- Brew Log
Jerry Springer
Don't Sparge to Large
J is for justification of an early bottling. I'll explain that later in this Brewlog.
Wyeast 1028 again, and the same hopping as Inger Nilsson.
The grain bill:
- 10 Pounds 2-row
- 8 Ounces Crystal
- 2 Ounces Chocolate
- 2 Ounces Black
THE MASH PROFILE
- Strike with 11 Litres @ 71° Celsius for 62° Celsius
- Rest 60 Minutes
- Decoct 1/4th for 68° Celsius
- Rest 40 Minutes
THE RESULTS
It worked!
THE FUCKUP
For a long time now I've known that my sparge water was just not hot enough. This time it was TO hot. Before I knew it, the grain bed was 80° Celsius Yikes!
OG: 1.052
Well at least I saw the results of a hotter sparge. Now the punishment begins. I transferred to secondary and gave it a taste. There was a distinct bitterness. Not that good hop bitter, but a gag me with a spoon kind of bitter, the kind you might get from eating dandelion stems or drinking a house hold cleaner. It was very faint and not quite beer killing, but it wasn't good. I'm thinking that hot sparge eventually drew some tannins out the grain.
I decided to take the opportunity to test for an attribute of fermentation that my brewing mentor has often described. The idea is that the flow of co2 out of the beer actually scrubs volatile flavors out. The more completely it ferments the cleaner the beer tastes.
I devised an experiment. From previous brews, I knew that fermentation would be terminal about one or two days after the gravity hit 1.009. I decided that I would bottle half of the batch directly into bottles at that point, and leave the other half until it finished.
This way the first bottling would self prime, and after siting for a while, any flavors scrubbed out would remain trapped in the beer.
TG: 1.008
Remarkable. The self primed beer retained the astringent flavors, while the primed beer was almost decent. Don't get me wrong, the off flavor was still present, but it could only be tasted intermittently -- faintly.
This was by no means a scientific test, but I would certainly call it anecdotal. The primed beer was better carbonated, and that may have contributed to the improvement in flavor.