Oh, and one more thing. I am a Dennybrew batch sparger. :o
And we love ya for it!
Were your beers tasting great before? I’m just wondering what impact you think 90% efficiency has that having < 85% efficiency does not.
For some reason it seems that 75 minutes works in the cosmic scheme of my brew setup… It just feels right, and more importantly it all tastes right. Go ahead, flame away, I have no data no tests, no side by side quintuple blind tasting… I just know that it works, very nicely.
It’s true that the 60+ minutes of mash time is a good time to measure hops, pick up more propane, take a shower, and make a pot of coffee. But I was wondering if perhaps an accidentally low mash temperature could be corrected by a shortened mash. For example, I was brewing a brown ale and accidentally hit 150 instead of my intended 154. I was able to raise it to 152 by adding extra water, but didn’t have enough space to get it up to 154… I wonder if I could have just shortened the mash to 40 minutes for the sake of the fuller body and greater residual sweetness.
In my experience, yes, it could help. Why continue to dry out the beer unnecessarily by mashing for 60 minutes or more if you can cut it to 40 minutes with minimal risk of hurting anything.
This
I guess I really question if it’s unnecessary. One of the problems I find again and again in homebrews is a too dextrinous beer that lacks crispness and drinkability. JMO.
We’ll wouldn’t lack of crispness have more to do with a poor choice of malt selection, and a poor choice of yeast strain selection that does not finish dry and crisp?
Those are contributing factors, but IMO not the main cause. You can use the same malt and yeast and completely change the body of the beer by manipulating mash temp and time.
What level of apparent attenuation are you usually looking for in your beers Denny?
Good question, and I’m gonna have to approximate an answer since I guess I never think of it like that. I’d say in general I like to get 80ish %. Of course, that can vary with the style and recipe, but when I’m making an alt or APA (for instance) that’s what I’m shooting for. And of course, it ALL varies with personal preference.
This is what I was going to say. While commercial breweries may only mash for 20 minutes, conversion is still taking place during vorlauf and sparging.
Somewhat related. There are alot of factors to consider when manipiulating body and mouthfeel.
The one thing that I tend to look at first is the mash parameters like time and temp. There are also other considerations as well like mash pH, hopping rate, carbonation level, grist bill (use of specialty malts) and yeast AA%.
With all of these variables it can seem overwhelming but really it’s just a matter of tweaking each variable to achieve your desired outcome. Playing with the variables, one at a time, is the best way to really understand the cause and effect of the variable at hand.
If I’m trying to tweak body and mouthfeel, mash time is one of the last knobs that I’d turn.
What would the first knob be?
I agree Gordon. I really should have left out mash time as a “tuning knob” and focused on mash temp as my primary target for body and mouthfeel adjustments.
Either mash temperature/program or grist composition. They’re about equal to me.
I was thinking temperature too. Early on I learned the acronym MALT = More Alcohol Lower Temperature.
I agree with you, Gordon. But if I do those and still can’t get what I’m going for, mash time is another tool to use. But it’s the last tool I reach for.