Mashup, beyond style

I brewed yesterday, marking the second session where I've used a minimash for the grains. I've been thinking about this batch for weeks now, and reading about Trappist beer. I decided to leave aside any consideration of style and just attempt to brew a big, flavorful ale with modest hop levels. I think it went just right.

I stopped by the brew store on Saturday, where I got some Trappist yeast, Tettnanger hops, 2-row malt, plus a small amount of Belgian Special B malt, which supposedly had a "raisiny" flavor. I tasted some at home, and sure enough, raisiny. I also grabbed 6 pounds of dried extract, which makes up about 60% of the gravity for the batch. When I got home, I added the yeast to the quart of wort I had whipped up that morning as a starter. I wasn't able to find a spot in the kitchen that stayed above 70 degrees, so I'm not sure the starter really did much good, but I don't think it hurt, either.

Sunday, I woke up and started the water going for the mash. I got it up to 170 degrees and added the malt. I should have added the grains at a lower temperature, I think, because the temp didn't drop fast enough, and I ended up adding some more cold water to get it back below 160. Once I got things regulated, I was able to keep the mash in the oven at a pretty stable 150-152 degrees. It was probably stabilized like that for 45 minutes out of the 60-minute mash. I don't think it ever got below 150. I sparged using my big bottling bucket and a grain bag with about 3 quarts of 170 degree water, giving me just about 2 gallons of hot sweet wort at 1.065 specific gravity.

All that must have been the way to do it, because as I calculate it, my mash efficiency was about 73%, not too shabby if you ask me. I don't see any reason I couldn't scale this up. Next time I'll go about 50/50 grain/extract and see what happens, I think.

For the boil, I got the wort up to rolling, then added 1/2 ounce Chinook hops from my back yard, then added all 6 pounds of extract. After 30 minutes I added 2 ounces of Tettnanger hops (which smelled great, very spicy and aromatic, not as sharp and floral as the chinook). After the 60 minute boil, the wort was very thick and sticky. I added it to the carboy, which had a gallon of nice cold water in it (the cold weather is good for something I guess), then topped it up with more cold water. I drew off a tube of wort with the thief after agitating and aerating it, spun the hydrometer, and the damn thing nearly poked my eye out! At 82 degrees, I was getting a reading of 1.087, which, adjusted for temperature, gives me a gravity of 1.090 or better! Holy Crap, I said.

I pitched the yeast at a high-ish temperature, about 76 degrees, and got it all set up to ferment. When I looked this morning, the surface of the beer is starting to fog up, getting ready to foam in earnest.

This was, by far, the most successful brewing session I've ever had. It was great to see such a consistent result in terms of mash efficiency (it was about73% last time, too), especially since the method I'm using is so simple and easy. I think that I could probably use the same method to brew all-grain, if I wanted to make something a bit less potent. I'll have to step up the volume and see what effect it has. It might be harder to maintain temperature, and it definitely will take longer to cool. Seems like it will be worth it, though.