Kiki

Everything I thought I knew, was wrong

K is for K'Nowlage. Something I have difficulty with, but I'm not the only one... Did you know that when Disney dubbed and re-released Majo no takkyűbin, AKA Kiki's Delivery Service in North America, a bunch of religious nut jobs boycotted the film because it involved "witchcraft". The Bible contains more instances of magic use than the Lord of The Rings (and I know this for a fact having read both books), but these people insist on special treatment. It's exactly the same mentality that possessed those ass holes who managed to get prohibition on the books. People who want everyone else to do things their way. If the government can be convinced to use guns to force everyone to comply, so much the better.

In the case of Kiki's Delivery Service, the boycott had no effect as religious maniacs don't watch movies anyway... except in the hopes of seeing something that offends them.

The irony is that -- to a mentaly healthy, well adjusted person -- Kiki's Delivery Service is just about the most inofensive film ever made.

The film is so G-Rated you could brush your teeth with it. You could eat off the VHS, and prepare a yeast culture on the DVD. So what if Kiki is a witch, and she rides a broom stick? Good for her! I can't fucken do that! I can't even drive a fucken car!

...How is this all relevant to Homebrewing? Well it's somewhat relevant in that Homebrewing represents the highest level of self reliance, and responsibility. We endeavor to make our own beer, and we must live with our mistakes. Also when you have that much beer on hand, drinking responsibly takes on a new importance.

I doubt any Homebrewer tries to force others to brew the way they do. Sure we might have arguments, but that's different.

...Actually the truth is, I'm just in a bad mood, and I'll explain why.

In a conversation with my brewing mentor, I realized that I've been mashing under a rather bad assumption.

60° Celsius - 62° Celsius is not a good beta rest. Why? Well if beta-amylase starts to denature after 65° Celsius, then 64° Celsius would represent rapid conversion, where as 60° Celsius would be a comparative snails pace. Above 65° Celsius and beta is still working. Denaturing is not instantaneous in the case of alpha or beta. In fact they are more or less always at work.

In mashing we are simply cramming an entire years worth of starch conversion into an hour or so. More over, if that starch has hardly started gelatinizing because the temperature is so low, then what good is a beta rest? Sure all the individual beta-amylase molecules are in good health, but they can't do there work because most of the starch molecules are still dragging there asses out of crystallized form.

This leads to the next revelation. It's OK to overshoot the temperature of the second step. Often I've had a brief overshoot that cooled rapidly. I've wondered why my attenuation is still generally good, because I previously assumed that this overshoot was killing off the beta. It was, but not nearly as much as I thought.

I'm no chemist, but I think it's fair to assume that a crystal structure will melt faster than an enzyme can float around in water, grab a polysaccharide, break the polysaccharide down into monosaccharides, then fall apart due to over heating.

Likely I'm still mixed up a little, but I'll see what I can do about it. Really what have I got to complain about? The beer still tastes great. (mostly)

So, yeah... I just remembered that this is a Brewlog, not a Rantlog

...The grain bill:

10 Pounds 2-row
8 Ounces Crystal
2 Ounces Chocolate
2 Ounces Black

Same hopping and yeast as Jerry Springer.

THE MASH PROFILE

(This is where I try try something different)

Strike with 11 Litres @ 73° Celsius for 64° Celsius
Rest for 40 Minutes
Decoct 1/3 and add back for 68° Celsius
Rest for 30 Minutes

THE RESULTS

I experienced my usual roller coaster of mixed success. The temperature shot up to 70° Celsius for about 5 Minutes, then fell to 64° Celsius.

I redid the math, pulled a second 1/4th decoction, and hit my target spot on. There is a mystery here. Something is going on, and I'm determined to figure out what.

In the mean time...

OG: unknown... I forgot to check! I can't remember what distracted me, possibly the wort chiller pissing me off again. On the transfer to secondary the MG was 1.010. According to my records, that's average, so the OG was probably something reasonable such as 1.044 or 1.050.

TG:1.006 (either the OG was very low, or the attenuation was very high)

Whatever the difficulties, my friends think this is the best brew yet.