Buckwheat and Millet Pale Ale brewday recap

[mergs]

Finally carved out a day to attempt a new recipe using Glutarded Chris' mashing method. I think the day went OK, but I had the usual last minute snafus. The good news is whether its good luck or dumb luck I managed to hit good gravities. Here's a snippet from my brew log, below.

I was a little worried when I got a bit less wort from first runnings than I expected and that second runnings were so low, but once they were combined and the boil off happened, I had 5 gals of 1.052 wort. It's just dumb luck people

Brew Log:

"Milled the grains together (millet malts and buckwheat groats) making 2-3 passes in the grain mill.

Heated 5 gals to 185F and racked from HLT to 10 gal igloo. Achieved a 165F actual strike temp (lower than desired 168F target) and did a 25 minute millet gelatination step (increased from 15 mins due to low actual strike temp). Aimed for a 1-1.25 quart per pound water to grist ratio.

Allowed to mash to chill to Termamyl target temps 152 °F (check enzyme instructions for ideal mash temp for your enzyme)

Mashed for 120 min at 155F (I went for a long walk with wife and dogs so it may have been 2.5 hours mash).

Drew first runnings from BIAB in temporary kettle, got about 2.8 gals of wort at 1.069 SG (temp corrected).

Rinsed the grain in about 3.88 gal sparge water at 168 °F. Hung and drained the grain bag to get about 3.25 gals at 1.028 SG (temp corrected).

Combined the first and second runnings to make 6 gals wort at 1.045 SG

Moved to kettle and started 60-minute boil and hop additions as needed.

At flame out added last hop addition, removed bag from spider and left in kettle overnight to chill (no-chill method).

Awoke this morning to 53 F wort and racked to primary. Got 5 gals of wort with SG of 1.052 (13 brix). Raised temps to pitching temps and pitched yeast."

Grains:

7.13 lb Pale Millet Malt Any Mash 27 1 °L
3.25 lb Light Roasted Millet Malt Any Mash 27 8 °L
2.1 lb Vienna Millet Malt Any Mash 27 1 °L
1.2 lb Crystal Millet Malt Any Mash 27 1 °L
1.0 lb Buckwheat Groats (Bob's Red Mill) 2.0 hr Mash

Hops:
0.75 oz Columbus (US) 60 min Boil Pellet 15.0%
0.5 oz Cascade (US) 15 min Boil Pellet 7.0%
0.75 oz Cascade (US) 0 min Boil Pellet 7.0%
2.0 oz Clanderson Backyard Mystery Blend (Centennial, Willamette and Tettnang) 7 days Dry Hop Pellet 7.0%

 

[mergs]

One of the things that I think I need to do better is find a way to squeeze more wort out of the BIAB ball. It seems like I am soaking up a lot of water in the grains:

5 gals in for mash, about 2.8 gals out first runnings.
Nearly 4 gals of sparge water in, about 3.25 out second runnings.

I think I am leaving a lot of sugar and water in the bag.

 

[mergs]

Racked about 4.75 gallons of Pale Ale to keg and was chilling and carbing overnight. Couldn't help but take a small sip to see how she was doing.

Quite a lovely color. A bit creamy/biscuity. Ton of tangerine! Still flat (note the lack of head) but good mouth feel and not "thin" at all.

Now I just I need to leave this alone for 2 weeks!

 

[brucegodin]

Finally carved out a day to attempt a new recipe using Glutarded Chris' mashing method. I think the day went OK, but I had the usual last minute snafus. The good news is whether its good luck or dumb luck I managed to hit good gravities. Here's a snippet from my brew log, below.

I was a little worried when I got a bit less wort from first runnings than I expected and that second runnings were so low, but once they were combined and the boil off happened, I had 5 gals of 1.052 wort. It's just dumb luck people

Brew Log:

"Milled the grains together (millet malts and buckwheat groats) making 2-3 passes in the grain mill.

Heated 5 gals to 185F and racked from HLT to 10 gal igloo. Achieved a 165F actual strike temp (lower than desired 168F target) and did a 25 minute millet gelatination step (increased from 15 mins due to low actual strike temp). Aimed for a 1-1.25 quart per pound water to grist ratio.

Allowed to mash to chill to Termamyl target temps 152 °F (check enzyme instructions for ideal mash temp for your enzyme)

Mashed for 120 min at 155F (I went for a long walk with wife and dogs so it may have been 2.5 hours mash).

Drew first runnings from BIAB in temporary kettle, got about 2.8 gals of wort at 1.069 SG (temp corrected).

Rinsed the grain in about 3.88 gal sparge water at 168 °F. Hung and drained the grain bag to get about 3.25 gals at 1.028 SG (temp corrected).

Combined the first and second runnings to make 6 gals wort at 1.045 SG

Moved to kettle and started 60-minute boil and hop additions as needed.

At flame out added last hop addition, removed bag from spider and left in kettle overnight to chill (no-chill method).

Awoke this morning to 53 F wort and racked to primary. Got 5 gals of wort with SG of 1.052 (13 brix). Raised temps to pitching temps and pitched yeast."

Grains:

7.13 lb Pale Millet Malt Any Mash 27 1 °L
3.25 lb Light Roasted Millet Malt Any Mash 27 8 °L
2.1 lb Vienna Millet Malt Any Mash 27 1 °L
1.2 lb Crystal Millet Malt Any Mash 27 1 °L
1.0 lb Buckwheat Groats (Bob's Red Mill) 2.0 hr Mash

Hops:
0.75 oz Columbus (US) 60 min Boil Pellet 15.0%
0.5 oz Cascade (US) 15 min Boil Pellet 7.0%
0.75 oz Cascade (US) 0 min Boil Pellet 7.0%
2.0 oz Clanderson Backyard Mystery Blend (Centennial, Willamette and Tettnang) 7 days Dry Hop Pellet 7.0%

What is Clanderson Backyard Mystery blend? A friend's mixed hops?

 

[brucegodin]

Racked about 4.75 gallons of Pale Ale to keg and was chilling and carbing overnight. Couldn't help but take a small sip to see how she was doing.

Quite a lovely color. A bit creamy/biscuity. Ton of tangerine! Still flat (note the lack of head) but good mouth feel and not "thin" at all.

Now I just I need to leave this alone for 2 weeks!

I look forward to finding our how this turned out.

 

[DSP-brasseur]

Can you post a photo and quick thoughts on your recipe now that you have left it a few weeks?

 

[Sock]

Where did you get the ingredients from?

 

[mergs]

Sorry for the delay!!! Been a busy winter!

Ingredients came from http://www.glutenfreehomebrewing.org/

My taste impressions are: this is a good beer. It originally had some sort of twang which mellowed and it also has a slightly cloying biscuity taste I am obsessing on. That has also mellowed though over time. I think that this comes from my malt bill (Vienna?) or maybe the buckwheat, or maybe my no-chill method. Not sure yet.

I plan to do another batch soon and do a variation of http://thecraftbeerchannel.com/juicy-banger-grapefruit-ipa-recipe/
with some methods taken from that recipe and this one:
http://thecraftbeerchannel.com/gipsy-hill-drifter-east-coast-ipa-recipe/

I want to try doing another batch soon using simpler malt bill, perhaps 100% pale and buckwheat only, or maybe try oatmeal. I have to think about that, but I want to try and isolate the taste "flaw" I am getting. That said, I also detect it in Ghostfish's beers too so maybe its par for the course with GF brewing... we'll see.

 

[Legume]

I get an odd biscuity, sweet, dusty, flavor from Grouse crystal millet malt.
It has been noticeable in a couple of my recent beers.
I kind of like this flavor when it's at a low level, but there is something just a tiny bit odd about it.
Even after I realized where it was coming from, I used some in an ESB because that flavor seemed like it would fit well with the style.
Could this be the same thing you are noticing?

