I’ll be brewing a pale ale today using my new robobrew with pump.
In my past Brews the grain bill has been 80% 2 row and 20% Munich 10.
This time around I want to have a little more body. So I’m thinking of mashing at 156 and or adding some diffrent malt to the grain bill.
At my LHBS I saw some caramunich and crystal wheat, I’ve never used either of those before.
I’m thinking of adding a little Crystal wheat to the existing grain bill or replacing the Munich 10 with Caramunich, or both 50/50.
Any thoughts? I appreciate everybody’s feedback.
The caramunich is great for adding body and head retention it is easy to over use and end up with too sweet of a beer especially with the high mash temp I would err on the side of caution, Make some tests teas with the malt so you have a better idea of your flavour profile . I have no experience with crystal wheat but have heard it’s very important when brewing big 8 % Bavarian Wheat Ales
I would not just simply sub out your 20% munich malt for Caramunich or crystal wheat in those proportions. I would treat the crystal wheat and caramunich as cara/crystal malts which will add body and overall sweetness to the beer depending on the lovibond.
Maybe shoot for 4% each of caramunich/crystal wheat, 12% munich, and the rest base malt? I would also keep your mash temps fairly low if using those malts to be sure the final gravity will reach a proper attenuation. (150-152F)
Thanks for the advise.
I hav’nt been hitting my estimated FG at all. According to BS2 and Brewer’s Friend my final gravity should be somewhere around 1.012-1.014 I’m usually at 1.010-1.008.
Ive tried controlling fermentation temps to fix that problem but then my final pH changes as well. So from what I understand, mashing at a higher temp for less fermentable sugars = higher FG.
I have been using wlp001.
Of course when went to purchase my grain earlier they didn’t have either of the aforementioned, so I stuck with the usual.
Maybe I should bring down my sulfate also. If I remember correctly high sulfate can great a drier finish.
Keep in mind that those FGs are just guesses. You’re plenty close enough. If you want more body, you’ll have more luck by adjusting your grist rather than mash temp.
Ok well Brew day was a success, but i had a few things that didn’t go as planned.
I am used to using Munich 10l.
Apparently they were all sold out of Munich 10l and 20l but there was one bin off by itself that had MUNICH written in marker on a piece of paper, no lovibond, no country of origin or maltster. It looked. pretty light to me, I tasted it, it was good so I grabbed what I needed.
This time I also decide to add some honey malt 20l.
By the time the mash was done
I had what was suppost be a 6 srm, Pale Ale look more like 14 srm. I’d say its going to be somewhere around the color of Dales Pale Ale. I wonder how it got so dark?
Before having an all in one Robot brewery I used to put the boil kettle in a deep sink full of ice and chill the wort.
This time i had the pleasure of using an immersion chiller. What a hassle and waste of water. I had tubing running every wich way and I was springing leaks everywhere.
There were many benefits to having this all in one brewery.
Over time I’ll just have to work out the bugs.
English Pale Ale malt. 84.4%
Munich 60l? 8.9%
Honey Malt 6.7%
Nice! I may need to try this one out myself. Do you happen to know what “English pale ale” malt you used? I wonder if it was a floor malted MO variety?
Nothing special just a Breiss pale ale malt.
Not sure why there info said “english”.
The Munich is Breiss 10L and the honey malt is Gambrinus.
After that brew I did some research and found that the higher the pH in the boil kettle the more color your wort will have.
My mash pH is usually 5.4 and pre boil is 5.5.