Three day, brew day

[MCJones87]

What size mash would you expect to get from a 25l box? And on that line of thought, what sort of end brew size would you expect to get from that?

 

[clibit]

You could just about mash 7kg of grain in a 25 litre cool box. At a push. Brew size would depend on strength. But 40 litres should be doable, without actually checking.

 

[cornyandy]

What size mash would you expect to get from a 25l box? And on that line of thought, what sort of end brew size would you expect to get from that?

That's a bit of a "how long's a piece of string" question. I would hope to be able to get a 5 gallon Theakstones best bitter in it with (if memeory serves) about 2.9 kg of pale malt and a small amount of Xtal and flaked maize.

Heavier brews with large grain bills would bring the volume available down. My thoughts would be that you could get 5 gal of most ordinary bitters from one

 

[MyQul]

What size mash would you expect to get from a 25l box? And on that line of thought, what sort of end brew size would you expect to get from that?

If you want to go the maxi-BIAB route, you could easily do 23L brewlength. My pot is 20L and because of the ridiculous efficiency I got today I'm going to need to dilute down to 27L if I stay with my target OG

 

[dad_of_jon]

Well it just gets better for me as the whole point of doing a three day brew day is to cut down brew day/spread brew day into more managable chunks. If this huge efficiency happens as a matter of course with overnight mashing and isn't just a one off, as a maxi-BIABer I have to do two dunk sparges to account for the concentrated wort but if I'm getting 80%+ efficiency I will only have to do one sparge (perhaps I can get away without doing a sparge at all). Which saves me even more time. :party:

Spreading it out into smaller chunks is a major benefit, and better efficiency is a win-win. Higher Abv% or less grain needed, that's awesome! Looking forward to see how it turns out :drink:

 

[MyQul]

Higher Abv% or less grain needed, that's awesome! Looking forward to see how it turns out :drink:

There's also the third option of more beer! Which is the one I've gone for:party:

 

[Tony1951]

Interested in whether these efficiency figures are repeatable, or just a one off. Maybe you've discovered a new technique here Myqul. You'd have thought that commercial brewers would have found this out though, since for them, getting the most out of raw materials has to be an issue.... Profit or no profit could depend on something like that.

How long do the big brewers mash for? I have no idea whether they use the same kind of approach as home brewers or not as regards mash times.

EDIT:

Just found this point while reading around the mash time topic.

An underappreciated aspect of mashing times is that longer mashing times allow for more contact time with the husks, from which malty flavors — but also tannic and other off flavors —are derived. I spoke with one brewer, who requested anonymity, who got rid of a hard-to-peg off-flavor in his Pilsner by getting rid of some low temperature rests and shortening his mash schedule. (His wort fermentability, incidentally, remain-ed unchanged.)

Don't know how relevant it will be. Testing is the only way to find out.

quote source :http://byo.com/malt/item/1105-making-the-most-of-your-mashes-techniques

 

[MyQul]

Interested in whether these efficiency figures are repeatable, or just a one off. Maybe you've discovered a new technique here Myqul. You'd have thought that commercial brewers would have found this out though, since for them, getting the most out of raw materials has to be an issue.... Profit or no profit could depend on something like that.

How long do the big brewers mash for? I have no idea whether they use the same kind of approach as home brewers or not as regards mash times.

EDIT:

Just found this point while reading around the mash time topic.

Don't know how relevant it will be. Testing is the only way to find out.

quote source :http://byo.com/malt/item/1105-making-the-most-of-your-mashes-techniques

When I was doing my investigations into overnight mashing I did read you get exellent mash efficiency. Definately going to carry on doing it, so will see if the figures are repeatable. Thanks for the link. Will have a read of that later

Edit: I don't think I've discovered a new technique with overnight mashing, rather I think, HB's are a bit wary of doing it as it goes against intuition and everything we've learned as a HBer - Won't the mash get infected? Won't you create a super attenuable mash and therefore a really dry beer? etc

 

[Tony1951]

When I was doing my investigations into overnight mashing I did read you get exellent mash efficiency. Definately going to carry on doing it, so will see if the figures are repeatable. Thanks for the link. Will have a read of that later

Edit: I don't think I've discovered a new technique with overnight mashing, rather I think, HB's are a bit wary of doing it as it goes against intuition and everything we've learned as a HBer - Won't the mash get infected? Won't you create a super attenuable mash and therefore a really dry beer?

This kind of experimentation is what makes brewing a hobby I don't think I will get bored with in a hurry. I'll be following your thread with interest to see how it all pans out when you get to drinking the beer.

Funnily enough, I just breached a mini-keg of what was my least successful AG brew. Earlier samples (another mini-keg) had tasted pretty lackluster - insipid even. My choice of hops and amounts I think - not Clibit's general recipe. However, this keg laid down about 20th May is much more acceptable, though still under-hopped. But earlier I was inclined to tip it out after drinking the other one with a peg on my nose. Just goes to show the endless variables and effects involved in brewing.

