I haven’t brewed someone else’s recipe in a long time, but this one really has my interest and I have been meaning to brew it for a while now. I am a little concerned about it’s ability to convert itself though. Below is the base recipe:
4.5 # English pale malt
4.5 # biscuit
4.5 # brown
I would love to use MO for the pale malt, but have considered replacing it with 6-row. Randy Mosher even points out that the brown malt may not convert itself and the Biscuit malt that I am using, from Castle, has no enzymes. Though 6-row should be able to help convert, I am not confident that MO is capable.
I’m betting that it would convert just fine. Just mash for 75 to 90 minutes, or even longer, if you are concerned. And even if it doesn’t convert as well as you might hope… do you think the people in 1776 knew what the word “conversion” even meant? Nah… they just threw it in there and hoped for the best. Right??
Very true. Since winter will be upon us in NY shortly, I think I will just add a couple of pounds of six row to assist with the conversion. The extra malt will warm it up a little, the residual proteins from the six row will add some mouthfeel, and I’ll still get the full flavor from the Maris Otter that I am looking for. We’ll see how it works out tomorrow hopefully.
I have read that MO has a low diastatic power, is that not the case?
Maybe I’ll roll the dice and just see how it works out. Worst case scenario I end up with a small beer, I’ll lean on my Imp Stout and Sake (next weeks brew) to keep me warm. As was said on another thread, you sometimes have to test the boundaries to improve and understand capabilities/requirements.
I’ve had good results using grain bills similiar to yours. Go with a longer mash for sure…90 minutes at a minimum. I’m assuming you’ll be using a single infusion?
IIRC, it is lower than domestic pale malt, which is something I didn’t take into account when I posted. But I don’t know how much lower or if it has the DP to convert other grain. My guess would be that it does. Whose MO are you gonna use? Maybe we can find some info on it.
I got it from Midwest, so it should be from Crisp Maltings. I did check their site, the Brown Malt is also from there, and didn’t find much (if any) that was technical. I was able to confirm that the biscuit, from Castle, is devoid of enzymes.
I only had 3.5# of MO after all, so used that and 2# of 6 row. Mash was 90+ minutes (90min initial mash, then drew first runnings and boiled down for another 30 min or so). Got a late start, so kettle is still on the fire, but confident things will work out. Thanks for the help.
Not all 2-row malts have high diastatic power.
Degrees Lintner
Simpsons Golden Promise = 56
TF Optic = 69
Maris Otter = 50 -60 ish. Have seen 120 on the web, but that might be WK index.
Briess 2-row brewers malt =140
Rahr 2 Row = 161 (wow)
I just sampled as I racked to secondary and the flavor was amazing, such a rich deep flavor. The SG was still high, 1.030, I am not concerned with a stuck fermentation at this point (I’m in no rush). If there wasn’t enough diastatic power, would it result in an increase in unfermentables that would drive up potential terminal gravity. I just want to make sure my thoughts are correct, since the beer tasted great, if a large amount of dextrines (or other unfermentables) may be present, I’ll just roll the dice with it. I plan on leaving in secondary for another couple of weeks before I check SG again (I hate meddling too much). Below is final recipe and mash schedule:
4.5# Brown
4.5# Biscuit
3.5# MO
2# 6-row
I did a single infusion mash for about 120 min at 152 degrees. Pitched US-05 Safele and seemed to have a monster yeast slurry at bottom of primary (of which I stirred up a little intentionally when I racked to secondary).