- Joined
- Apr 11, 2013
- Messages
- 376
- Reaction score
- 61
First off let me just say that I am still new to the home brewing craft, have a whole bunch of new equipment, and am still learning how to work with this equipment.
That said I want to pose a short question and follow up with the specifics.
The literal question is; Does a higher mash temperature create a darker color beer?
EG: if you mash at 145 you would get one color, but at 155 you get a darker color from the crystal malts and other such things.
The reason I'm asking (involving a short story, and you can skip this part if you just have an answer) is. I have officially done two all grain brews. One of which is a Cirtra IPA with complete and devistating success (delicious), and the other a quasi Irish red ale which is the first brew I have done where I devised the entire recipe on my own accord.
The recipe is as follows: hopefully the calcs make sense
Target vol: 5 gal
Boil: 6 gal
OG: 1.070 or there abouts
FG: 1.016 or there abouts
SRM: 15
IBU: 39 (Which is a bit high for a red ale, this I know)
Maris Otter - 9 lb
Vienna Malt - 3 lb
Roasted Barley - 5 oz
Crystal 60 - 4 oz
Centennial(USA) - 1 oz @ 40 min
East Kent Goldings(UK) - .5 oz @ 20 min
Irish Moss - 1 tsp @ 15 min
Irish Ale WLP004 - Two vials with no starter (Warmed to 70f for about 3 hrs before pitching)
So as the story goes I am using new equipment for this brew, and I brought my strike temp up to high. I bought a Bayou 10 gal pot, which comes with a corrugated false bottom so I used the pot as my mash tun.
I brought 7.5 gal of water up to 168 and added the 13 or so pounds of grain to the pot which only reduced the temp to 162! I stirred the grain for a few minutes thinking that with the thermometer being so low on the pot that it just hadn't settled in with the grain addition. WRONG. It stayed there. I checked the temp with a secondary thermometer, and the one on the pot was spot on.
Now for the decision, and the reason why I'm pretty sure I've ruined the brew. I was going to add about .5 to 1 gal of room temp water to the tun to bring down the temp to the desired 152. My girlfriend, who was there with me, said why don't you just wait and see what happens. "Patients is a virtue" a little voice said in my head which I'm sure all homebrewers must know. So I decided to wait to see how long it would take for the temp to drop all the while stirring the mash every 5 min or so to mix the cold outside into the hot center. This was a sort of test to learn my equipment at the very least.
Over an hour the mash temp dropped from 162 to about 152. So a little bummed out I just decided to finish off the recipe and throw it in the fermenter to just go through the process and see what it will come out like. My OG from this series of events was 1.060. Not even close to the potential of the grain. I think...
When I drained the tun the liquid was more or less brown than looking even remotely reddish. Which is why I pose the question at the top.
At this time it has been three days since brew day, and today the bubbles have almost stopped from the fermenter. Though I hear constantly that you can not rely on the airlock to determine a finished fermentation a little voice sounds in my head "This does not bode well."
If you made it all the way through my short story I hope you enjoyed reading about my defeat.
So, aside from my possible ruined batch of beer, my question resides. Does a high mash temp create a darker beer than a lower one? Or is it simply the grain bill that will create a resultant hew to the brew? I was hoping for something that had a more or less red tint to it rather than looking like a brown ale.
Aside from that what do you think of my first conceived recipe? Sound good, or is there some serious refinement needed. My ultimate goal is to create a good tasting red ale, then when the season comes in (which is only two or so months) create a vanilla apricot non traditional irish red with it. What do ya think?
Thanks for reading I am a firm believer that one can learn more from their failures than one learns from success.
That said I want to pose a short question and follow up with the specifics.
The literal question is; Does a higher mash temperature create a darker color beer?
EG: if you mash at 145 you would get one color, but at 155 you get a darker color from the crystal malts and other such things.
The reason I'm asking (involving a short story, and you can skip this part if you just have an answer) is. I have officially done two all grain brews. One of which is a Cirtra IPA with complete and devistating success (delicious), and the other a quasi Irish red ale which is the first brew I have done where I devised the entire recipe on my own accord.
The recipe is as follows: hopefully the calcs make sense
Target vol: 5 gal
Boil: 6 gal
OG: 1.070 or there abouts
FG: 1.016 or there abouts
SRM: 15
IBU: 39 (Which is a bit high for a red ale, this I know)
Maris Otter - 9 lb
Vienna Malt - 3 lb
Roasted Barley - 5 oz
Crystal 60 - 4 oz
Centennial(USA) - 1 oz @ 40 min
East Kent Goldings(UK) - .5 oz @ 20 min
Irish Moss - 1 tsp @ 15 min
Irish Ale WLP004 - Two vials with no starter (Warmed to 70f for about 3 hrs before pitching)
So as the story goes I am using new equipment for this brew, and I brought my strike temp up to high. I bought a Bayou 10 gal pot, which comes with a corrugated false bottom so I used the pot as my mash tun.
I brought 7.5 gal of water up to 168 and added the 13 or so pounds of grain to the pot which only reduced the temp to 162! I stirred the grain for a few minutes thinking that with the thermometer being so low on the pot that it just hadn't settled in with the grain addition. WRONG. It stayed there. I checked the temp with a secondary thermometer, and the one on the pot was spot on.
Now for the decision, and the reason why I'm pretty sure I've ruined the brew. I was going to add about .5 to 1 gal of room temp water to the tun to bring down the temp to the desired 152. My girlfriend, who was there with me, said why don't you just wait and see what happens. "Patients is a virtue" a little voice said in my head which I'm sure all homebrewers must know. So I decided to wait to see how long it would take for the temp to drop all the while stirring the mash every 5 min or so to mix the cold outside into the hot center. This was a sort of test to learn my equipment at the very least.
Over an hour the mash temp dropped from 162 to about 152. So a little bummed out I just decided to finish off the recipe and throw it in the fermenter to just go through the process and see what it will come out like. My OG from this series of events was 1.060. Not even close to the potential of the grain. I think...
When I drained the tun the liquid was more or less brown than looking even remotely reddish. Which is why I pose the question at the top.
At this time it has been three days since brew day, and today the bubbles have almost stopped from the fermenter. Though I hear constantly that you can not rely on the airlock to determine a finished fermentation a little voice sounds in my head "This does not bode well."
If you made it all the way through my short story I hope you enjoyed reading about my defeat.
So, aside from my possible ruined batch of beer, my question resides. Does a high mash temp create a darker beer than a lower one? Or is it simply the grain bill that will create a resultant hew to the brew? I was hoping for something that had a more or less red tint to it rather than looking like a brown ale.
Aside from that what do you think of my first conceived recipe? Sound good, or is there some serious refinement needed. My ultimate goal is to create a good tasting red ale, then when the season comes in (which is only two or so months) create a vanilla apricot non traditional irish red with it. What do ya think?
Thanks for reading I am a firm believer that one can learn more from their failures than one learns from success.