 

[MyQul]

I'm really enjoying this 3 day brew day experiment. Hopefully, starting next week, I will run the 3DBD in conjunction with doing a no sparge plus 30min boil on a 5L litre batch to see if I can speed up D2 of 3DBD with no ill effects

Never chuck your brews! I made a pale ale in May which got infected and tasted really tart almost like very dry cider - completely undrinkable. Due to lazyness and not being arsed to chuck em and clean the bottles I left them for four months. I opened one yesterday out of curiosity and It's just about palatable! A lot less dry and cider like than it was. It's a wonder what a few months of conditioning can do

 

[dad_of_jon]

There's also the third option of more beer! Which is the one I've gone for:party:

of course!

 

[MyQul]

I've just took a gravity sample and of course drank said sample. I think I may have pulled some tannins out of the grain as there's seems to be some astringency there. If this is the case I think it would have happened during the two dunk sparges. Still early days though as it's only been in the FV for 5 days.

If the overnight mash did cause the sparge to pull some tannins, I'm not worried that this is the end of my overnight mashing as my next experiment with ONM will be not doing a sparge at all to see what happens as ONM seems so efficient

 

[dad_of_jon]

I've just took a gravity sample and of course drank said sample. I think I may have pulled some tannins out of the grain as there's seems to be some astringency there. If this is the case I think it would have happened during the two dunk sparges. Still early days though as it's only been in the FV for 5 days.

If the overnight mash did cause the sparge to pull some tannins, I'm not worried that this is the end of my overnight mashing as my next experiment with ONM will be not doing a sparge at all to see what happens as ONM seems so efficient

Myqul, I'm sooooooo looking forward to seeing what you get with ONM & no sparge. For me (sing along) Hi- eff -ic -en -cy equals lots of ABV.

(use sister sledge's 'we are family' to get the gist of it):lol:

 

[MyQul]

Myqul, I'm sooooooo looking forward to seeing what you get with ONM & no sparge. For me (sing along) Hi- eff -ic -en -cy equals lots of ABV.

(use sister sledge's 'we are family' to get the gist of it):lol:

:lol:

My ONM/.no sparge wont be for a little while as I'm doing a Mild using my regular 40min Mash/Two day brew day next (week). As all this experimentation is causing little hiccups which are needing extra conditoning time to iron out so I'll run out of anything to drink If I keep experimenting on everything I brew

 

[Tony1951]

:lol:

My ONM/.no sparge wont be for a little while as I'm doing a Mild using my regular 40min Mash/Two day brew day next (week). As all this experimentation is causing little hiccups which are needing extra conditoning time to iron out so I'll run out of anything to drink If I keep experimenting on everything I brew

LOL - brewing would just turn into a chore unless you were manipulating some variable or other to try and improve or understand better.

I'm going to do a brew in the next couple of days.... Not sure what yet. Beginning to run low on the stronger sort of beer. Plenty of the Summer Ale variety.... Time for some thinking.

 

[MyQul]

It's seems my ordinary bitter has turned out fine - I was just being impatient.

So overnight mash/3DBD experiment #2 - Overnight mash no sparge. I've got the strike water heating up now (else i'd be tucked up in bed). It's taking a little longer than I'd hoped as I was faffing about adjusting my water chemistry with my new salifert alkalinity test kit. Think next time I'll do that earlier in the eve.

 

[clibit]

Tell us about the water chemistry!

 

[MyQul]

Tell us about the water chemistry!

Tbh I don't think I really need to do it as I'm making a mild and usually my water is fine for milds but I wanted to have a practice in preperation for when I do pale ales/bitters (which definately do need water adjustments with my water)

Thames water put last years water report on line for my area so using the forum's water chemistry calc I inputted the figures for sodium, sulphate and chlorine. The calc also asks for calcium and magnesium but those figures weren't on the report.
I then tested my tap water which cam out at 188 mg/pl Alkalinity as CaCo3. The calculator told me I needed add some table salt but I don't have any,only sea salt, wasn't sure if this is exactly the same sort of salt so I didn't bother. It also told me to add 18.4ml of brupaks CRS acid. I've read that the acid can be stronger than stated on the bottle so the advice is to add only 3/4 amount recommended by the calc then test again, which I did. The calc said I needed a further 1.9ml but by this time it was getting late and I couldn't be bothered so I left it as it was. We'll see how things turn out

Edit: I also added half a campden tab too

 

[clibit]

Nice work MQ. Have you ever tested PH?

 

[MyQul]

Nice work MQ. Have you ever tested PH?

I don't have a PH meter but I'm thinking of getting one as they're only a fiver on ebay. I've got some test strips but I've read that they're not that reliable.

From what of read though, if you get the water alkalinity right PH is then automatically taken care of