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

[jt]

I got the hops wrong, put the wrong AA's in for the Goldings, but I think it's ok
More pleased with the malt, soft and just a little sweet
Anyway, kegged tonight and had a not so dirty pint, it had cleared quite well despite not getting the temperature down at all, nice balance when warm but I'll see what it's like with some condition

[jt]

So what would I do with a 1042 recipe that I like ?

Work it down to 1032 of course. So first step a 1036 pale on Sunday, just need to pick up some Munich from Newtown tomorrow, brew Sunday
Just hope I can keep the same malt feel to it that the first one had

64% Golden Promise
26% Munich I
10% Caramalt

Same hops and yeast and aiming for a sub-4% everyday quaffer
NZ Goldings(left over from the failed marmalade quest) to bitter and the same and Cascade at 20 10 5 0

Cheers, jt

[Michael]

This was one of those brew days that it felt like my gear, the ingredients, and I could not see 'eye to eye.'

From the very beginning, this has been a difficult brew day. Whilst it seems my mash efficiency was better than the past, it seems that I could not get the wort clear, and if you look at the attach photos, you will see a mash the looks like mud. What a pain in the arse this was. I could only hope this double batch comes clear and is worth the effort. The recipe should be about 37L into the fermenters after a 90 minute boil. It looks like this may be about right. Here is the recipe as noted in the advice thread:

Malteurop Pilsen - 7kg (80%)

Carahell - .75kg (11.4%)

Carared - 1kg(8.7%)

Upped the hops to 37IBU kohatu 60, 30, 15, 0.

What do you folks think about this mash? Is my mill not set right?

[Paul Fraser]

I have had a similar thing happen to me recently. It looks like a lot of break material. I'm not sure why and thought it was maybe that i'd used too much koppafloc (it was the first time i used it). It might have nothing to do with finings though. I transferred it to the fermenter and it eventually settled. I did lose about 3 litres to it though as it didn't compact much. Beer turned out fine and it's not happened since. Oh, and i buy my grains pre-milled form Liberty or DMH so i don't think that was the issue.

Hope someone else can help out. Cheers

[Brent Marquis]

While i haven't used those grains before, the consistency and color of the mash doesn't look right at all!

On the mill side....
If you don't have feeler gauges, set your mill gap to the thickness of a credit card - where the the card fits through, but the raised numbers don't.

[Chris Banks]

Just looking at the photos looks like you have a lot of flour/fines forming a cake on top of your grain bed which once formed would block the top of the filter bed causing further recirculation or sparging to find its way down the sides of the bed preventing much further complete filtering/rinsing taking place.

Which is probably why it wouldnt clear and then a lot of fines and proteins would have been carried over to the kettle resulting in the spectacular hot break in the photo.

Of course this is all speculation on my part but after reading your issues with running the mill with a drill the speed you run the mill and the gap effect each other quite a bit - the gap which works with hand cranking can result in a lot of flour/fines when driven fast/to fast - especially in a mill where only one roller is driven.

I agree with Brent check your gap to see what it is and maybe experiment with gaps and a consistent speed your drill and mill can handle till you get a reasonable crush.

If a cake does form on the grain bed its fine to cut a shallow series of grooves through the cake to encourage flow through the bed.

Does Crankenstein quote a recomended speed for the 3 roller mill when motorised? ~ 200rpm seemed quite common with 2 roller mills.

Out of curiosity that cake on top of the mash looks quite greyish is that just the photo?

Cheers

Chris

[jt]

I've had the flour cake set ontop before. As I've got a consistent crush (i think), I put it down to recirculating too much, pulling all the four through and dropping it all back on the top. Wodered if it could have been reated to mash thickness, but batching, don't think was a consideration ?

That pic of the wort, how much of the koppafloc did you use ?

[Michael]

That shot was before the koppafloc was thrown in. Most of the junk settled to the bottom of the keggle. I did batch sparge, and recirculated a good deal as I kept getting bits of grain in the runnings.

[jt]

That's during the boil?
Doesn't look very vigorous, the reflection on the surface looks flat

[Michael]

It was kind of flat at that time. I just put the chiller in, and the temp dropped. It was back up to a full boil in a couple minutes.

[Liam Callaghan]

I wouldn't expect to see that much flour on the top of my mash although I have had it at times and basically had to force the wort through it.  That was a dodgy mill issue.  The final beers were still fine just a hard days brewing.  I think I racked to a secondary early on and left it to settle out further before kegging.

I'm not sure the amount of floc would cause you much harm, easiest thing for that is use Whirlfloc, its just one tablet dropped in the boil, very hard to get it wrong :p

As above with mill speed and gap (rollers being parallel?).

My hand drill runs at 1800rpm or something silly so if thats what you are using check what it says on the label.  If its running at high speed you'll find half the grain is smashed and the rest is untouched.

 

 

[Michael]

I am thinking it is the gap and the speed of the mill as well. The color you see is brownish grey.

I started at 13:00, and just got everything into the fermenters. The longest brew day ever for me. I will hunt down the pulley and motor, and see what I can sort on the mill. In a related note, I am thinking I need to hook up my pump and recirc that way. Maybe fly sparging is a good option since I usually have trouble getting clear wort. BIAB is much easier, but gets similar results.