TETB’s Brewdays

[RoomWithABrew]

Hi RwaB! You are well ahead of me in terms of your use of grains: I’ve not yet considered milling them myself. Also I’m not entirely sure what the rolled oats are intended to add to this recipe I’ve just brewed… I’m just following the GH recipe *grin*.

The oats add body and " mouthfeel " along with being fermentable.

 

[moto748]

Useful info, thanks
Just out of interest, why not S-04? nvm - I've just remembered the discussion at S-04 yeast - funky aftertaste...?

I used to use S-04 in my early AG bitters (before I had FV temp control even) and I recall the flavour seeming very clean, if anything slightly lacking in character.
Perhaps I'm fortunately that I'm insensitive to the aftertaste some people get; or maybe the foul taste of my beer just masks it

I'm not an S-04 hater, and I do use it some bitters, but I've found in stouts that US-05 or M42 work better.

I suppose the circulation issues that some people have with oats I partially overcome with my low-tech 'bag-prodding' technique!

 

[moto748]

But just on efficiency, looking through my records now, last three oatmeal stouts I've brewed, efficiencies of 62%, 65%, and 63%, where by comparison, bitters are coming in with efficiencies of 70% to 74%. But I'm OK with that, as long as results are fairly consistent, which they are.

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

But just on efficiency, looking through my records now, last three oatmeal stouts I've brewed, efficiencies of 62%, 65%, and 63%, where by comparison, bitters are coming in with efficiencies of 70% to 74%. But I'm OK with that, as long as results are fairly consistent, which they are.

Interesting... I got about 10% higher than that. I wonder what's the difference: do you adjust the pH and recirculate during the mash?

 

[moto748]

As for 'adjusting the pH', I tend to bung a bit of citric acid into stouts, but nothing more sophisticated than that! I suppose I recirculate through the mash a bit for everything really, but I doubt our methods are really comparable. But as I said, I think consistence of results is most important. If I know that x amount of base malt and y amount of water is going to give the target volume at the target strength for a given recipe, I'm happy.

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

As for 'adjusting the pH', I tend to bung a bit of citric acid into stouts, but nothing more sophisticated than that! I suppose I recirculate through the mash a bit for everything really, but I doubt our methods are really comparable. But as I said, I think consistence of results is most important. If I know that x amount of base malt and y amount of water is going to give the target volume at the target strength for a given recipe, I'm happy.

I agree: consistency is the key!

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

Doing a sort of Pils/Vienna thing today with 3.25 floor malted Bohemian, 0.2 CaraAroma, 0.2 Munich I, 0.2 rolled oats and Tettnang.
Aiming for a step mash of 50º x 10, 63º x 20, 71º x 40, 77º x 10.
Just bringing everything up to strike temp... here's to a f***up-free brew day

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

Went 2ºc over on the protein rest - my fault: I put the mash thickness into the strike temp calc instead of the actual water volume, forgetting that I have to add an extra litre for the dead space.
No biggie.

Now heading up for the Beta Amylase rest...

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

About 6 mins for the step from 52-63ºc, facilitated by slightly overdriving the HERMS temp (65ºc until the grain hit 62ºc)
Ticking away nicely now at 62.9/63.0 grain temp

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

Quick sample from the sight glass after 20mins at 63ºc: 1.041.
I kept the beta test quite short to avoid a very fermentable wort as I don't want too dry a finish.
Colour looks about right.

 

[Buffers brewery]

Hi @The-Engineer-That-Brews looking good so far. I do my protein rest (is that the same as beta-glucan rest) for 20 minutes (that’s what google said ). Do you think the extra 10 minutes make much difference?
Your wortometer trace is the wort temperature as it exits your HERMS? Must be pretty efficient to get from 52C to 63C in 6 minutes. I’m going to have to have another look at my arrangement as it takes ages to do that.

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

Hi @The-Engineer-That-Brews looking good so far. I do my protein rest (is that the same as beta-glucan rest) for 20 minutes (that’s what google said ). Do you think the extra 10 minutes make much difference?
Your wortometer trace is the wort temperature as it exits your HERMS? Must be pretty efficient to get from 52C to 63C in 6 minutes. I’m going to have to have another look at my arrangement as it takes ages to do that.

