What mash temp for low abv beer?

[Mark Weusten]

How high mash temp would you go for a 3% hoppy pale ale? I was thinking 69C......

[Mark Weusten]

So I am doing the Brewdog Dead Pony Club recipe but instead of 20 litres it will be 23 litres. Page 84 0f the DIY Dog pdf. Grain bill is 2.8 kg Pale Ale Caramalt .63 kg and Crystal 150 .19

[Mark Weusten]

I cant seem to upload at the mo so here's a screen grab

[Crusader-Rob]

These Brew dog Recipes dont always make alot of sense tbh.

I would mash around 65-66

the recipes have a dryhop,which is massively excessive! 187.5 grams of dryhop is waaaaay too much IMO.

I'd suggest splitting the additions into 2, 1 at F/O and the other as a dryhop.

[Mark Weusten]

`Thanks for your replies. The feedback I saw on line said it was too thin so I will definitely be mashing higher than 62. Thinking a little bit higher than I normally mash IPA's. The dry hop is well over the top, this will be buttoned off. Cheers

[Crusader-Rob]

62 is low even for a normal every day ipa, and give nthis is more sessionable, i'd suggests a higher mash temp also.

maybe even 67 would do the trick?

[DMAC]

I wonder if the 62C is a typo?

Maybe it isnt, this recipe is derived from a commercial recipe so I guess they could have had other aims than we do. For instance its filtered, so that could allow them to control attenuation in ways we general cant be bothered with. Maybe fermenting low and stopping fermentation gives greater residual  sweetness since there is more maltose which is perceived sweeter? just a theory...

[andrei cotiga]

I just finished putting one low ABV session IPA last weekend. I tried to find some relevant info but didn't find anything ready to be used, only general advice. One was to use some aromatic type malt as the general Pale is not good enough and the other was to try and get the beer to finish high. That being said, I used some Munich Malt and mashed at 68 as oposed to my normal 67. At 67C I normally finish around 1.008 - 1.010 using US05 fermented at 18 and then ramped up to 20.

My grain bill was:

2kg Maris Otter Pale,

1kg Munich

0.5 Medium Crystal

At 75% efficiency I got 1.037 OG.

I used burst hopping to get me to about 50IBU. 70 would be normal for an IPA but was afraid I would get Hop Tea and finish rather unbalanced.

From memory hoping was:

15g Falconer's Flight

15g Simcoe - 15 min

15g FF + 15 S - 10 min

15g FF + 15g S - 5min

15g FF + 15g S - 0 min

20g Brookly + 10g Nelson S - 5 days

20g Brooklyn + 20g Pacifica - 5 days

It finshed primary at 1.013 FG. Added first dry hop. Will put in carboy this weekend and go for the second dry hop for another week.

Temperature schedule was:

18C - 4 days

19C - 2 days

20C - 1 day

dryhop - 15C - 5 days

Secondary - 10C - 5 days

5C - 1 day

1C - 1 day

Add gelatin

Leave for another 3 days

Bottle with priming drops.

I had a taste after primary was done and I'm hopeful it will be quite nice. Not much I can say after 7 days other than it's quite young and not overly sweet. Depending on how it ends up I'll probably go for 69 next time.

PS: I like dry beers which are very hop forward. To put in perspective, Pan Head - Green Hop Vandal was overly sweet and the most I can take in sweetness is the Epic Armageddon.

Good luck.

[Mark Weusten]

Hey Andrei, I think the munich was a good idea. I only had pale malt with a few specialty grains and its finished real low 1.004 and tastes thin. I would mash even higher on my next attempt say 69, use some munich and a different yeast as San Diego Super wasn't suited because of high attenuation and too clean.

[Crusader-Rob]

wheat is also another good option.

[andrei cotiga]

Was just reading on something else and next time I'd probably add some 200g of melanoid/victory/biscuit/aroma to get that malt backbone.

[Mark Weusten]

I tried my Dead Pony clone yesterday and its tasty.I would mash even higher at 69c and  would use US05 as the FG would finish a bit higher.

[andrei cotiga]

My one finished at 1.013. Happy with that. Before bottling a quick tasting was adequate. A bit thin and possibly a bit too hoppy, hence possibly silightly unballanced. Hard to evaluate while only 2 weeks old. 1 more week to go before carbed. Will come back.