Worst brew-day ever, any ideas?

[MashBag]

Hi,
It’s a clone recipe of an American IPA by Hoppin Frog. 8%, which is big but also very good when I have made it before. Water volume is 24.3L mash and 8.67L sparge

With that recipe in mind. I would go full volume and swap out some of the grain for white cane sugar.

 

[MashBag]

I do not think the false bottom would lift with 7.5kg of wet grain pushing down on it IMO.

That is where I was.

 

[Keruso]

I do not think the false bottom would lift with 7.5kg of wet grain pushing down on it IMO.
You say it is a grainbill you have used before so has anything changed i.e different supplier and was the grain exactly the same (same supplier and crush). It was also a big grainbill which the bigger they are the more time it takes to flow through it so you would possibly starve the bottom reservoir of wort/water.
You must have maxed out the G30 with that bill and water amount

It was during the boil not the mash, so no malt pipe.

 

[MashBag]

Sorry yes.

Defo more volume then.

 

[MashBag]

Do you mash out at 77c or very similar, or go straight through to boil.

 

[The Baron]

Right so is the false bottom one that came with the G30 or one you have bought as a addition to also if so is it a genuine Grainfather part as some brewers bought the Brewzilla one which is supposed to fit?
Edit if you look at this thread on the forum granted it is a couple of years old it may help to understand what is happening with the false bottom.

Edit​

Search this"False bottom grainfather" on the forum​

 

[MashBag]

Another thought have you changed your mash timing? How long is it?

 

[Keruso]

Do you mash out at 77c or very similar, or go straight through to boil.

Mash schedule was:-
Protein Rest 55c for 10mins
60mins at 65c
10mins 75c mashout

then onto the boil

 

[Keruso]

Right so is the false bottom one that came with the G30 or one you have bought as a addition to also if so is it a genuine Grainfather part as some brewers bought the Brewzilla one which is supposed to fit?
Edit if you look at this thread on the forum granted it is a couple of years old it may help to understand what is happening with the false bottom.

Edit​

Search this"False bottom grainfather" on the forum​

Thanks much appreciated, i've got the genuine Grainfather false bottom that came out recently, been fine until this brew day,

 

[Stu's Brews]

Mash schedule was:-
Protein Rest 55c for 10mins
60mins at 65c
10mins 75c mashout

then onto the boil

Gut instinct says that your protein rest was too short. It was probably long enough to get them extracted and begin the process of chopping them up, but not long enough to break them down into small enough chunks.

 

[Buffers brewery]

From what I've read the protein rest (aka beta glucan rest) is a little hot (50C max) and a little short (20-30 mins).

 

[Keruso]

Gut instinct says that your protein rest was too short. It was probably long enough to get them extracted and begin the process of chopping them up, but not long enough to break them down into small enough chunks.

But long enough to turn it into wallpaper paste !

 

[MashBag]

Mash schedule was:-
Protein Rest 55c for 10mins
60mins at 65c
10mins 75c mashout

then onto the boil

Protein rest could be longer*, like others have said. And probably 50/52c

I like 65c depending on accuracy. But 90 mins might be better?

10m for 75c mashout. Is a bit leen too. 30m* might be better.

*Consider that although the probe is getting the new step temperature and the timer has started, how long does it really take to permeate all the way through?

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

From what I've read the protein rest (aka beta glucan rest) is a little hot (50C max) and a little short (20-30 mins).

From the literature, 15-20min of protein rest should be plenty (especially as those enzymes are still fairly active during the ‘normal’ part of the mash.
Incidentally to my understanding the protein rest and the beta-glucan rests are different things: beta-g enzyme breaks down gums (can help runoff); and ’protease’ enzymes reduce long-chain proteins to mid-length ones and then mid-length ones to short ones (can improve body and reduce chill-haze). Note that it’s easy to overdo the protease and end up with very ‘thin’ beer though, especially with well-modified grains.
In practice the active ranges of both sets of enzymes are pretty broad and overlap a LOT, so you can’t really get just one or the other. However if you specifically want to improve runoff I’d aim for 15min at 35 deg.

 

[Keruso]

With that recipe in mind. I would go full volume and swap out some of the grain for white cane sugar.

That makes sense, I do keep a supply of DME to hand as with bigger beers efficiency suffers and I often add a bit to hit the expected OG

 

[Buffers brewery]

I found these two links when exploring this subject. Should have posted them at the time!

https://grainfather.com/brewing-with-rye/#:~:text=To do this, simply set,rest of your process easier.

https://beerandbrewing.com/dictiona...uggested,relevant at these lower temperatures.

 

[MashBag]

I found these two links when exploring this subject. Should have posted them at the time!

https://grainfather.com/brewing-with-rye/#:~:text=To do this, simply set,rest of your process easier.

https://beerandbrewing.com/dictionary/stRHDnfSR6/#:~:text=Accordingly it has been suggested,relevant at these lower temperatures.

Both good reads. Thank you.

I do wonder if the rest times suggested allow for all the mash to get to temp in an AIO, or just the sensor. It is a thing, if you think about it wort direction and flow rates through the grain bed.

 

[Buffers brewery]

Both good reads. Thank you.

I do wonder if the rest times suggested allow for all the mash to get to temp in an AIO, or just the sensor. It is a thing, if you think about it wort direction and flow rates through the grain bed.

Good point. I go by the tried and tested engineering principle of "take the result and double it"
Works for me

 

[Keruso]

Nice work by the likeminded, cheers

 

[RoomWithABrew]

First time I used malted rye was in an imperial stout, milled all the grains myself. Only about 10% rye the rest barley etc.
I did use glucanase and doughed in at 50 C then raised for the other steps.
Very stiff mash as aiming for 1.120.
Plenty of volume in my AIO as using Guten 70 litre for a 20 litre batch to fermenter.
Very rapidly had an extremely poor recirculation required very regular stir / scrape of the grist and bottom plate.

I had adjusted the mill when I separately milled the rye for a smaller gap to account for smaller grain.
Problem was I milled basically to the perfect size to fill every hole in the malt pipe bottom. Found this out when I emptied the grain basket.
Got through the brew but only hit 1.107.

Next times I've used rye in a couple of other beers and a higher percentage of rye I crushed much finer.
Had no trouble at all subsequently.
A rest at around 50 degrees will help if you can't get glucanase. You don't need to do this with all of the grain you can just use the rye and some barley, then dough in the rest at higher
temperatures.