That is a nice thing about having a RIMS, the constant recirculation produces a very well filtered wort.
Actually, Denny…To be 100% honest…No.
In recent years, I have read several peoples’ instructions stating that it ‘could’.
In fact…I’ve done it several times & never noticed anything negative.
Maybe we can throw that statement out the window.
Has anyone else ever noticed astringency from squeezing your bag?
:o
Leaving my personal life out of it for a moment, I think the actual problem with squeezing the bag is mechanical lipid release which won’t cause astringency, but would cause fatty flavors that could easily spoil into rancidity.
– Drew
Wow! I don’t think you need to vorlauf for that long! ussualy I think you only need to do about a quart or two. You aren’t looking for crystal clear wort out of the mashtun just no chunks.
It’s not something I plan on doing for all my brews, unless the results are just fantastic. I wanted to try brewing with as little particulate matter as possible to see if the astringency was caused by grain material in the boil, or some other factor. It should be done fermenting in a week or so, and I’ll report back with my findings.
One thing I noticed while chilling, the wort had incredible foam stability. I use an immersion chiller, and to finish the last 20* or so to get to pitching temps, I raise and lower the cooler rapidly. It foamed up a lot more than usual, and the foam persisted for a much longer time. Any ideas what would have caused that?
cool! let us know!
Unless you actually have chunks in your runoff, clarity of runoff really isn’t related to the clarity or flavor of the finished beer.
How big is a chunk? How much particulate matter / flour is acceptable?
A chunk is macroscopic – you can easily pick it out by eyesight (20/20 vision). Acceptable particles, on the other hand, don’t look chunky but just cloudy.
By the way… by vorlaufing for 2 hours, you have basically mashed for an extra 2 hours. Therefore, I predict your attenuation will be crazy high. It depends also on the strain of yeast that you have used, and other factors, but this could very well be a really bone dry beer with very very little sweetness. Might even seem watery. Just so you’re not surprised by it later. There are reasons why most folks don’t mash for that long, and this is a big one.
I made a saison, and I hoped for 90%+ attenuation, so I’m not too worried about over-mashing.
I picked up a copy of New Brewing Lager, and found a ton of info, including this: “A lot of draff carried into the kettle is a recipe for astringent beer, but a small amount may improve trub coagulation. The majority of brewers recycle until the runoff is no longer heavily clouded; this is generally accomplished in less than ten minutes. Excessive recycling may lead to greater lipid levels in the wort and ought to be avoided.”
Perfect! I’m so glad it was a saison. Perfect.
Ooh, lipids. That doesn’t sound good. I am very interested to find out how this one turns out for you. Keep us posted.
I usually vorlauf a qt., never more than 2. It takes me maybe 2-3 min. If you have to vorlauf longer, I’d look at your system to see what could be improved.
Thanks again for all your help guys. And Denny, yes, I definitely have a lot to improve!
To recap, I made a saison, which I got the runnings as clear as possible. After that, I made a wit with fairly clear runnings. My saison is still chugging away, but I bottled my wit today. I tasted a bit of the wit before I added the priming sugar, and it tastes fantastic. Not a hint of astringency. So I’m tentatively declaring success.
Thanks everyone for your help.