 

[mergs]

I get an odd biscuity, sweet, dusty, flavor from Grouse crystal millet malt.
It has been noticeable in a couple of my recent beers.
I kind of like this flavor when it's at a low level, but there is something just a tiny bit odd about it.
Even after I realized where it was coming from, I used some in an ESB because that flavor seemed like it would fit well with the style.
Could this be the same thing you are noticing?

Dang, indeed i am using Grouse Crystal in the bunch of batches. I will back off on that or omit in an upcoming batch (depending on my current supply). I think I want to go back to doing a pale + buckwheat and leave out these specialty malts and see what flavor profile I get. Thanks!!

 

[glutarded-chris]

Interesting!!!
I have been using Rice crystal malt instead of the millet for some time now but i thought i noticed something similar with batches using large potions of Vienna and Munich millet malt from grouse. I still have a lot of it so i have been working through it.
Next batch i think i will use pale millet and buckwheat for base malts and only rice for crystal and any other roasted malts.

 

[mergs]

Interesting!!!
I have been using Rice crystal malt instead of the millet for some time now but i thought i noticed something similar with batches using large potions of Vienna and Munich millet malt from grouse. I still have a lot of it so i have been working through it.
Next batch i think i will use pale millet and buckwheat for base malts and only rice for crystal and any other roasted malts.

I'm so glad we're talking openly about this, I almost held back and felt it might have been imaginary (and frankly I was a little embarrassed), but I am glad I mentioned it because this is a good discussion. I'll share my findings once I try a similar approach with less (or no) crystal or vienna.

 

[Brewingclassical]

Hi everyone!

Reading this thread with much interest because I recently tried brewing with millet. Not a gluten-free beer, it was a barley-millet combo. Got a biscuity flavor that wasn't particularly odd, but had a cottony drying sensation in the mouth. Was wondering whether that would be the millet? I should add that I did not use the brand you are mentioning and in fact did not order millet malt but made my own. Has any of you ever tried malting your own millet and if so, had similar experiences?

Thanks!

 

[mergs]

Hi everyone!

Reading this thread with much interest because I recently tried brewing with millet. Not a gluten-free beer, it was a barley-millet combo. Got a biscuity flavor that wasn't particularly odd, but had a cottony drying sensation in the mouth. Was wondering whether that would be the millet? I should add that I did not use the brand you are mentioning and in fact did not order millet malt but made my own. Has any of you ever tried malting your own millet and if so, had similar experiences?

Thanks!

Yes, there are others here that malt their own gf grains. For starters, see the sticky thread here: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=135919 but also search the forum for malting

 

[Brewingclassical]

Yes, there are others here that malt their own gf grains. For starters, see the sticky thread here: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=135919 but also search the forum for malting

Thanks for your reply! Will have a look!

 

[jmitchell3]

Interesting!!!
I have been using Rice crystal malt instead of the millet for some time now but i thought i noticed something similar with batches using large potions of Vienna and Munich millet malt from grouse. I still have a lot of it so i have been working through it.
Next batch i think i will use pale millet and buckwheat for base malts and only rice for crystal and any other roasted malts.

I've been using millet as a base with a 1lb or 2 of buckwheat and rice/millet specialty malts. All 4 beers i've done have a very sweet character to them that I don't prefer. I'm wondering about moving to rice as a base malt, or alternatively splitting the base between rice and millet...

 

[glutarded-chris]

There is a flavor to the millet base and surely there is a sweet spot with rice, millet and buckwheat base malt proportions that works best (balance between flavor and body). I think I will stick with only crystal and roasted malt coming from rice, but you have me rethinking my base malt!!!!

 

[buttholesurfer911]

One of the things that I think I need to do better is find a way to squeeze more wort out of the BIAB ball. It seems like I am soaking up a lot of water in the grains:

5 gals in for mash, about 2.8 gals out first runnings.
Nearly 4 gals of sparge water in, about 3.25 out second runnings.

I think I am leaving a lot of sugar and water in the bag.

Have you tried separating the grain into 2-3 bags to increase surface area?