Another new year and trying something different.

[berryman]

Last year the first brew of the year was a NEIPA, it came out very tasty, BUT learned how oxidation can affect that style fast. This first brew of this year is going to be a smoked Scottish Heavy. Going to push my M&B to the upper limits. Going to use a kit on this as I have never made that style before. https://www.morebeer.com/products/smoke ... llons.html
1} For you M&B users, you think I can stuff 19lbs of grain in it? I have done 17 and had some room left but was close.
2} Thinking I should mash @154-156, would that be too high for the style?
Using WLP028 Edinburgh and going to do a 2 L starter. I have some more questions, but enough for one post.

[mashani]

BIAB with 5 gallon target post boil (NOT 5 gallons out of your fermenter when done - just 5 gallons going in) with 0.5 kettle trub / 0.5 boiloff (which is M&B in a nutshell), would require 8.5 gallons of volume to fit that grain and the water required. MAYBE it will fit with a thicker mash, but I think it might not because the grain basket has less volume then the real volume of the M&B. If nothing else you would be really pushing sanity levels when it comes to spilling stuff over the sides. You could say the M&B is 0.25 kettle trub if you are willing to tip it and get break material in the fermenter and push it a bit more by doing that.

I think maybe you should do a reiterated mash, IE mash 1/2 of it treating that a 3 gallon batch, then pull the basket and dump the grains, then put the basket back in, add the other half of the grain and more water as required, mash that, and then the result would be your wort. If you have room to sparge then do so to gain some efficiency. You could perhaps sparge into a separate bucket between the mashes, and then after both are pulled add it into the boil. If it doesn't all fit, then boil longer, and add more during the boil. A very long boil is actually good for that style of beer anyways.

Would make for a longer brew day obviously, but it would work.

[berryman]

Just ordered it to today so have a few days to come up with my game plan.

[mashani]

Just ordered it to today so have a few days to come up with my game plan.

Honestly if I was to do it, I'll pull out some of the base malt and save it for another batch, and replace it with some DME later once the mash was over with. Especially in a beer like this where a longer boil is going to create maliard reaction byproducts anyways and where they actually belong in the beer... any maliard reaction flavors from the DME concentration process won't be something noticeable as "off" like they would potentially be in something like a pilsner.

I'm sure there are people who would poo-poo on that idea and claim they could taste the difference of 2-3# of malt replaced by DME, but I think if blind tasting in this kind of beer they would be wrong.

[Beer-lord]

I agree with mashani, if the M&B say 16 is max, why take a chance. No way would you notice 2 lbs of DME. In fact, I wouldn't doubt if you'd get better efficiency than trying to fit 3 more lbs of grain.

[MadBrewer]

A spin off of what Mashani said, maybe you could split the grain bill as best you can (I don't know if the grains come packaged separately or all together) into two mashes. After the first mash, transfer that wort over to a kettle and boil it down for a bit, while the 2nd mash is taking place or just hold it to combine back into the M&B after the 2nd mash is done and go from there. Like mentioned, the longer boil is common of the style anyway and could help with the flavor complexity. If you recirculate the mash (I think you mentioned you do not usually use your pump) you could probably go no sparge with both mashes because they will be smaller but yet gain some efficiency...I average 75% plus with full volume no sparge, recirculating with my RoboBrew...just for comparison.

[berryman]

A spin off of what Mashani said, maybe you could split the grain bill as best you can (I don't know if the grains come packaged separately or all together) into two mashes. After the first mash, transfer that wort over to a kettle and boil it down for a bit, while the 2nd mash is taking place or just hold it to combine back into the M&B after the 2nd mash is done and go from there. Like mentioned, the longer boil is common of the style anyway and could help with the flavor complexity.

I think I got a plan, going to do a reiterated mash as in splitting and doing 2 10lb mashes. Even though I think could do the whole thing, but not might be a good deal. I got my old propane burner out today and cleaned up and I have a 8 gal. MegaPot. As both mash and beerlord pointed out. could cut the base grains and add some DME, basically what I was doing before I got the M&B and wouldn't have a problem doing that and good idea except I only got enough DME to do a starter and my LHBS has only been open on and off during this covid deal. Going to sparge to 4 gal on each and then boil down to 6.5 for the hop start. should be plenty of boil time. going to be a long brewday...............

[berryman]

Got both pots going today, almost like brewing 2 batches at once.





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[berryman]

What I did right or wrong and will see, all night mash full volume with 7 lbs base grain. I over shot my volume by a little and pumped into my old brewing pot. cleaned things up quick in the morning and did the rest the way have been brewing with a 90 min. mash and sparge. combined some and boiled down to fit in the M&B. 1.085 5.5 in the fermeter and @68 deg. I think it's looking good but more work then I like to do. Will update on the next step.

[MadBrewer]

This thread had me thinking about my session Saturday night. First batch of the year was a rebrew of the Imperial Stout I did last January. I had my RoboBrew maxed out with about 16 lbs of grain and almost 6 gals of water to start. This mash was so thick, I could barely run the pump enough to recirculate. I made the mistake of doubling up my screens at the bottom of my malt pipe, thought I might get a little better filtering...well I didn't because it was hard to get any liquid to run through that thick of a grain bed and then the double screens...so lesson learned on that.

I ended up having to dump my mash into a bucket, remove the extra screen and get the mash going again. Even then, things were much slower than I would have liked, there was also Wheat and Flaked Barley in this recipe so some rice hulls would also have been good.

I was able to runoff into my boil kettle and get what I wanted out of it for the most part. I was about .25 gal short on pre-boil volume but it is was it is. I then batch sparged the grains to get the 2nd runnings. I had about 3 gals at 1.053 to make something more of a Porter from that. I was also a little short of that pre-boil volume, but just went with it.

All in all, a lot of work like you said Berryman and not something I do regularly but I did end up with what I wanted for both batches at the end of the boil...hit 1.100 OG on the Imperial Stout and 1.060 for the "Porter". I was tired by the end of the night, it was a late one. Had a couple friends over, so between that, getting a pizza, sharring some pours, taking my time with it and relaxing...it made for a long session.

Cheers to the first batch of the year and hope its a great one.

[berryman]

A spin off of what Mashani said, maybe you could split the grain bill as best you can (I don't know if the grains come packaged separately or all together) into two mashes.

That is the reason I changed my plan a little again after I got the supplies. The 2 row was in a 10 lb, 5 lb and 2, 1lb bags. So I went with 7 to try a all night mash for the first time. The second Mash was a touch over 12 lbs and right in where I do the best. Good thing bigger beers aren't my favorite because couldn't do a 5 gal. on the M&B without doing something like the way I did.

[mashani]

Good thing bigger beers aren't my favorite because couldn't do a 5 gal. on the M&B without doing something like the way I did.

Well you could do it all as one mash, but you would have to use DME to add the extra OG you want. So technically not AG, but it would be the easiest way and it's how I would do it in that case and I doubt anyone would know the difference blind tasting it in a beer that big.

Luckily in my case almost any beer I would brew that big is a Belgian like a Quad. And that would have 2# of sugar in it added during the boil so no weenie on some other forum can say it's "cheating" because it's supposed to be in there to do it right.

[berryman]

Going to say a bad word in the brewing world. Secondary, 11 days in the primary transferred to a secondary on soaked oak chips. Will let set for a while before I keg.

[berryman]

Kegged this today after a week cold crash and gelatin. 1.019. I sampled about a 1/2 cup of it and really smooth for a 1.085 beer.



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