I’m brewing a cream ale tomorrow and my grain bill is:
5 lb 5 oz pils
1 lb 10 oz 6 row
1 lb 5 oz flaked maze
2 oz acid malt
I’ve been reading about the higher protein content of 6 row and wonder if I should conduct a protein rest to break the protein down maybe 15 minutes @ 122F.
Lastly, the corn is flaked can I just put it through the mill and mash it or should I conduct a cereal mash to gelatinize it more?
Cheers
Superchop728
Flaked maize can be mashed without cereal mash. The 6 row, I don’t know, ha e not used it
No protein rest. Not necessary with 21st century malts. It doesn’t do whatever you think it does, not anymore anyway. It destroys body and head retention. Don’t ever do it unless you know what it does. I guess the only way to know what it does is to try it once or twice. So do that if you must. Then you will know, as I do, that it’s not good.
Just throw the corn flakes into the mash. No special process required.
Thanks I’ll probably do single infusion mash
You don’t have much 6-row. The reason corn was used was to dilute the protein down from haze producing levels to a level that equals 2-row, so you don’t get haze.
No need for anything beside a single infusion with that grain bill.
Thank you
I agree with the others as far as no cereal mash or protein rest, but have something to add.
Judging from the odd amounts of ingredients I assume you, or someone before you, has scaled this recipe from another brewer. Acid malt is generally used to adjust mash pH and was probably used in the original recipe for that reason. As a rule,unless you need that adjustment, I would recommend replacing it with base malt. However, in a beer as pale as this particular recipe, I would leave it in. Odds are that it will bring you closer to an optimum mash pH range.
Good points to think about. I agree I’d leave in the acid malt in this case. Might need to adjust the amount in future depending on the mash pH (aiming for about 5.3). Overall the recipe looks pretty dang good to me IMHO.
Yes I scaled it down from a 10 gallon batch. I’ll make approximations in the grain bill. First time using acid malt. I usually measure Ph and add lactic acid.
I love using acidulated malt, but it can be all over the place in terms of pH adjustment. Since you are measuring pH, you can have some more ready to be milled and added if necessary to dial it in. Enjoy your cream ale - I bet it will be good.
I agree acid malt is the next best thing to sauergut, and sauergut is the bees knees.
Brian, mind commenting more with your thoughts on acid malt? Sauergut is out of the question for me in this condo, and I really don’t want to have to chase down varying pH values. Does Weyermann provide the info so this isn’t necessary?
Sauergut is much easier to make than you think. But yup you can easily get it from weyermann! Acidmalt is just sprayed with sauergut and cured, but it’s not quite the same as the live culture.
It’s a space thing, more than anything else. If the kitchen isn’t completely immaculate there’s no space for anything brewing related, so I’d rather not add any more parts to keep up with.