Hazelwood Brewday

[Hazelwood Brewery]

Seems plausible ;-)

So you'd be more dependent on length of mash at lower temperatures than you would mid-range. You could still get the same efficiency but you'd have to mash longer for the beta amylase to keep chewing the ends off.

Only to a point. Every so often there is a branch in the chain and beta-amylase can’t go beyond that point. All the yummy stuff beyond the branch is inaccessible to beta-amylase. Alpha-amylase I contrast can attack from the middle and in so doing creates new ends for the beta-amylase.

I did try mashing for longer and saw no more change in gravity after 75 minutes - until I raised the temperature to mash-out and during the temperature rise I saw 4 more points added in ten minutes before the heat denatured the enzymes.

 

[dan125]

It is for me! I’m not sure about others but I do know @dan125 brews his at 64C. I guess it depends how dry you want it?




68 seems quite warm to me, perhaps because you’re brewing a darker lager it works better?

Was my attempt at brewing a lager and would be tempted to push it a bit lower next time

 

[cushyno]

raised the temperature to mash-out and during the temperature rise I saw 4 more points added in ten minutes before the heat denatured the enzymes.

What's your mash-out temperature?
If I understand the theory correct (this time), if you have mashed at 62.8 and reached the limit of the beta-amylase ability to 'bit the ends off' the chains, as you raise temperature to mash-out you pass through beta-amylase zone which, while breaking down chains to some degree, won't give you many more fermentable sugars. You may get lucky when it randomly breaks of short fermentable ones or twos but mostly the sugars will be unfermentable. Therefore your final 4 points get you less contribution to your FG, though still something, while giving you more towards your OG and increased body. If your mash-out temperature is 75degC alpha-amylase are at their top end before denaturing but most active. above 75, they get killed off too, according to this somewhat aged article.

What was your mash pH? By all accounts that may be a factor too.

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

What's your mash-out temperature?
If I understand the theory correct (this time), if you have mashed at 62.8 and reached the limit of the beta-amylase ability to 'bit the ends off' the chains, as you raise temperature to mash-out you pass through beta-amylase zone which, while breaking down chains to some degree, won't give you many more fermentable sugars. You may get lucky when it randomly breaks of short fermentable ones or twos but mostly the sugars will be unfermentable. Therefore your final 4 points get you less contribution to your FG, though still something, while giving you more towards your OG and increased body. If your mash-out temperature is 75degC alpha-amylase are at their top end before denaturing but most active. above 75, they get killed off too, according to this somewhat aged article.

What was your mash pH? By all accounts that may be a factor too.

Mash-out temperature is 170F, pH was between 5.2 at the start of the mash and 5.4 at the end.

For the most part you are correct, that short pass through the alpha-amylase window won’t have done very much for me at all.

If I’d stopped at say 150F for a while I’d have got more long chain sugars (unfermentable) AND more short-chain sugars because the alpha-amylase would have produced new ends that the beta-amylase could work on.

Raising the temperature further continues to favour the alpha-amylase but now you’re starting to denature the beta-amylase so will produce no more fermentables, just unfermentable long-chain sugars until the temperature gets high enough to denature the alpha-amylase (or conversion is complete).

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

After a few days with no brewing activity, today I have two beers to keg and preparations for tomorrow’s brew-day.

I had intended to brew another batch of Summer Breeze tomorrow but that will now wait until Tuesday because I want to squeeze in another batch of stout.

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

First of the two is kegged.

This is a copy of @Clint ’s 3C Pale Ale. Mine finished at 1006 for an ABV of 4.59% so is just a tad higher in strength. The colour is nice and the flavour is good out of the fermenter though it’s a little hazy right now. This will clear in a few days.

I’ll be putting this ale on tap when my German Pilsner is finished - this weekend.

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

Kegged the other beer, another batch of Summer Breeze. Another variation to the recipe, I’ve adjusted the grain bill to account for my increased efficiency but I also introduced some Pilsner malt to lighten the colour and reduce the sweetness a little. My first taste from the fermenter was very promising. Even with the adjusted grain bill this ale is a little stronger than usual at 5.78%.

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

I had a pretty full day yesterday. I started at 6:30 getting a brew on (stout) and had a visitor stop by at 7:30 to pick up some Easter eggs. He stayed a while to watch the brew and ask a few questions. A short time after he left a neighbour came round to watch the brew. We’d had a chat on Wednesday while putting out the bins and he said he’d quite like to see a brew-day, I noted I was doing a brew on Friday if he wanted to pop round. He spent the whole morning with me and asked a gazillion questions, every few minutes stopping for another sniff of the mash .

Then part of the family came round to swap eggs and have a few beers. It’s at this point the details became sketchy. This morning everything seems clear and calm (somehow I’d even got my brew in the fermenter last night ).

I do have a small problem though, I’m completely cleared out of Czech Pilsner, German Pilsner, and half of my (just kegged!) English Bitter.

New plan for Tuesday’s brewday - more Czech Pilsner!!

 

[Benfleet Brewery]

, every few minutes stopping for another sniff of the mash .

The smell of the mash is second only to the smell of the boil as the first lot of hops go in

 

[Tommo 2]

I had a pretty full day yesterday. I started at 6:30 getting a brew on (stout) and had a visitor stop by at 7:30 to pick up some Easter eggs. He stayed a while to watch the brew and ask a few questions. A short time after he left a neighbour came round to watch the brew. We’d had a chat on Wednesday while putting out the bins and he said he’d quite like to see a brew-day, I noted I was doing a brew on Friday if he wanted to pop round. He spent the whole morning with me and asked a gazillion questions, every few minutes stopping for another sniff of the mash .

