My beer to practice into consistency

[Blackmuse]

Okay, so I was recently inspired by another thread to finally lock in my brewing practices and hone my skills. Thanks Nosy and Tal.

So here is the beer I hope to practice into consistency.

https://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/view/673377/lawnmower-blonde

Now, this recipe is based on another I have brewed twice with great success - but it had a lot of other adjuncts. So I scrapped some for simplicity.

Also, that other recipe, which I'll post below, used American malts since I bought them at a semi- local shop before I started storing and milling my own.

I'm curious as to how different this beer might be from the original due to the different malt regions.

I'm also looking for any feedback in general. I hope to make this a house beer.

 

[Blackmuse]

This is the beer that the above recipe is based on.
https://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/view/236730/cucumber-blonde-biab-

 

[Nosybear]

Should be a good beer to hone your skills! Helles was mine.

 

[J A]

It's extremely similar to a my Session Honey Blonde that I came up with recently. I stuck with slightly lighter malts - Czech Pilsner, Czech 2-row, white wheat and Honey malt. My hops are turned around from yours with the noble hop at 60 and the American hops late. I used Amarillo but I could definitely see Cascade. I really liked mine and I think I'd like your version as well.
Nail the mash and fermentation for consistency and play around a little with the hops. Should be very nice, indeed!

 

[Blackmuse]

It's extremely similar to a my Session Honey Blonde that I came up with recently. I stuck with slightly lighter malts - Czech Pilsner, Czech 2-row, white wheat and Honey malt. My hops are turned around from yours with the noble hop at 60 and the American hops late. I used Amarillo but I could definitely see Cascade. I really liked mine and I think I'd like your version as well.
Nail the mash and fermentation for consistency and play around a little with the hops. Should be very nice, indeed!

Took your advice and switched up the hops - made sense. Crushed my grains this morning and have the robobrew ready to mash in when I get home!

<iframe width="100%" height="500px" src="https://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/embed/673377" frameborder="0"></iframe>

 

[J A]

Should work very well for you.
BTW, your recipe link shows the original version of the recipe. If you made changes, you may not have clicked the "Save" button.

 

[Blackmuse]

Should work very well for you.
BTW, your recipe link shows the original version of the recipe. If you made changes, you may not have clicked the "Save" button.

Weird, I definitely saved it (brewed it last night) and I clicked "share" in the edited recipe to ensure I shared that exact thing... Odd. Do you know anyway to share a brew session/logs?

 

[Blackmuse]

Should be a good beer to hone your skills! Helles was mine.

Okay Nosy - I brewed this last night and things went pretty well. My question is:

Now What?

My last two infusion mashes came up at 64 and 66 percent efficiency.
I expected to boil off more than a gallon due to the 90 minute boil this time but did not... so I collected just over 6 gallons of wort. Should I adjust things in my recipe to say 65% efficiency and lower my pre-boil volume to say 6.5 gallons verses 7?
Or, should I leave everything the same and see what happens next time?

If you know anyway to share brew sessions let me know and I will try and post last nights session here.

 

[J A]

Use a longer sparge with increased water volume and you'll solve your problems. Your water requirement calculations are off and you need to start with more.
In general, though, yes you should tweak the calucator settings to reflect the real-world performance of your system and process.

 

[J A]

Weird, I definitely saved it (brewed it last night) and I clicked "share" in the edited recipe to ensure I shared that exact thing... Odd. Do you know anyway to share a brew session/logs?

It's right...I was looking at the order and not the timing. You can hit the "sort" button in the hops section and it'll arrange your additions cronologically. I'm used to seeing hops in the sorted order, that's all.
BTW...You don't have to boil hops for 90 minutes even though you're doing a 90 minute boil. I think there might be a little more IBUs, but for the most part, you're getting all you need at 60 and you may keep a little more flavor at 60 rather than 90. Others may have different experience/opinion.

 

[Nosybear]

Okay Nosy - I brewed this last night and things went pretty well. My question is:

Now What?

My last two infusion mashes came up at 64 and 66 percent efficiency.
I expected to boil off more than a gallon due to the 90 minute boil this time but did not... so I collected just over 6 gallons of wort. Should I adjust things in my recipe to say 65% efficiency and lower my pre-boil volume to say 6.5 gallons verses 7?
Or, should I leave everything the same and see what happens next time?

If you know anyway to share brew sessions let me know and I will try and post last nights session here.

Okay, it appears you have an efficiency issue - not really, unless you think it is. How can you get the efficiency up? I average around 70% brew house, around 80% conversion using infusion mashes in a cooler mash tun, The thing about repeating is you don't have to guess. I won't get into the kind of statistics you'd need to know if this is an outlier, too many repetitions of the same brew required for that! Do you know your boil-off rate?

