fermenter and still get good results with a 2L minimash. With your size of pot you have plenty of room to play with.

Cheers

Michael

 

[Mantis]

While you were replying I edited the post because I had second thoughts about 8L of strike liquor and upped it to 9.5L because, on reflection, you will be BIABBing and some of that water will be absorbed and lost in the spent grain. I actually brew to 25 litres, bottle into 12 2L bottles and allow a litre of waste in the fermenter and still get good results with a 2L minimash. With your size of pot you have plenty of room to play with.

Cheers

Michael

Cheers and thanks.
It will be interesting to see what the measured OG is tommorow
2L bottles, cool, you have a good system going there :icon_cheers:

 

[Mantis]

Well I mashed it at 68deg for 80min. Measured OG of 1049 came in exactly what beersmith said at 23lt so efficiency must have been 65-67%. I suppose thats ok for a small setup.

Well its in the fermenter and the colour looks spot on. Now to wait :beer: