Brewing the Shorty

So yesterday was interesting. And long.

The mash schedule

I started working on equations and a mash schedule around 11am, brewing by 1:30pm, and finished cleaning up around 8:30pm. It was an experience, complete with screwups and recoveries and the highest OG I've ever seen.

I was trying to calculate the quantities of thick mash to remove from the mash tun in order to rise from my protein rest of 122°F to 150°F. I screwed something up in there because my first decoction only managed to raise it to 140°F. I reduced what was supposed to be a 50 minute rest to 25 minutes, pulled a quantity of thick mash and did my second decoction, and that brought it up to 150°F. I think I should have followed what Brewing TV suggested to skip the Beta rest and move right on to Alpha, but hitting both of the saccrification rest levels seems to have given me a better conversion rate.

All that aside, my target OG was 1.083 based on what BrewPal calculated from my grain bill. This was a modification of the Zek's Porter recipe from Jamil's Brewing Classic Styles. That being said when I used my hydrometer after the boil and calculated the delta based on wort temp, I was more than a little shocked to see 1.093 as my OG.

There were four things I switched up for this brew, which doubles my typical 'two variables have to change' habit:

• Double decoction mash rather than a single infusion with fly sparge
• First wort hopping rather than a straight 60 minute addition
• Specialty grains added to the lauter tun rather than mashed with the rest of the grain
• Lager yeast used rather than ale yeast

I wrote up a mash schedule and tried to stick to it, but you already know how well that worked. Not only did this drastically extend my brew time, but it was exhausting. Pulling hot thick mash out of the cooler and into the brew pot, stirring it constantly as it heats, stirring it constantly as it boils, transferring it back into the mash tun... I was actually really happy when I was able to sparge and start the boil.

The initial decoction, heading for conversion @ 150°F

The first wort hopping (FWH) involves dropping the hops into the brew kettle as soon as you start heating it up to the boil. I had to do a longer boil (I boiled 75 minutes) to reduce the water in the pot down to the 5.5-6 gallons needed for the fermenter. This would only add a few more IBUs to the final product. 1.4oz of Tettnang at an unusually high 7.9% AA as FWH, then .6oz of the same at 15 minutes. With the higher potential ABV, I think the expected 38 IBUs should balance nicely there.

The specialty grains tip came from the desire to not extract tannins and make the porter too astringent, and it was a recommendation from the Cellar Homebrew folks. I was already using debittered dark roasted malt, but really all I wanted was the roasted flavor and color. Clearly I didn't need any more points for the OG.

My biggest concern was the Lager yeast. I sprinkled 34.5 grams of Saflager S-23 over the wort in the primary once I got it down to 65°F. There is a lot of contention over how to ferment using lager strains. Some people say pitch below fermenting temp and let it rise, some say pitch at room temp (67°F) and let it go for a few days to 'kickstart' the process, some say pitch right at fermenting temp. I decided to pitch around 65°F and leave it in a cool place to slowly drop down to where it needed to be, 53°F. I got up this morning and checked and the airlock was already bubbling steadily. The room I had it in was a little two warm, the fermenter read 62°F so I pulled it out into the garage where it's considerably cooler and it's now down to 54°F. If it keeps dropping I'll put it back into the other room.

I don't know why I have a normal airlock on there. I'm going to install the blowoff later today.

During lauter, and you can see the protein sludge

I thought for giggles I'd post a timeline of the mash schedule I ended up using. It was a wonderful learning experience and I got to see the wort at different times look and smell differently. The bit I put in the hydrometer was very very VERY sweet, and I could still taste the hops. I don't know if I could recommend it to anyone unless they have the same desire to experience it, and I won't be doing it again any time soon. But seeing that layer of protein sludge on top of the grain bed, and seeing that OG reading? Definitely worth it.

[CLICK TO EMBIGGEN]

Double De-What-tion?

Today I'm brewing up a Baltic Porter. Doesn't matter that it's high gravity, or that I'm using lager yeast for the first time (even though it won't go through a lagering period) - I'm still going to add another variable to make the outcome uncertain:

I'm going to do a double decoction mash.

The guy at the brew store was pretty adamant against my doing it. Actually, he was adamant against my need to do it. I had to tell him at least three times that I knew I didn't have to do it, but that I WANTED to do it. It's a more involved process, and it's an historical process, which will give me a better understanding of how the mash process works. I WANT to do it. It should be fun. It should also take about twice as long.

I did a bunch of reading (mostly from John Palmer's How to Brew), and watched a few videos, getting the most information out of this guy:

So now I'm working on a bunch of equations in order to get my schedule figured out. I'll post my mash schedule here after I've had a chance to taste the final product and let you know if it was worth it. What am I hoping to get out of this aside from the knowledge and experience?

• I should increase extract efficiency beyond the standard homebrew 70%,
• It should add a bunch of Maillard reaction flavors and colors, and
• Overall we should see a more intense flavor and mouthfeel.

The grains I'm using aren't undermodified, so hypothetically speaking none of the above will actually happen, but I guess we'll see. I have a target OG of 1.083, and my system's been running a few points under that on high gravity mashes, so we'll see how it turns out.