Hi Guys,
I ususlly brew with a base malt of 5-7 EBC which works well with a 60 minute boil. I just got this minch pale ale malt which is 3.6 EBC.
My questions are:
1) Must I do a 90 minute boild as the EBC is nearly as low as a pilsner malt.
2) Is there an EBC cut-off point above which a 60 minute boil will suffice?
The proof will be in the pudding as I just did a brew with a 60 minute boil without considering the risk of nasty volatiles.
I presume I'm not the only one who couldn't resist a 25kg bag of malt for 20 squids!
I'm going to order one later. €20 is great value. Let us know how the 60 minute boil tastes. TBH I'll probably still do a 90 minute boil to be safe.
got a bag last week and never thought about the boil lenght
Just bought some of this myself for a brew next week.
Apparently its down to the kilning process of lager malt, its at lower temps so theres more DMS to drive off, so a longer boil is needed.
On HBC site they have two kinds of Minch malt, the pale ale (3.6EBC) and Pislner/Lager malt (3 EBC).
Maybe even though the colours are similar the pale ale is suitable for a regular 60min boil?
I'm using this stuff tomorrow in a session IPA. I think I'll err on the side of caution and go for a 90 minute boil
This malt is produced for Diageo so I would be surprised that they would allow a spec acceptance for 90 minutes as this is more energy thus more cost. An email to them or the supplier would clarify this :).
Sorry for bringing this up again but did anyone find out/make a decision whether a 60 minute boil is fine?
Ive used the minch lager malt for my last 3 brews with 60 min boils and they're all fine
Quote from: LordEoin on September 02, 2015, 09:13:58 PM
Ive used the minch lager malt for my last 3 brews with 60 min boils and they're all fine
I'll give the pale a go then :)
Ordered
According to Beersmith and some colour convertors American 2-row is about 3.8 and I rarely did a 90 minute boil when I used that
Has anyone done up a beersmith profile for all of the Minch malts? It would be really handy
Please do share once you have it completed Rukkus :)
I've used it a few times based on Mr Murphys recs and yields are good.
Colour is specified as 4-6 which I know is pretty big, but I just used Thomas Fawcett PA profile and it was fine
Thanks for all the feedback and opinions. Much appreciated.
I did 60 min boils for all my ales and they turned out very well.
Anybody finding this malt over attenuates, i find i m hitting my numbers on on og but fg seems to be ending up 6 to 10 points lower than expected. I had been blaming the yeast but this is third brew this has happened on, i mashed high on last brew for full body but worried that attenuation going to destroy any sweetness i was hoping for.
What yeast are you using and under what conditions?
I used mangrove jacks workhorse on one and a mj Belgian on another (i d expect that one to finish pretty low). Last time i used wlp001 without a starter and it had a long lag time which won't help the beer but its down to 1008 when i was aiming for 1014. Its fermenting in the hall which is about 17 degrees. Beersmith suggested a 45 minute mash but i gave it an hour well maybe a little longer as i tried to get my sparge water up to the right temp.
Can malt variety effect attenuation?
I didn't think it would myself but a bit if googling found the following
grain bill composition (base malt): mashes rich in enzymes, i.e. high diastatic power, (Pilsner malt, Pale malt) will produce more fermentable worts since they contain a lager amount of beta-amylase and limit dextrinase which can produce more maltose than mashes with lower diastatic power (Munich malt or large amounts of unmalted grains) assuming the same saccharification rest temperature.
the ebc of the minch pale ale malt is very low so possibly more fermentable i guess!
Not only does variety change the attenuation limit but variations in batches of the same variety will change the attenuation limit also.
When I was brewing the stand times were adjusted regularly to maintain the desired attenuation limit. If the limit went up (eg if we were aiming at for example 1.012 and final gravities were rising to 1.014) the stand times were increased in order to reduce it. Another issue was in Sept/Oct each year when the new seasons malt came in, lots of trials were carried out in the pilot brewery to give a guideline on stand times before brewing on the bigger plant. The new seasons malt would be introduced gradually to minimise variation in the final product.
That makes sense to use a pilot plant to check malts.
Makes sense given so many variables in growing grain, amount of sunlight, rainfall, when these occur in the lifecycle etc., you d expect there to be some indication in pre boil gravity, starting gravity etc. But i guess brewing in theory is a very complex process even if in reality for us its relatively straight forward.
when you talk about stand time i m guessing you mean mash time? I ve heard of people who leave the mash run overnight, this must absolutely maximise their attenuation, with the Belgian blonde that's useful as your flavour is from your yeast, but wouldn't be great in a bitter i d imagine. Thanks for the responses another factor to take seriously i think, must be tricky for the breweries to manage.
Just wanted to throw my two cents in here on the attenuation.
I finish with quiet a low FG compared to what beersmith suggests and I use the Minch malt always, cos its cheaper and Irish.
I suppose the question is, is there anything wrong with it finishing low if you factor it into your calcs?
As long as you know what you are going to get all you can factor it in to you calculations.
I have being using Minch malt for the last few months and have found it very consistent. Fresh and hits my numbers each time.
I generally boil for 90 mins so I cant comment on shorter boil times.
Happy with the price and going by the ale malt I've being using i plan on trying the rest of the range.