Here's my take: Keep good records and adjust as you know what's happening. You have one data point on boil off rate but you don't have to make beer to learn what that is, just boil some water! Average the boil-off rates, then use that as your "standard". There will always be variance, though. Keep working with 6 gallons of wort until you know the rate - it's easier to add water at the end than to take it out. So I'd go with one slight modification to your idea: Take good records, leave everything the same and see what happens, then adjust based on what you know.

Actually I didn't propose the simple recipe to learn the engineering variables of a brew system, rather to test taste. So I learned something from your simple brew, too! Thank you.

 

[Blackmuse]

Okay, it appears you have an efficiency issue - not really, unless you think it is. How can you get the efficiency up? I average around 70% brew house, around 80% conversion using infusion mashes in a cooler mash tun, The thing about repeating is you don't have to guess. I won't get into the kind of statistics you'd need to know if this is an outlier, too many repetitions of the same brew required for that! Do you know your boil-off rate?

Here's my take: Keep good records and adjust as you know what's happening. You have one data point on boil off rate but you don't have to make beer to learn what that is, just boil some water! Average the boil-off rates, then use that as your "standard". There will always be variance, though. Keep working with 6 gallons of wort until you know the rate - it's easier to add water at the end than to take it out. So I'd go with one slight modification to your idea: Take good records, leave everything the same and see what happens, then adjust based on what you know.

Actually I didn't propose the simple recipe to learn the engineering variables of a brew system, rather to test taste. So I learned something from your simple brew, too! Thank you.

Okay, so this system (Robobrew) and my brewery (new house - working out of basement) is all new to me. Before this I did stove top and then outside burner. I like this best. I don't know my boil off rate yet but it appears to be less than I expected. So for now I will do my next brew exactly as I did this one and then maybe I will have a better idea as to my boil off rate. I think the boil off rate is what is hurting my effeciency. Once I lock that in I may improve.

If I can find time in the next week I'll boil water to see what happens. But I may not get the chance.

 

[J A]

So for now I will do my next brew exactly as I did this one and then maybe I will have a better idea as to my boil off rate. I think the boil off rate is what is hurting my effeciency. Once I lock that in I may improve.

Once you get 2 or 3 brews through your system, you'll have your boil-off rate nailed down. If it varies, use the lowest rate or computation and if you boil off too much you can top up. Boil off shouldn't change efficiency since a higher volume/lower gravity will yield the same amount of sugar as lower volume/higher gravity. All-in-one systems typically have lower efficiency due to the way the grain bed is held - doesn't lend itself to an efficient sparging and sugars are left in the malt.

 

[Blackmuse]

Once you get 2 or 3 brews through your system, you'll have your boil-off rate nailed down. If it varies, use the lowest rate or computation and if you boil off too much you can top up. Boil off shouldn't change efficiency since a higher volume/lower gravity will yield the same amount of sugar as lower volume/higher gravity. All-in-one systems typically have lower efficiency due to the way the grain bed is held - doesn't lend itself to an efficient sparging and sugars are left in the malt.

Ah, that makes sense. My boil off rate has seemed to flux a but... I've done 4 beers now but all slightly different. The last two have been the most similar but they had varying boil off rates. Percent effeciency makes sense high volume vs low. I will try again soon and see close I come to last night's session.

Thanks fir the feedback.

 

[J A]

I've done 4 beers now but all slightly different.

I would think that the Robobrew would be pretty consistent, being electric element. Are you keeping the lid on through the boil or something?

 

[Blackmuse]

I would think that the Robobrew would be pretty consistent, being electric element. Are you keeping the lid on through the boil or something?

Yeah, so the robobrew should be consistent but my first beer in it I tried a two step decoction mash - loved it! Then my second batch I tried a Kesselmash - not great in a Robobrew. Then the last two have been infusion mashes - and between those I can't remember if I left the lid on the first one but I may have (however, wouldn't that have led to less boil off?) I had more boiliffon the first.

 

[Ozarks Mountain Brewery]

you can leave the lid on until it reaches 200 then take it off the rest of the way and always when removing the lid drain the condensation outside the boil kettle

 

[Nosybear]

Boil-off doesn't seem to be a problem - you can always add more water if needed. Leave the lid on during the mash - less heat loss.

 

[J A]

Yeah...lid on for mash, off once it reaches boil. I don't do all-in-one but I think they really shine for simple single infusions or maybe simple step mash.
I think I'd be more concerned with gaining some consistency with the simplest methodology instead of trying out fancy mashing techniques if it was me.

 

[Blackmuse]

Yeah...lid on for mash, off once it reaches boil. I don't do all-in-one but I think they really shine for simple single infusions or maybe simple step mash.
I think I'd be more concerned with gaining some consistency with the simplest methodology instead of trying out fancy mashing techniques if it was me.

Lid on for mash is what I always do. I almost always do lid off for boil (safer).

The robobrew is actually perfect for step mashes. It worked well for decoction too. Like you said though, I am doing single infusion until I have it mastered.