Then part of the family came round to swap eggs and have a few beers. It’s at this point the details became sketchy. This morning everything seems clear and calm (somehow I’d even got my brew in the fermenter last night ).

I do have a small problem though, I’m completely cleared out of Czech Pilsner, German Pilsner, and half of my (just kegged!) English Bitter.

New plan for Tuesday’s brewday - more Czech Pilsner!!

Any chance I can take a look at your German pilsner recipe mate, like to try making it myself. Cheers

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

Any chance I can take a look at your German pilsner recipe mate, like to try making it myself. Cheers

Sure. I haven’t built a recipe sheet for it yet but this is the recipe...

I use RO water for this recipe. If you’re not using RO water and treating your water, just use some Ashbeck bottled water from Tesco. For a 19 litre finished batch I use 20 litres to mash and 8 litres to sparge.

If you are using RO water and treating it, I add to the 20 litres of mash water 1g of calcium chloride and 3g of calcium sulphate. This will give you a profile of Cl=24, SO4=84, Ca=48. I don’t treat my sparge water.

For the grain bill you need to know that my efficiency was 65% at the time I brewed this so you may need to reduce the grain a little (if you don’t know your efficiency- if you brew on the stove-top use my measure of 5Kg, if you use a brew system reduce to 4.5Kg).

Mash with 20 litres of treated RO water
5Kg Pilsner malt
Mash for 75 mins at 145F (62.8C)
Sparge with 8 litres untreated RO water

60g Tettnang leaf hops AA=3% 60 mins for 26 IBU

1/2 protofloc tablet at 15 mins

40g Tettnang leaf hops AA=3% 10 mins for 4 IBU

500g Dextrose/Glucose stirred in at 0 mins

21 Litres in the fermenter, OG=1045
1 pack of M54 California lager yeast
Ferment at 68F (20C)

Keg on day 12, FG=1006, ABV=5.12%

 

[Tommo 2]

Sure. I haven’t built a recipe sheet for it yet but this is the recipe...

I use RO water for this recipe. If you’re not using RO water and treating your water, just use some Ashbeck bottled water from Tesco. For a 19 litre finished batch I use 20 litres to mash and 8 litres to sparge.

If you are using RO water and treating it, I add to the 20 litres of mash water 1g of calcium chloride and 3g of calcium sulphate. This will give you a profile of Cl=24, SO4=84, Ca=48. I don’t treat my sparge water.

For the grain bill you need to know that my efficiency was 65% at the time I brewed this so you may need to reduce the grain a little (if you don’t know your efficiency- if you brew on the stove-top use my measure of 5Kg, if you use a brew system reduce to 4.5Kg).

Mash with 20 litres of treated RO water
5Kg Pilsner malt
Mash for 75 mins at 145F (62.8C)
Sparge with 8 litres untreated RO water

60g Tettnang leaf hops AA=3% 60 mins for 26 IBU

1/2 protofloc tablet at 15 mins

40g Tettnang leaf hops AA=3% 10 mins for 4 IBU

500g Dextrose/Glucose stirred in at 0 mins

21 Litres in the fermenter, OG=1045
1 pack of M54 California lager yeast
Ferment at 68F (20C)

Keg on day 12, FG=1006, ABV=5.12%

Thanks a lot fella, will be bottling this mate how many volumes you suggest I bottle at’ as I have never brewed before , thought this might be nice on the allotment whilst doing a summer barbi

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

Thanks a lot fella, will be bottling this mate how many volumes you suggest I bottle at’ as I have never brewed before , thought this might be nice on the allotment whilst doing a summer barbi

I actually like this well carbonated so maybe dose at 6g per litre for 2.75 vols.

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

thought this might be nice on the allotment whilst doing a summer barbi

Actually, using the M54 yeast you can brew two or three batches by Summer

 

[Tommo 2]

Will do mate as I can only do ten litres at a time so cheers, appreciate it

 

[mrhardware]

I have quite a lot of beer conditioning in the 5%-7% range so I think I will brew a couple of lower strength beers for guests that prefer something lighter.

I’d been thinking about a bitter and a pale ale so these will be my session beers. I’m going to start tonight with the bitter, recipe something like below. Not made this beer before so this is my first-cut recipe for this beer. Probably aiming for something in the range 4.2%-4.5%


“Bramble” Bitter
2Kg Pilsner
2Kg Maris Otter
200g crystal EBC 225
200g flaked barley
200g torrified wheat
40g chocolate malt
75 min mash at 150F
15g Magnum leaf AA=15.3% 60 mins
30g Bramling X leaf AA=6.8% 15 mins
1 pack Safale S-04

Looks interesting what were your temp and mash times would like to give this one a go

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

Looks interesting what were your temp and mash times would like to give this one a go

It was 150F (65.5C) for 75 minutes but honestly this recipe is better...

https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/media/b8e67095-fc0e-4f0e-b542-1c58e60cad59-jpeg.925/full

 

[mrhardware]

Thanks for that, it looks good only problem i will have is the water profile.
I'm in the North west and are water is terribly hard so will need to play around to sort the profile out.

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

Thanks for that, it looks good only problem i will have is the water profile.
I'm in the North west and are water is terribly hard so will need to play around to sort the profile out.

The profile isn’t as critical for an ale like this as it would be for a Pilsner - you may well get away with 50:50 tap and bottled water, plus 1/2 campden tablet. Do you know the profile of your tap water?

 

[Tommo 2]

It was 150F (65.5C) for 75 minutes but honestly this recipe is better...

https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/media/b8e67095-fc0e-4f0e-b542-1c58e60cad59-jpeg.925/full

Why the chocolate malt ?