Step Mash Idea

[Cain Harland]

I like my IPAs sweet, full bodied and juicy. Not cloying sweet but at the sweeter end of IPAs. I think not the kind of sweetness form excessive use of cara or crystal but the kind I would associate with a high mash temp so I usually mash at about 68c which is a bit hit and miss. After reading brulosophys post on finding no difference between 64c and 68c on one particular brew did a bit more research. What I can figure 68c is wrong, in that its some dodgy middle ground right between the Beta Amylase optimum of 60 – 65°C and Alpha Amylase optimum of 68.5 – 70°C. My guess it that Beta Amylase has often still been active enough to dry out the beer to the extent a 64c mash would. That coupled with high attenuation from us-05 and the beer is often dryer than I would like.

I think mashing the whole grain bill at 70c is probably going far. So I came up with this Idea of splitting the grain (50:50 to start and tweak ratio later). Possibly 100% ale malt the first time.

Mash in with full volume of water and first 1/2 of grain at 60c and quickly bring up to 64c, recirculate till haze clears which is a fair indicator of enzymatic activity then bump temp up to 69.5c and add the other 1/2 of the grain, recirculate for further 45 min @ 69.5c, then mash out as usual.

I'm thinking this might be a good balance between sweet and fermentable wort. While also leaving a simple malt platform from which the hops can shine.

Any feedback or reasons why this is a stupid idea?

And just an interesting observation: beer at 12psi in my keggerator tastes a fair bit sweeter and juicer than the same beer at 10psi. Its such a tiny and seemingly unrelated variable but makes a big difference to how I perceive the beer.

[Crusader-Rob]

I'm not sure how much you know about the so called New England" Style Pale Ales and IPA's, but it might be worth looking into, particularly if you like "full-bodied and juicy"

I tested the style using a recipe from alesoftheriverwards.com (Hopwards)

I definitely find it fuller, silkier, and hop saturated, there are similarities with Grapefruit juice in some ways.

This might be more what your looking for? Particularly if you don't care about haze? (Mine has gelatin in it, and its still insanely hazy)

NE IPA or NE PA might be a good jumping point?

[Cain Harland]

Yeah defiantly a style I'm interested in. From what I remember (being near the end of a great many samples at beervana) Garage Projects Party and Bullshit it was pretty good, juicy and hazy (oats).  Hopefully there will be some more commercial examples of the style to sample soon as it seems to be a trend.

I will have to attempt brewing one at some stage but a few things I want to try with just barley first before adding a new grain into the mix.

[Crusader-Rob]

Fair enough - Definitely worth giving it a go. its nice and juicy, silky smooth. etc.

The only thing I will say is this:

I've seen alot of talk about this, that too many people are going out oftheir way to create haze, when in fact, the oats/hops and british yeast react giving a hazy look (unless of course you have a commercial filtering system of course) Just beware that some ofthese, may end up being a muddy mess.

[Cain Harland]

British yeast is another thing I've been thinking about, lower attenuation could produce/leave the sweetness I'm after but I like the cleanness and reliability of US-05.

Creating haze is a weird idea, if its there as a byproduct of ingredients or processes that are there for flavor great, but why bother trying to make it for aesthetic reasons. But then people fuss a lot about clarity and color too when beer is best judged by drinking rather than looking at.

[jt]

any of that fermentis range are reliable, like 05.
I think often that using a different yeats, we don't formulate recipes that use suit a yeast or maybe don't brew or ferment to it's strengths
Using MJ 42 in some pale ales instead of 05 and getting a totally different beer. I'm liking the higher FG, just needs a rethink of the hops

[David Williams]

I wonder if the easiest variable to change is the mash time length? Given the highly modified malts available now I'd be adjusting my mash length if I wanted to lessen my attenuation. 

[Cain Harland]

How would you approach that. I was under the impression conversion is pretty much done in the first 15 min so and after that you just getting better extraction.