As summer wends it’s way to it’s end - sometime around the fifth of never here in Los Angeles - we start thinking about bigger, better beers for those cold winter days. Friend of the podcast, Jim Leininger, joins us (after our usual shenanigans) to talk about making his very amazing Imperial Stout with reiterated mashing. But first, the news…
Made time to listen to the interview so far. After hearing Denny & Drew describe the richness of the beer, I’m thinking again I have to motivate myself to try this on a Doppelbock one of these days. Congrats, Jim!
Just listened, and while I tend to be verbose, the extra verbosity was due to my friend, crappy expensive satellite internet. I apologize for talking right over you guys a few times, but there was a gnarly delay. And I talk a lot lol
Thanks for the discussion, Jim. It has gotten me thinking about a similar procedure.
I do electric BAIB in a 10-gallon kettle, and that won’t hold enough for a high-gravity beer so I often add some DME to kick up the OG. Instead I could do a low-temperature (145 - 150) mash with just base malt, then pull the grains and raise the temperature (or vice-versa) and add a second batch of grains for another mash. Using this technique I could do it all with grain, and the strike temperature calculations are easy for both stages. It means a longer mash, but the first one would proceed pretty quickly and could probably be stopped after 20-30 mins. One downside is that calculating pH for the second mash is a bit tricky (this is true for the reiterated mash, too). I need to think about that some more. Maybe Martin can help if he sees this.
Calculate acid for total grain in total water. Then calculate acid needed for half the grain in total water. If total acid needed is 3ml, and the first mash needs 1ml, then the 2nd mash gets the remaining 2ml. It’s just that easy.
I am going to have to try this out. It seems so logical and I no sparge, anyway, so it should fit my approach easily without too much complications. Thanks for the simple explanation on water treatment. I will be listening tomorrow while I brew!
Maybe my water is different than yours, but that doesn’t work for me. I have alkaline water and need the acid in the grain to bring down the pH. If I add half the grain to the total water I need MORE acid to hit the right pH than if I add all the grain, so my first mash needs more acid than the second. In the couple of examples I looked at there is not a lot of difference between the two, though, so I figure that if I get the pH right for the first mash it should be good enough for the second.
Great podcast and interview guys, I enjoyed it. Jim, if I recall you made two RIS using this method, the second using the different mash temperatures for each mash. Forgive me if you mentioned this somewhere, but were you able to discern any difference between them based on that variable?
No difference. Beer #1 was 150f for 90 min and 150f for 90 min. Beer #2 was 160f for 45 min and 145f for 90 min. The real difference is time. 45 min less
Just got the chance to listen and thank you Denny, Drew, and Jim for a great podcast! I had followed the double mash forum post pretty closely and have been interesed in trying it myself. It was also quite the surprise as well to hear my name called for feedback for my Parti-Gyled Saison! Keep up the good work. Cheers
