Recipe Advice Thread

[denimglen]

Thought it might be handy to have a thread for some of the more advanced brewers to give some advice on recipes.

Let's see how it goes eh...

[Mike Neilson]

Yeah I do as with more water touching the grain for a longer period of time has to add in more flavour!! Not just extra sugar!!

[Reviled]

Whos your BIAB mate? Is he on here at all?

[Mark Kessell]

yeah he is... if i'm lucky, he'll reply to this thread...
i'll give him a prod. :-)

[JackoNZ]

That'd be me mate! Got to remember too that when Mark says 80% efficiency that's for my into boiler %. Overall (brewhouse %) I'm still hovering around the 65% mark but think it will improve if I can finally nail my numbers. I seem to loose efficiency in my boil phase.

[Reviled]

How do you lose efficiency during the boil? Is your SG lower into the kettle than it is into the fermenter??

I havnt personally checked my eff into the boiler, I just take an OG reading once its all in the fermenter with the volume, I dont even include the litre or two that gets left behind with the trub..

[JackoNZ]

Yep exactly, I can hit my numbers or get very close into the boiler. But once I get into the fermenter I've dropped a couple of points. Not sure if I'm using too much water or leaving too much shit behind in the kettle. The last brew I did I got higher efficiency from the mash than usual because of the using less water we talked about. Then I got my boil volume up to planned amount through sparging. Once I got to fermenter I was slightly higher gravity reading but was 2L under planned! I thought about topping up but like the idea of a stronger bo pils so left it as is!

[Mike Neilson]

It could be all the protein that is in the wort solution prior to boiling it all off and losing it to trub. I reacon it must make the wort more viscous making the hydrometer do funny things anyone kinda agree?

[Mark]

definitely agree, hydrometer readings prior to hot break are much higher, maybe from all the protein in solution

[Mike Neilson]

Also there is nothing wrong with biab mashing!! its the sparge that is the issue.

[Soren]

I'm sure the soluble protein would affect the gravity but I cant say I know by how much. Its never really mentioned anywhere so I would assume it was very little. unless we have just discovered something new about brewing...:)

[Mark]

It's funny that it's not mentioned anywhere - I've had a wort drop 10-20 points post boil, my grav dropped significantly after evaporation! Except for fly sparging, pre boil grav measurements seem to be meaningless

[Mike Neilson]

Yeah you adjust your Hydrometer readings for the temp aye?