What are you brewing?

[nzbrewer]

Since this is the most popular thread on the RealBeer.co.nz forum I thought I would start it here just to see what happens

[MrC]

I doesn't scorch the grain or extract tannins due to the thickness of the "thick third" and the resulting ph. It's nothing to worry about.

[Mike Neilson]

Yip it can scorch if you boil and walk away, but if you stand over it and gently gently stir it to make sure the grain dosnt sit on the bottom of the boiler than it wont scorch. Again gently, you dont want to blow the grain to pieces and cant lauter the fucker, I would hate to see the 3 hours of mashing go to waste

[MrC]

Good call Mike. Boiling the crap out of it for 30 min without stirring would definitely be a bad idea. Common sense needs to be applied here.

My decoction experience is very limited, I've only used decoctions to increase the mash temp without affecting mash thickness and only ever boiled for about 5min with constant stirring. It worked well with no noticable negative affects.

[Mike Neilson]

Yeah should be sweet so long as your ph aint 5.8 or higher best I reacon being 5.2.

[martin w]

have a watch of these videos on homebrewtalk

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f36/decoction-mash-video-59872/

i did a decoction a couple of weeks ago,i watched these first and it went sweet,not tried the beer yet though! for some reason i havn't worked out i got 96% efficiency! my figures must be off somewhere

[Ron]

Thanks guys very helpful.
The problem now is the termostat on the mash tun has crapped out and is tripping the house circuit breaker, so have had to revert to wrapping it up nice and warm and might have to add some warm water to keep it at the right temp.
I love it when things don't go to plan ....it makes it more interesting....not.

[James P]

Dodgy Lyttelton houses..... :)

[David Wood]

Just running this one off now:

Anticipation Barley Wine
English Barleywine
Type: All Grain
Batch Size: 11.00 L

Boil Time: 90 min
Brewhouse Efficiency: 60.00

7.00 kg Pale Malt, Maris Otter (5.9 EBC) 93.96 %
0.35 kg Caramel/Crystal Malt - 80L (157.6 EBC) 4.70 %
0.10 kg Caramel/Crystal Malt -120L (236.4 EBC) 1.34 %

65.00 gm Target [10.20 %] (90 min) (First Wort Hop) 97.9 IBU
45.00 gm Fuggles [4.20 %] (20 min) 14.4 IBU
30.00 gm Fuggles [4.20 %] (10 min) 5.7 IBU
30.00 gm Fuggles [4.20 %] (2 min) 1.3 IBU
30.00 gm Fuggles [4.20 %] (0 min)

Rogue Pacman (Wyeast) Yeast-Ale

Runoff is coming out at 1.085 - lower than expected but still okay. The Maris Otter I got from Dunedin Malthouse was way less crushed than what I usually get from Liberty, would that decrease efficiency?

[JoKing]

Definately - and if it's a real poor crush it'll affect clarity down the line and flavour. You might have to get them to crush it twice next time.

[Andrew]

If you get badly crushed malt you might want to decrease the ratio of water:malt in the mash tun. The add the water you would have had in there onto the sparge volume. That will help wash out all those nice sugars.

[David Wood]

Ahh, well. I'll see how it goes and only order from Liberty from now on! :D

[MrC]

I purchased crushed grain from DMH once and brewhouse efficiency was around 55%. The grain looked like it was simply broken in half. I then bought my own crusher.