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Regarding Oliver's No.5 Pale Ale, he mentioned this:

Didn't rinse the grains, hence the low original gravity; you live and learn.

I've checked John Palmer's book, and he does not mention anything about rinsing before steeping. I'm wondering the purpose of rinsing the grains and the rationale behind it. Could Oliver or anyone help to advise a newbie? Thank you.

Its after you mash them that you rinse the grains, gets the sugars out
that are stuck to the husks

Dogger

You should probably do a "mini-sparge" with the specialty grains. After you steep you (ideally) pour the liquid through a strainer to filter out the husks and that, leaving you with a strainer full of grains that still have a significant amount of sugar stuck to them. What I do when I do extract batches is to heat up ~1.5-2L of water in an electric kettle and rinse the grains with this water to remove more sugar. You want the water hot, but not boiling since boiling water may extract unwanted stuff from the husks (although given the small amounts of grain used, it's probably not too big of a deal even if you do use boiling water) when you rinse.

Dogger's right. I meant I didn't sparge (rinse) them after I'd steeped them in warm water. I believe that because the sugars weren't washed out the original gravity was low. Nice beer it was, though.

Cheers,

Oliver

Oliver,

I never count on my specialties to add anything else but colour or aroma. That way I am always nicely suprised if I get boost (you wouldn't add 2 kilos of Crystal on 5 gallons simply for effect would you?)

Dogger

Only tried once with specialty grains. Didn't know I had to sparge. Followed the directions that came with it and which had me boil can, malt and grain gently for 20 minutes. add hop at end and stand for 10 mins before straining.

Came out good but what I did end up with was a large amount of sediment in the bottom of the fermentor. Is this normal? Also when bottled I ended up with a thick layer of sediment, which racking would have solved.

Is this process correct?

BPJ,

All the reading I have done indicates that boiling grains is bad as it starts to release phenols over 170 deg F. Phenols make your beer taste bad. Sounds like it worked for you though. I am thinking the left over stuff you are talking about is called "trub" which you would like to leave behind. It can start to break down and add bad tastes.

And Yes, I would believe that extra racking would reduce the sediment in the final product

Dogger

Dogger thanks for that but what is 170 in Celcius?I am pretty good with metric - Imperial except temps

Not a clue,

I could figure it out but I don't feel like it right now

Friggin Canadians, especially my vintage that had to learn both systems. We operate best in miles per litre and kgs per deg F and furlongs per fortnight and work measured in metre lbs and then we get to dink around with our funky American neighbours who figure 5 gallons is 19 Litres and not 23.

No wonder I come home and don't want to figure out what a buck 70 is in deg C



Dogger

To convert F to C

http://www.wbuf.noaa.gov/tempfc.htm

stevem

Thanks

Dogger

Dogger,

My problem was that, as this was one of my first brews, all the specialty grain went in with the liquid malt to be boiled up.

As such, I think that the grains absorbed sugars, which instead of sparging I just strained out and chucked away.

That's why I think the gravity was a bit low.

Cheers,

Oliver

thanks to everyone for providing a newbie valuable information. Based on what I've read, I formulating a recipe for my next brew:

1.7kg Black rock nut brown ale
1.5kg liquid pale malt extract (Morgan's unhopped pale)
200g Crystal Malt
50g Chocolate malt
Safale yeast S04
12g Fuggles (steep 10mins in 2 litre hot water for hop tea)

Any comments is most welcome. Will this be too sweet? I'm torn between adding 1kg of the unhopped pale, or the full 1.5kg. Measuring out the 1kg would be a big hassle though. Thanks in advance!

Keat,

go with full 1.5, No need to be pussy footing around.

The rest of the recipe looks good. Just to be on the safe side a bit of Irish Moss wouldn't hurt in the last 15 min of the boil. It will take out the chill haze which will form from the proteins extracted from the crystal. I know you are using the chocolate malt which sohould do the same thing but I haven't always had it work so...... just to be safe

Chill Haze wont hurt you, it just makes your beer cloudy when you chill it. I have some right now, it doesn't affect taste, only appearence

And take the 12 grams Fuggles and toss them in for the final minute of the boil, I think it will be better and it will stop dinking around with some tea, I haven't seen any difference in the two and having it all contained is in one pot is better as far as I am concerned. But thats up to you, one just seems a bit more fussy for no real impact or value added.


Dogger

Thanks for the advise, DD. The biggest pot I have is only 6L. With all the stuff thrown in, I'm afraid the boil gravity would be too high, causing the hop utilization to be low. Maybe I should get a bigger pot..the missus is not going to be too happy. I can see her eyes rolling up now.

Keat,

Sorry about your luck chum,

I have a 27 litre pot so ofcourse I figure everyone else does to.


Dogger

Hi keat

I was wondering how your nut-brown ale went; I am planning to do a similar one in the next week or two. I was going to increases the crystal to 500g and the chocolate to 250-300g and with the addition of 300-450g of dark brown sugar. Any suggestion on this recipes or experience with the brew would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Mr H

keat wrote:thanks to everyone for providing a newbie valuable information. Based on what I've read, I formulating a recipe for my next brew:

1.7kg Black rock nut brown ale
1.5kg liquid pale malt extract (Morgan's unhopped pale)
200g Crystal Malt
50g Chocolate malt
Safale yeast S04
12g Fuggles (steep 10mins in 2 litre hot water for hop tea)

Any comments is most welcome. Will this be too sweet? I'm torn between adding 1kg of the unhopped pale, or the full 1.5kg. Measuring out the 1kg would be a big hassle though. Thanks in advance!