Hi @Buffers brewery !
TBH I don't normally do a protein rest; but I've read that the floor-malted Weyermann stuff can be a bit under-modified so I thought I'd chuck one in (also just to guard against dough balls with the porridge oats in there).
Opinion seems to vary as to whether it really achieves anything, but hey ho! I kept it pretty short though because I've sometimes had trouble with it affecting head retention ...

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

Your wortometer trace is the wort temperature as it exits your HERMS? Must be pretty efficient to get from 52C to 63C in 6 minutes. I’m going to have to have another look at my arrangement as it takes ages to do that.

Yep - that's right: the Wortometer (arrowed) measures the temp of the recirculated wort after it leaves the heat exchanger, just before it goes into the spray-bar. I tend to use that as the 'driving' sensor for the PID that controls the power to the kettle.

... it really is just a kettle!

 

[Agentgonzo]

Hi @Buffers brewery !
TBH I don't normally do a protein rest; but I've read that the floor-malted Weyermann stuff can be a bit under-modified so I thought I'd chuck one in (also just to guard against dough balls with the porridge oats in there).
Opinion seems to vary as to whether it really achieves anything, but hey ho! I kept it pretty short though because I've sometimes had trouble with it affecting head retention ...

Give it a try and see if it affects your head retention. There are so many conflicting stories that it's really impossible to try to guess what it may do to your brew. Plus, everyone's equipment/water/process is different anyway, so you will almost certainly have different results from other poeple (especially when they have different results from eachother).
I keep thinking about doing a protein rest, but always seem to forget. I have a grainfather, so step mashes are trivial (they don't even involve me doing anything once the mash has started)

 

[Agentgonzo]

Yep - that's right: the Wortometer (arrowed) measures the temp of the recirculated wort after it leaves the heat exchanger, just before it goes into the spray-bar. I tend to use that as the 'driving' sensor for the PID that controls the power to the kettle.

I love my wortometer. I hadn't thought about putting it on the end of the recirc though... on the GF it just sits in a thermowell in the main sidewall. Though I'm not sure whether it would achieve anything on my setup moving it to the recirc arm rather than where it currently sits.

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

I love my wortometer. I hadn't thought about putting it on the end of the recirc though... on the GF it just sits in a thermowell in the main sidewall. Though I'm not sure whether it would achieve anything on my setup moving it to the recirc arm rather than where it currently sits.

Yes it's one of those tools I wonder how I ever did without: just does exactly what it says on the tin.
Slightly confused how the wortometer itself could fit into a thermowell tho?

 

[Buffers brewery]

Hi @Buffers brewery !
TBH I don't normally do a protein rest; but I've read that the floor-malted Weyermann stuff can be a bit under-modified so I thought I'd chuck one in (also just to guard against dough balls with the porridge oats in there).
Opinion seems to vary as to whether it really achieves anything, but hey ho! I kept it pretty short though because I've sometimes had trouble with it affecting head retention ...

I started doing protein rest after my first NEIPA that nearly stuck as the oats tried to turn into porridge - hence the google search. Since then I’ve done b-g rest with anything that has oats or wheat in. Only do the oats/wheat with an equal quantity of base malt in a bucket then after 20 minutes add to the main mash. Since then have had no problems with recirculation.

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

OK, alpha amylase rest done: 40mins at 71ºc and we're at 1.065
Iodine test looks like conversion is complete
Heading up to 77ºc for the mash out now

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

@Buffers brewery just thinking about the speed with which your setup moves between the mash rests: I seem to recall you use a lot of glass balls to reduce the dead space? I wonder if that could be a cause: I think glass has got a pretty massive specific heat capacity...

 

[Buffers brewery]

@Buffers brewery just thinking about the speed with which your setup moves between the mash rests: I seem to recall you use a lot of glass balls to reduce the dead space? I wonder if that could be a cause: I think glass has got a pretty massive specific heat capacity...

Good point