Astringency

T

Tim-CPA

New Forum Member
Joined
Jan 12, 2025
Messages
6
Reaction score
3
I am new to this forum. I have been brewing since 1993. I started all grain in 2004 with a MoreBeer 3-tier 10 gal brew sculpture.

My beers are often judged to be astringent - like, every score sheet mentions astringency. It doesn't matter the style. I don't make extremely hoppy beers, so hops may not be an issue.

I mash at 150*. My brew sculpture has a pump that circulates the wort through a copper coil immersed in the hot sparge water kettle, then back in to the mash tun. The sparge water is temp controlled at 163-165*. I have the pump running continuously for 60-90 min of the mash.

When mashing is complete, I reconfigure the hoses so the MT drains in to the brew kettle, and the pump pulls from the sparge water up to the top of the mash - fly sparge. I let the MT drain slowly. (The system has a float sensor so the MT doesn't over fill while sparging.) I will collect approx. 12 gal in the kettle. This is usually a gallon of water remaining in the grain.

My question: Is running the recirculation for the entire mash causing/contributing to the astringency?

I have a Barley Crusher 3 roller mill.

Thanks in advance.
 
Welcome Tim!

Astringency is most often caused by your mash pH being too high. It can also be exacerbated by over sparging, but that is also linked to higher pH.


Are you measuring your mash pH? When do you measure it? Do you chill down the sample to room temperature before measuring it?

That is where I would recommend starting to diagnose the issue.
 
I have not measure the pH. I am afraid to go down the water testing rabbit hole.

Am I sparging too much? I have measured gravity during the late sparge run off. I just run off wort until I get ~12 gal in the BK.

(Correction: I have a MonsterMill 3 roller. The old one was a barley crusher.)
 
Your astringency could be from a number of things. Mash PH as Oginme suggest is one. You touched on another which is over sparging. Also how hot is your sparge water? While tannin extraction is mainly associated with PH it can also come from sparge water that is too hot. The generally recommendation 168° but when I fly sparge I just use the same temp that I was mashing with. I also will stop fly sparging before I get to 1.010 whether I've hit my volume or not. Milling your grains too finely is also another oft cited contributor to astringency.
 
Thanks. My sparge water is ~165*.

I guess I will try measuring pH. Also, I will try to measure gravity during the sparge.
 
Diving into the world of water additions does not need to be difficult. Understanding your base water is the most important key. If your water pH is too high and the mineral content buffers it up, it will be hard to get your mash pH in the best region for efficiency and to avoid extraction of tannins.

Most of the time, tannin extraction from over sparging is related to the pH of the sparge water in addition to the temperature as Kevin58 has pointed out. The other issue with over sparging is the extraction of silicates from the barley husks. This will add to beer haze as the Orthosilicic acid is very soluble (but also good for your bones), more so than a noticable flavor impact.

A touch of Phosphoric acid to get the sparge water pH down to the 4.5 to 5 region would be sufficient to minimize tannin extraction.
 
Continuous recirculation could lead to excessive tannin subway surfers extraction, especially if your pH or temperature drifts out of the optimal range. Tannins are extracted more readily at higher temperatures and higher pH.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top