Anna's Brewdays

[DocAnna]

It's a really interesting point that - for one reason and another I ended up force carbonating my lager (by rocking the keg with the gas on), so I was able to do a side-by-side comparison both before and after... really quite a surprisingly big difference in terms of taste :-)

The CO2 adds bitterness, I remember years ago in a science lesson it being explained that's why fizzy drinks had so much sugar in them to mask the bitterness. It is sadly also why some people let their full sugar fizzy drinks go flat before drinking so they taste sweeter - according to a dentist friend it is quite a widespread thing to do in Scotland .

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

Ah - interesting! Maybe that's it... I was speculating it might be because the increased fizz carrying more volatiles up to the olfactory bulb so you perceive a different balance of flavours?

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

I remember doing an entertaining experiment where you eat something while holding your nose, then let it go part way through chewing and it's like someone has flicked the 'flavour' switch on :-)

Also I recall reading something about people having a completely different perception of the flavour of crisps depending on how much of the 'crunching' sound they could hear... Eating with our ears: assessing the importance of the sounds of consumption on our perception and enjoyment of multisensory flavour experiences ... fizzy drinks do generate some sounds too, I suppose

 

[DocAnna]

I'm planning something that sounds a bit daft .

So although I do like all the planning and thinking around recipes, when it comes to putting on a quick beer or cider for my eldest son/daughter or simply to hold in stock.. kits are pretty good and low stress. I now have some MJ kits courtesy of another thread about a store discounting its stock. Problem is I'd forgotten these need malt extract. Now I'm really not on for paying lots to purchase malt extract when I can just as easily do a mash and make my own. It doesn't need to be as concentrated as LME since that gets diluted anyway, but I am wondering about making some basic stock wort for the kits and freezing some of it for use as required. So the questions are:

• How thick can I make my mash before efficiency starts to drop off - ie, what's the lowest practical water to grist ratio?
• With a boil the amount boiled off per hour will reduce as the wort thickens and the boiling point will increase.. how hot would be too hot and risk Maillard reactions?
• Am I being daft and should just 'woman up' and pay to buy some DME?

From looking into this a bit it looks like the boiling point isn't really a problem since the concentrations aren't going to be close to 60% of sugars which is when it really starts to increase the boil temp required. This just appeals as something to tack on to a brewday to make some almost LME.

Anna

 

[Deadhead]

Well I think this is a pretty fun article if you're wanting to get into making your own malt extract! Seems like it would be up your alley.
https://byo.com/article/making-malt-extract/

 

[DocAnna]

Well I think this is a pretty fun article if you're wanting to get into making your own malt extract! Seems like it would be up your alley.
https://byo.com/article/making-malt-extract/

Hmm v interesting, using a spray to increase evaporation or on a film surface is a really interesting idea. It does though mean the LME will have lots of oxygen dissolved in it. I'm not aiming to make true LME/DME, so this is an interesting idea of cooling using evaporation rather than a chiller. I can see an @The-Engineer-That-Brews / @Hazelwood Brewery type solution to this with a pipe with holes in it letting the liquid run down a plastic sheet, though sanitising that might be a bit of a challenge.

 

[Brew_DD2]

I'm planning something that sounds a bit daft .

So although I do like all the planning and thinking around recipes, when it comes to putting on a quick beer or cider for my eldest son/daughter or simply to hold in stock.. kits are pretty good and low stress. I now have some MJ kits courtesy of another thread about a store discounting its stock. Problem is I'd forgotten these need malt extract. Now I'm really not on for paying lots to purchase malt extract when I can just as easily do a mash and make my own. It doesn't need to be as concentrated as LME since that gets diluted anyway, but I am wondering about making some basic stock wort for the kits and freezing some of it for use as required. So the questions are:

• How thick can I make my mash before efficiency starts to drop off - ie, what's the lowest practical water to grist ratio?
• With a boil the amount boiled off per hour will reduce as the wort thickens and the boiling point will increase.. how hot would be too hot and risk Maillard reactions?
• Am I being daft and should just 'woman up' and pay to buy some DME?

From looking into this a bit it looks like the boiling point isn't really a problem since the concentrations aren't going to be close to 60% of sugars which is when it really starts to increase the boil temp required. This just appeals as something to tack on to a brewday to make some almost LME.

Anna

Fresh wort kits are a thing in Australia. No issue at all with what you're planning. The only problem is the space that it would potentially take up.

 

[DocAnna]

Fresh wort kits are a thing in Australia. No issue at all with what you're planning. The only problem is the space that it would potentially take up.

My mother gave me a food dehydrator/evaporator one year for Christmas and sadly enough it's not been used that often - I have used it to make onion powder though. I'm thinking of a spiral half flat pipe feeding through the levels top to bottom ... either that or I make it simple and do a relatively inefficient thick mash with an hour's boil to achieve the same thing with much less fuss!

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

If you want to go to the trouble, you don’t need an extended boil and can avoid (to a great extent) the Maillard reaction by doing an iterated mash - mash some malt and use that wort as your liquor for the next mash, do this a third time for a super rich wort you can freeze. The mash takes longer each iteration because the liquor is more viscous and the sugar gradient is decreasing but you can do this at your leisure and mostly leave it alone while mashing.

 

[AXW123]

It seems like quite a lot of effort when the point of a kit is to make it easier.I am probably going to get slated here but what the hell. It says to use either malt extract or 850 grams of dextrose in the Mangrove Jack’s recipe. Well I made the juicy ipa twice. Once with malt extract and once (wait for it)) with good old fashioned cheap as chips cane sugar as I didn’t have malt extract. I actually preferred the one with sugar it was a bit lighter. But there was absolutely no home brew taste and it was by far the best kit I have made. My son and his mates loved it .

