• Welcome to the new forum! We upgraded our forum software with a host of new boards, capabilities and features. It is also more secure.
    Jump in and join the conversation! You can learn more about the upgrade and new features here.

adjunct pilsner

Maine Homebrewer

Grandmaster Brewer
Joined
May 9, 2008
Messages
1,371
Reaction score
0
Location
Maine (USA)
Making a beer with a ton of flavor is easy.  This balanced adjunct pilsner thing ain't easy.  Now that my basement is cold enough, it's time to try again.

Saturday's batch consisted of 4# each 6-row and flaked maize, 2# pils, 12oz wheat berries and 1oz rice hulls. 
Mashed low. Left it a 145F to do some errands.  Three hours later it was 140F and passed an iodine test.
Did the usual decoction mash out and sparge.
Hopped with three doses, each of .25oz Saaz at 60, 45 and 30. Plan to add another .25 oz to the secondary.

Gravity was 1.058 @ 5.5g. More than expected*.

Tasted the contents of the hydrometer jar and it was good.  The wheat was more pronounced than expected.  Hops were there without being assertive.

Racked the primary (only got one) to make room for the new batch, and saved some of the Saflager S-23 laden sludge. Pitched into the aerated wort and it took off immediately.

Last I checked it was fermenting vigorously at 50 degrees while the batch I racked sits next to it at 47. 

This one is going to be good.

*(I've been fiddling with my Corona mill. Those things do the job, but they suck.  Finding the happy spot where you get good efficiency without a stuck sparge isn't easy. Last batch stuck. This one overshot but didn't stick. Barely. If you're thinking of getting something to grind your grain, get something with rollers.)
 
Maine Homebrewer said:
*(I've been fiddling with my Corona mill. Those things do the job, but they suck.  Finding the happy spot where you get good efficiency without a stuck sparge isn't easy. Last batch stuck. This one overshot but didn't stick. Barely. If you're thinking of getting something to grind your grain, get something with rollers.)

Why not go the slightly finer setting (that might stick) and just add 3/4 lbs of rice hulls for insurance? 
 
Sounds tasty. 

What's your MLT setup?  I have a square cooler with copper manifold.  It's slotted and I turn it upside down so they face the bottom of the cooler.  I've done 70% rye and 60% wheat beers w/o rice hulls and never had a stuck sparge with this setup. 

Mark
 
Maine Homebrewer said:
Last I checked it was fermenting vigorously at 150 degrees while the batch I racked sits next to it at 147. 

I hope that you meant 50 and 47, respectively.  Otherwise, you've got some UBERyeast!  ;D :eek: 8) :p
 
Why not go the slightly finer setting (that might stick) and just add 3/4 lbs of rice hulls for insurance? 
I've had it dialed in before. It just got out of whack and I over compensated.

I hope that you meant 50 and 47, respectively.
Fixed. Oops.

What's your MLT setup?
Two buckets, the inner one with a ton of holes drilled into it. With all that dead space I've got to be careful about things getting stuck. Someday I'll break down and buy a 10g cooler with a false bottom, but until then I'll make do with what I've got.
 
I Like the Ice cube cooler WAAAAAY better than the 10g cooler setup.  The round coolers are more susceptible to getting stuck because they make a deeper grain bed.

I have a 48 qt Ice Cube because its bottom is perfectly flat, my round 5g cooler false bottom fits perfectly.  The 60 qt bottom has a "ramp" that makes using a false bottom difficult.  I can't remember if you fly-sparge or batch sparge.  If you are fly sparge type, then you'd want a manifold for a square cooler, instead of the round false bottom. 

 
Tom, I have the exact same cooler.  I paid all of $2.49 for it since Amazon gave me $30 credit when signing up for an Amazon Visa card.  :) 

Mark
 
Back
Top