Source of my high OG

[carter840]

Hi everyone,

Yesterday I brewed the first beer that made sense when compared to my recipe in beersmith (with the exception of color), I hit my OG, in fact I was at 1.091 rather than the 1.089 I anticipated. However, I used 1lb of wheat starch and entered this as an adjunct in beersmith. I mashed at 135, 145, and 165 and then sparged with 170 for a total mash time of 90 minutes. I assume that much of that wheat starch was converted to sugar. Did beersmith account for this or not? When I added and subtracted the wheat starch (in beersmith) the OG estimated did change a few points, but not too much.

So what is happening to the wheat starch when mashed with 13 lbs. of pilsner malt? And is beersmith properly modeling this behavior? I am just trying to determine my efficiency, and think this could make a huge difference.

That said I have a nice dark strong Belgian ale, and after 12 hours it had already filled the carboy and began to spill over into the blow off bottle (a growler).

 

[duboman]

.002 could be nothing more than a reading error, temperature adjustment correction or calibration discrepancy. I would so not be losing sleep over it. IMO if you are that close you were spot on

 

[carter840]

.002 could be nothing more than a reading error, temperature adjustment correction or calibration discrepancy. I would so not be losing sleep over it. IMO if you are that close you were spot on

I completely agree, however, if beersmith was not accounting for any substantial sugar to come from the wheat starch then I could actually have quite a low efficiency. I need a better understanding of what that wheat stach attributes in terms of sugar. I used it because I am ready Brew Like a Monk, and it seems that quite a few trappist breweries use it. But there is very little information on how much sugar it contributes after mash.

 

[WoodlandBrew]

Wheat is about 70% starch, so 1lb of wheat starch will act like 1.43 lbs of wheat grain.

 

[carter840]

Wheat is about 70% starch, so 1lb of wheat starch will act like 1.43 lbs of wheat grain.

This is very helpful, can I make any other assumptions? Is it fair to assume that all of the starch would have been converted?

 

[WoodlandBrew]

The conversion will be better than that of the grain because it is essentially a better crush. The 135 and 145 steps should have gelatinized them pretty well, if the milling process didn't. How long was the mash between 145 and 165? If it was 60 minutes you should have pretty good conversion. Was that a slow ramp?

 

[carter840]

I was at 135 for 15 minutes, and than at 145 for 20 minutes. Then 165 for 60 minutes. I used a decoration mash style because I was brewing in a cooler. I think the temperature rise between steps was fairly fast for this reason. From what you are saying it seems like my efficiency was actually a bit low, given that beer smith treated the starch like an adjunct. I am correct?

 

[WoodlandBrew]

Correct, probably low. The 145 step will convert some starch into sugar, but 90 minutes would be a normal amount of time. 165 will start to really damage the enzymes and also the sugars that are produced there are mostly non- fermentable.

For next time:
148-151 = light beer
152-155 = most beers
156-158 = highly malty sweet beers