 

[DocAnna]

Oh dear, Monday madness, managed to buy a grainfather electric grain mill today ... I know I know.... shiny toys and all that . I had planned on getting a grain mill and had purchased a cheap one through Vevor - that was before reading about them being a skilled scam site then receiving an email saying they actually didn't have it in stock, offered to send me something else or I could wait till August and try then.... so paypal dispute opened to require a refund, resolved nicely within 24 hours, which was a huge relief, full refund.

So then ruined the idea of a cheap grain mill by buying one of these:


Wondering if I should offer grain milling to anyone local, what's interesting about this is the grind wheel set up with larger diameter milled wheels, which by the looks of it really cuts down on the amount of fine flour generated. I've also arranged to collect a 25 kg bag of both Pop's pale and Lucky's larger malt from the Crafty Maltsters, and this time will take it as uncrushed grain which should really simplify storing it.

Anna

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

Oh dear, Monday madness, managed to buy a grainfather electric grain mill today ... I know I know.... shiny toys and all that . I had planned on getting a grain mill and had purchased a cheap one through Vevor - that was before reading about them being a skilled scam site then receiving an email saying they actually didn't have it in stock, offered to send me something else or I could wait till August and try then.... so paypal dispute opened to require a refund, resolved nicely within 24 hours, which was a huge relief, full refund.

So then ruined the idea of a cheap grain mill by buying one of these:


Wondering if I should offer grain milling to anyone local, what's interesting about this is the grind wheel set up with larger diameter milled wheels, which by the looks of it really cuts down on the amount of fine flour generated. I've also arranged to collect a 25 kg bag of both Pop's pale and Lucky's larger malt from the Crafty Maltsters, and this time will take it as uncrushed grain which should really simplify storing it.

Anna

I’ll bet you’re already looking for the next gadget!

 

[DocAnna]

I’ll bet you’re already looking for the next gadget!

I'm awful, genuinely awful... total weakness for elegantly designed shiny equipment - (No surprise we are an Apple computer household then )
Feeling a wee bit embarrassed by this one I have to admit.

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

I'm awful, genuinely awful... total weakness for elegantly designed shiny equipment - (No surprise we are an Apple computer household then )
Feeling a wee bit embarrassed by this one I have to admit.

You’re in good company here, this is the church of shiny worship!

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

paypal dispute opened to require a refund, resolved nicely within 24 hours, which was a huge relief, full refund.

Phew .... well done you. One of the reasons I always use PayPal if I possibly can

 

[RoomWithABrew]

I think you are going to need a much bigger hopper, can it fit a 15 litre water bottle on it? That's what I have on my Maltzilla and it works really well.

 

[DocAnna]

I think you are going to need a much bigger hopper, can it fit a 15 litre water bottle on it? That's what I have on my Maltzilla and it works really well.

The video shows it munching through the grain at rather high speed and since it's motorised the hopper is essentially tokenistic as you pour the grain in. One of the things that appealed was that it was really compact and I wasn't keen on the large hoppers with the standard mills. I guess I'll find out next weekend !

EDIT - just twigged to the idea of using a cut down water bottle on the top - hmmm that's a really clever idea actually.

 

[RoomWithABrew]

The video shows it munching through the grain at rather high speed and since it's motorised the hopper is essentially tokenistic as you pour the grain in. One of the things that appealed was that it was really compact and I wasn't keen on the large hoppers with the standard mills. I guess I'll find out next weekend !

EDIT - just twigged to the idea of using a cut down water bottle on the top - hmmm that's a really clever idea actually.

Look from about 5 minutes and you will get the gist. The size of the maltzilla top was made for these kind of water bottles. I use a bottle without a handle and can get several kilos in the mill at the same time then go off and do other stuff.
Do consider preconditioning the grain pre milling makes a difference.
I have mine on a board over a plastic storage bin, the board covers the top of the bin so that no dust escapes. Dust as you know is bad.
Maltzilla is very quiet so I can mill indoors with this method. Unsure of dB for the grainfather mill.

PS I expect you could get a collar 3d printed to work as an adapter for bigger Bottles/ hoppers

 

[Justin Dean]

I have the gorilla mill which i find works really well

 

[MickDundee]

Oh dear, Monday madness, managed to buy a grainfather electric grain mill today ... I know I know.... shiny toys and all that . I had planned on getting a grain mill and had purchased a cheap one through Vevor - that was before reading about them being a skilled scam site then receiving an email saying they actually didn't have it in stock, offered to send me something else or I could wait till August and try then.... so paypal dispute opened to require a refund, resolved nicely within 24 hours, which was a huge relief, full refund.

So then ruined the idea of a cheap grain mill by buying one of these:


Wondering if I should offer grain milling to anyone local, what's interesting about this is the grind wheel set up with larger diameter milled wheels, which by the looks of it really cuts down on the amount of fine flour generated. I've also arranged to collect a 25 kg bag of both Pop's pale and Lucky's larger malt from the Crafty Maltsters, and this time will take it as uncrushed grain which should really simplify storing it.

Anna

You’re going to have 75kg of grain to munch through because MM are also throwing in a bag of MO with sales of the mill. You’ll probably get to play with yours first, I ordered mine Sunday but it’s not my birthday until the 26th and I currently have a lager in the brewfridge.