whear beer

Zambezi Special said:
OK
Things are not going like they should.
Gravity after mash is 1024 instead of 1048.
Mash temp was 66, previous times 67 oC, but that can't have such an impact.
For now, I blame the weevils!
My recipe has 450 gr maris otter pale ale and 900 malted wheat.
I need to change the wheat to 200 gr (in the recipe) to get to my OG.
Grains do not taste sweet. Same milling as for previous brews.
For now:
I'll boil longer
And I will add sugar so I get at least some little alcohol. Sugar will go in towards end of the boil. I know it might be better after krausen, but I don't want to open the fermenter as it already looks that what can go wrong, will go wrong
Click to expand...
Nope great move add the sugar to the boil A pasturise and yup B not opening the fermenter.
Sounds interesting :)
 
It's cooling now.
I managed to get a more aggressive boil going and did a couple refractometer readings. Gravity looked a bit better, so only added a little sugar
Definitely going to be interesting. It will be "no style weevilly wheat" but it will be beer!
 
Is there an easy way to calculate is the wheat malt is still containing sugar?
Something real small scale to check?
Like 100 gr milled wheat malt mashed for an hour in 1 litre X oC water should give an SG of Y?
Something that could be done in a thermos flask or so?

Hope I'm making a bit clear what I would like. Basically I want to check if it isn't operator error and it really is the grain...
 
Zambezi Special said:
Is there an easy way to calculate is the wheat malt is still containing sugar?
Something real small scale to check?
Like 100 gr milled wheat malt mashed for an hour in 1 litre X oC water should give an SG of Y?
Something that could be done in a thermos flask or so?

Hope I'm making a bit clear what I would like. Basically I want to check if it isn't operator error and it really is the grain...
Click to expand...
Yes, it is called a Congress Mash. From Palmer's How to Brew: (see photo)

This shows a fine grind method, a coarse grind method is exactly the same but milled just like you would use for a normal mash. It's called Coarse Grind As Is, or CGAI. You'll still have to find a copy of the "tables for extract determination of malt and cereals" on the Internet somewhere. Oh, and measuring sg to 0.00001 is not really necessary for your purposes :rolleyes:

Edit: wheat malt has about 31 ppg (85% efficiency) (points per pound per gallon) with a maximum of 37. So mash 50 grams crushed as explained in the photo (as close as you can grt: it's not a simple process), drain it for another hour, and measure the gravity. Convert to pounds and gallons.

You can probably find the specification in PKL, points per kg per liter too. Let us know if your Internet doesn't cooperate and we can find that for you.
 

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Did the wheat grains look all chewed up? All husk and no seed? If so then the weevils have stolen all your fermentable sugars :(
 
Sorry for the multiple posts.

So 50g milled wheat malt mashed in 450 ml water should yield an SG around 1.027. Mash at 70 C for 2 hours and allow to cool before measuring.
 
I played around with brew target.
I changed equipment to 0.75 litre in kettle
Mash volume 1 ltr, mash efficiency 70%, temp 67 oC, 1 hour mash and my grain absorption amount.
With 100 gr simpson malted wheat, it says pre-boil gravity should be 1.030
Does that sound somewhat reasonable?

@Sunfire96
The grains looked okay, not worse than last time I used them. but I'll check.them again.

@Donoroto
I skipped the congress mash section in palmers book. I'll have to work my way through it. Thanks for the info.
 
Donoroto said:
So 50g milled wheat malt mashed in 450 ml water should yield an SG around 1.027. Mash at 70 C for 2 hours and allow to cool before measuring.
Click to expand...
Looks like we are more or less on the same wavelength ;)
I'll give this a try tomorrow!
 
Experiment is in progress.
 
50 gr milled
450 gr water of 70 oC
2 hour mash in thermosflask with occasional shake and end temperature of 60 oC
Let cool down ( to 34 oC = room temperature). Hydrometer reading is 1022.
Temp correction: 0.004-0.005 (palmer) gives 1026-1027
Which is what @Donoroto predicted

So the weevils didn't eat too much and we are looking at operator error.
Which is good, 'cause I can train the operator, but I can't get new malt :D
 
Double post
 
So now to find out how & why:

I used a different grain mill for the check
Different mash time
Different temperature

For the actual batch: it was the first time milling the grain the day before. For all other batches milling was done just before brewing.
Other than that nothing much changed (definitely not for the pre-boil reading).

Couple of obvious points:
Compare milling of the 2 mills, maybe double milling
Mill on the same day (I can't see how it can make a difference but better to rule it out)

Other points to look at:
Longer mash
Different mash tempeature

Your thoughts?
 
The test mash wouldn't necessarily give good beer. Its purpose was maximum extraction. You got 'good' extraction, showing the wheat is still ok.

I agree milling is first to compare.

Longer mash means greater extraction, but the diminishing return is a bit under an hour.

Temperature is not likely, nor is same-day milling, but give it a go. A slightly cooler mash would be more fermentable.
 
IMG_20220119_100011.jpg

There is a difference for sure.
I'll be back to double milling
 
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