The Grain Father

[Peter Smith]

http://www.grainfather.com/

Mangrove Jacks new all grain unit - its nice

[Mark Weusten]

[Mark Thomas]

It's simpler than Maximus - I'll need to check the recipe when I get home tonight. What's the ethics with posting a kit recipe up on here?

I was quite impressed with the kit - they'd individually vacuum packed each malt and hop addition, and even threw in little sachets of calcium sulphate and irish moss, as well as two packs of M44 yeast. It made 23 litres rather than the standard 19 as well (the krausen has almost reached the airlock!)

[Cain Harland]

A recipe for Behemoth Chur was in the Home Brew West newsletter

http://us4.campaign-archive2.com/?u=dc0d82ca0828673576352afb5&i...

[Mark Thomas]

Haha well that solved my ethical dilemma! Mark W's uploaded the kit recipe - slightly different

[Mark Weusten]

I hadnt seen your post at that stage but I dont think MJ would be worried. I have just finished my first GF brew and 2 things 1. Lots of trub, will be cold crashing for a few days when its finished. 2. I got a stuck sparge, I got my Epic PA clone grains from allgrain and I think the GF didnt like a coarse grind. I will be mailing MJ about this. Will do the Chur this weekend and will be good to compare their grains when sparging.

[Peter Smith]

interesting perhaps the constant recirc compacts the bed? 

going finer may make worse?

what about just recicring last 20 mins?

[Mark Weusten]

Finer could make it worse Pete indeed. Might be my technique. I found I needed to remove the top plate and stir with each 3 litre sparge jug to get it dripping through otherwise it stopped. Yes could just add water to the boiler and recirc. Will try that. No one else has mentioned so may be something I am doing wrong.

[Mark Thomas]

I didn't get a stuck mash. The sparge was quite slow, but that was because there was only ever 1 to 3cm of head above the grain. I was sparging with 2 litres at a time (refilling and boiling the hand-held kettle each time!).

I noticed that the grain bed compacted up quite a bit after the last sparge water had left the basket (i.e., indicating that the grain hadn't been too compacted during mashing). Had you allowed the water level to drop below the top of the grain?

[Mark Weusten]

yeah it did the first two jugs, then it just stayed 2 cm above the top of the grain and nothing happened. Still my epic pa clone finished at 1050, recipe 1052 so not bad.

[Mark Weusten]

Hey on the subject of why the Chur recipe specifies 2 packs of yeast. I am not convinced that this is necessary. Mr Maltys yeast calculator says a1.054 Ale needs 198 billion cells. Dry yeast is on average 20 billion per gram giving 200 billion. It should be enough or is the 2 packets for fault tolerance? I asked MJ and the lovely Estee replied

"We advise to use 2 because of the reasonably high original gravity of the Chur , we always advise to use 2 sachets for Ales of original gravity over 1.050. If you only use one, you will have a longer lag time, which might put the yeast under stress, forming off flavours etc and increase the risk of infection.

It’s good to give your yeast a really good head start when you pitch it.

Hope this answers your question"

I guess the only way to be sure would be do do the recipe twice and test 2 vs 1

[John H]

Hi Mark

I generally prefer 2 packs when I have something around 1.055 and above. I found I used to get a stuck ferment say1 or 2 times out of 10 by pushing it with a single sachet. My thoughts are that yeast age and storage/handling conditions can account for variances in yeast viability.

I am sure many don't have any issues with single sachets so it is down to personal choice and doing what works for you at the end of the day.

[Crusader-Rob]

With the Mangrove Jacks M44, two packs are recommended. It is a slow starter, and having enough active yeast to get up and running is pretty important.
I ran the M44 in a Porter last year (Since used US-05 on the same beer, as its better IMO) and ran with 1 pack in a 1.060, and while I didn't get a stuck ferment, I did end up with some minor phenolics, and some slight alcohol, because of such a slow start.

US-05 I use two packs in beer which look to have an OG of 1.060 anyways, so its not a biggie.
those mangrove jacks dry yeasts are quite good, the only ones I'm not a fan of are:

West Coast, as its too slow to start up, and

Belgian ale, because it'll eat your children if it had the chance.