Odd looking wort

[Aki]

I made a recipe for NEIPA that was supposed to be 5 quarts but I ended up with under 4 due to having to reduce strike water when putting malts in the kettle. Process biab, is it normal that the wort looks this muddy after boiling? I did take foam away on hot break. Apparently it’s going to be an imperial NEIPA after all.

 

[VikeMan]

"Muddy" (i.e. cloudy) is pretty normal. The wort does look pretty dark though. At least some of that would be due to concentration. Do you happen to know what your mash pH was?

 

[brewdude88]

That wort looks normal, although maybe a little on the dark side for a NEIPA. What was the grain bill?

 

[Aki]

Great, thank you! I have no idea what the PH is, tap water. Grain bill 2,1kg pale ale malt and 0,15kg cara pale malt. 7L strike water, full volume mash for 75 minutes and 7-minute mashout.

What does concentration mean?

 

[VikeMan]

Great, thank you! I have no idea what the PH is, tap water. Grain bill 2,1kg pale ale malt and 0,15kg cara pale malt. 7L strike water, full volume mash for 75 minutes and 7-minute mashout.

The reason I asked is that mashes with a high pH tends to result in darker work after the boil.

What does concentration mean?

You ended up with a more concentrated wort (with a higher OG) than intended, because you didn't use as much water as planned. More concentrated worts are darker.

 

[Aki]

Ah, all right, that explains. Thank you!

 

[IslandLizard]

If you boil off more than intended, you can always top up with water either during the boil, or after in your kettle or fermenter to get your recipe's volume and/or OG.

In your previous thread we discovered that your batch size was also about 5 liters/quarts:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/forum/threads/i-just-bottled-my-first-batch.677615/

Due to the relatively low brew volume you may experience issues not common in larger batches.
How large is that bucket? It looks huge compared to the volume of wort/beer in the bottom.

Can you post your recipe and a short overview of your brew process?

Strong boils tend to darken wort due to caramelization. A mere simmer (surface rippling) is plenty for wort, and recommended for other reasons too.

 

[Aki]

If you boil off more than intended, you can always top up with water either during the boil, or after in your kettle or fermenter to get your recipe's volume and/or OG.

That's great to know, I didn't know you can add water during the boil.

In your previous thread we discovered that your batch size was also about 5 liters/quarts:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/forum/threads/i-just-bottled-my-first-batch.677615/

Due to the relatively low brew volume you may experience issues not common in larger batches.
How large is that bucket? It looks huge compared to the volume of wort/beer in the bottom.

Can you post your recipe and a short overview of your brew process?

Strong boils tend to darken wort due to caramelization. A mere simmer (surface rippling) is plenty for wort, and recommended for other reasons too.

Yep, the bucket is huge! It is 30 liter Brewferm bucket, the problem is I currently have 10 liter kettle to mash and boil in, hence the tiny batches.

Please find the recipe attached, that's the original one with pre-boil volume of 8 liters, I actually did mash with 7 liters. It's hard to find recipes for tiny batches so I try to look around for similar styles and then improvise from there.

Brewing process went as follows:

- Strike water 77 degrees celcius (mash is around 66 celcius).
- Poured malts in the bag that was hanging on kettle and stirred until there were no chunks
- Put the mash to pre-heated oven @ 75 degrees celcius
- Stirred one time during the msh
- 75-minute mash and then heated the kettle to around 77 degrees in order to mash out - approx. 7 minutes
- Drained the bag to separate kettle and poured the wort in
- Boiled 60 minutes and added the hops
- Cooled in ice bath while stirring the wort
- Once cooled, dumped in the fermenter and poured yeast in ( I had made S-04 starter earlier today)

 

[IslandLizard]

Put the mash to pre-heated oven @ 75 degrees celcius

Why in a 75°C oven? That's too hot for mashing. The good thing is, it takes some time to rise the mash from your original 66°C to 75°C in the oven. But if it reaches 75°C it's definitely too hot.

Perhaps set the oven little lower? And measure the actual temp of the mash after 20', 40', 60' and make notes of it and adjustments for next time, oven thermostats are notoriously imprecise.

The saccharification rest of the mash should be performed in the 63-71 °C range (146-160 °F), the higher temps typically reserved for special brew applications, step mashes, etc. 64.4-66.6 °C (148-152 °F) is most commonly used for good fermentability.

A few observations and notes:

• That grain bag, is it tied on the top and hanging in the water as you would do with steeping, or open and draped over the kettle's edge?
• There's no real need for doing a mashout with BIAB, and small volumes. You're going to heat the wort as soon as you pull the bag out anyway That's your mashout right there.
• Doing a dunk sparge may help with your efficiency, as it rinses out the sugars clinging to the grain bits in the bag.

I had made S-04 starter earlier today

Why?

 

[Aki]

Why in a 75°C oven? That's too hot for mashing. The good thing is, it takes some time to rise the mash from your original 66°C to 75°C in the oven. But if it reaches 75°C it's definitely too hot.

Perhaps set the oven little lower? And measure the actual temp of the mash after 20', 40', 60' and make notes of it and adjustments for next time, oven thermostats are notoriously imprecise.

The saccharification rest of the mash should be performed in the 63-71 °C range (146-160 °F), the higher temps typically reserved for special brew applications, step mashes, etc. 64.4-66.6 °C (148-152 °F) is most commonly used for good fermentability.

I did measure mash temperature after I took the kettle out of oven and it was 66 celcius as it was the first time so I assume the temperature was okay, or do you think it is uneven and should be lower just in case, e.g. 60 degrees?

A few observations and notes:

• That grain bag, is it tied on the top and hanging in the water as you would do with steeping, or open and draped over the kettle's edge?
• There's no real need for doing a mashout with BIAB, and small volumes. You're going to heat the wort as soon as you pull the bag out anyway That's your mashout right there.
• Doing a dunk sparge may help with your efficiency, as it rinses out the sugars clinging to the grain bits in the bag.

Why?

Thank you! Grain back was just draped over the edge since I didn't have anything to hold it up with. Actually, is it possible that the malts at the bottom of kettle have burnt because of this?

I did a started 'cause I had read that it is recommended to do so instead of just sprinkling the yeast on top of wort. Is starter unnecessary, do you recommend just sprinkling it dry?

By the way, did the hop amounts look allright?