Pecan Doppelbock

[NTexBrewer]

http://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/r ... ouble-bock

This recipe was in a BYO magazine. I'm scaling it down to make a one gallon batch. I guess I have a few specific questions. I usually do partial mashes with a 2 gallon cooler. With this batch being so small it will be All Grain.

Here are my questions:

1. I set the efficiency at 65%. If I do better will it affect the flavor that much if I add water to keep the ABV around the 8.5%
2. With scaling down it looks like I'm hardly putting any hops in but the recipe editor is showing my IBU's to be 25. Anyone have experience with small batches and does this seam correct.
3. If my efficiency is better than 65% and I have to add water do I need to worry about my hops since I am already at the high end of the IBU scale for this style.
4. This will be my first infusion mash to raise the temperature with boiling water. If there are any tricks to help with this I would appreciate it. I plan to have some cool water also if I need to make adjustments.

 

[Nosybear]

How do you handle the oils in the pecans? My wife loved the Abita Pecan Ale so I researched - toast them four times to get the oil out. I'm curious as to how you intend to handle it because I may want to do a pecan brew and if it works there, maybe a hazelnut ale.

 

[Nosybear]

If you're mashing, expect around 70% efficiency. I'm curious about a second thing: Why add the pecans in two stages? The thing to be aware of is temperature. The mash calculator does a great job (kudos, Larry, I used it for my first one-gallon brew this eve) but it will result in an approximation. Temper your mash - if the temperature is too low, bring it up with boiling water, if too high, bring it down with cold - and don't worry about the extra volume. And stir well before taking the temperature to break up clods and to distribute hot spots. And good luck - let us know how it turns out!

 

[LarryBrewer]

Here are my questions:

1. I set the efficiency at 65%. If I do better will it affect the flavor that much if I add water to keep the ABV around the 8.5%
2. With scaling down it looks like I'm hardly putting any hops in but the recipe editor is showing my IBU's to be 25. Anyone have experience with small batches and does this seam correct.
3. If my efficiency is better than 65% and I have to add water do I need to worry about my hops since I am already at the high end of the IBU scale for this style.
4. This will be my first infusion mash to raise the temperature with boiling water. If there are any tricks to help with this I would appreciate it. I plan to have some cool water also if I need to make adjustments.

This is a high gravity beer, so relative grain absorption is higher, efficiency may be lower than 65%.

IBUs will be correct. At 0.35oz for 1 gallon, that would be 1.75oz for 5 gallons which sounds about right.

If you add water, you will be diluting the IBUs not increasing them. You will need to be very precise with the measurements since being off by even a few ounces represents a large % of the total batch.

As for adding boiling water, yes the calculator is an estimate. Do the half increment first to see where it gets you. Have some cool water on hand in case you overshoot.

 

[NTexBrewer]

Thanks for the replies. For some reason, I did not get email notification.

This was a recipe in BYO magazine that I'm stepping down from a 5 gallon batch. In the recipe they had the pecans added separately at the two mash temperatures. I'm not too worried about oils as the pecans are being mashed and then I will have a 90 minute boil. In the BYO article he mentioned oils can sometimes cause problems but he did not say anything about pecans or this recipe. I will be toasting them in an oven at 350 degrees.

I just got a refractometer to help me check my efficiency of the mash faster. Since I have a small volume, I will take my time check my numbers and adjust my hops if my efficiency is lower.

Larry, how much lower do you think my efficiency could be? Do you think I should increase my grains or have some DME to increase my sugars?

 

[LarryBrewer]

Maybe set efficiency to 60%, and have a little DME on hand in case the refractometer reading is below target.

 

[NTexBrewer]

Sounds good. I just got back from the Brew store and did get some DME just in case. If I'm organized I'll be able to brew this tomorrow.

I already have a Cranberry Mead bottled for Thanksgiving and I'm planning this beer for Thanksgiving also.

I'll try to remember to add updates along the way.

I appreciate the feed back

 

[LarryBrewer]

Awesome! Gave a great brew day!

I need to hit the LHBS myself soon...!

 

[NTexBrewer]

Ok, Just finished brewing.

Overall a good day considering I was doing a lot of firsts. Hit first mash temp of 125 without any problems. I found out that 2.2 quarts of boiling water was not enough to step up the mash to 153. My 2 gallon cooler has the faucet strainer modification but I still use a grain bag. This proved helpful as I just pulled the grain bag out and transferred the liquid to a pot to heat up. I managed to get the mash temp to 150 for the 45 minutes. I collected 2.59 gallons and this reading was at 1.046. I think boiling water losses heat very fast so I was adding slow not wanting to get too hot. I think I actually was adding 190 degree water instead of the theoretical 212. May have to consider that if I do an infusion mash again.

Did my 90 minute boil and hop additions. I overestimated my boil off rate. Last week I had done a test with water but I guess this may be something hard to accurately estimate with brewing indoors and using a gas stove burner. At 95 minutes it looked like I had about 1.5 gallons and using my refractometer I had a reading of 18 Brix which was around 1.074.

I considered this good and I did not have the time to continue the boil. My refractometer is usually low so I figured the OG would actually be a little higher.

Chilled and got it into the fermenter. I actually had 1.25 gallons at an OG of 1.080. I considered that good aerated and pitched the yeast.

Only time will tell if everything worked out.

Other things I did that I did not have in the recipe was to add irish moss and yeast nutrient at 10 Minutes

 

[NTexBrewer]

I just checked my equipment profile and I had 1 quart for misc. losses. I really don't have a lot of losses so if you eliminate this value then it does two things. Less water is going into the brew pot which means I'm sparging less so my boil gravity should be a little higher and I'm hitting my fermentation volume. I will probably set it at 0.25 quarts and pay attention to this with my next brew.