You’re not including the volume contribution from the dissolved sugar. That brings the maximum efficiency under your scenario down to 78% for a no-sparge.
One thing I notice with my beers is that the malt character is often muddied by suspended yeast while they are immature, then the malt flavor really pops once the beer has dropped bright.
Also, there are such a broad range of malt flavors, but you don’t seem to be getting them from any base malt you use. Perhaps what you are looking for is that combination of malt flavor, a little sweetness and some body. If you have always mashed cool, give a high mash temperature a try. SN Celebration has a really nice malt profile, from a relatively simple malt bill, which might be augmented by the 157.5°F mash temperature they use.
I knew I was ignoring the contribution of the sugar but didn’t know it made that much difference. That makes sense and I’m getting about what I should.
Higher mash temps are on my agenda, brewing again today. Hefeweizen, will mash this hotter than usual.
I’m not sure it does make much of a difference. I get nicely malty beers, I feel, even when I make dry beers. But I think a little more sweetness or a little more body, just like a little salt, can (at the very least) change the perception of malt flavors in a way that may be the type of malt flavor you are looking for. It’s worth a try.
Rusty Hoover nailed it. Hochkurz mash is what you’re after. Not only will it make your beers maltier but it will also add an hour to your brew day! Seriously, I use this mash alot. I don’t like much residual sweetness in my beers but I live for maltyness. Here is the source; http://braukaiser.com/wiki/index.php?ti … on_Mashing
According to Kai all the German brewers use this mash to achieve the decoction maltyness without the expense and effort of a decoction. I’ve had some very fresh German Pils at the Brauhaus Snitz in Philly and have made an excellent, near identical beer using the Hochkurz mash. You control fermentability by the length of the first rest (I use 143F) and the maltyness by the 160F rest. The only problem I’ve had with an extended 160F rest is too much head retention in the final beer. In other areas of life this is a good thing. If you store your grains properly and handle your water right these two elements are not the problem.
BrauKaiser makes an important distinction about mash vs. kettle pH. Much of what you read about mash pH is somewhat confused with kettle pH. I’ve found that besides the Hochkurz mash, the critical element in cloning a German beer is kettle pH, maybe even more than the ca-so balance.
I use this mash in my favorites, English bitters. I had a Landlord clone attenuate 81% one time. I was sure this would be a thin maltless beer. It was a very good, very malty beer. I couldn’t have been more surprised.
I really advocate this mash.
I’ve done some decoctions including the Hochhurz (high early) mash. I like the results but don’t feel that it was the answer to my problems. I’ll have to investigate kettle and/or beer pH a little more, maybe those are affecting my outcome. Gordon Strong’s book had some stuff about beer pH ranges.
And its not like my beers are bad or not malty, I just get blown away by some of the better commercial examples. Bottom line, I’m jealous.
Thanks Mark. That was an interesting article. I need to read it again in depth. What should the pH of the boil be, and at what time do you check it?
This is how I feel tom. My beers are good, and most of them emphasize hops, but my English Barley wine and Belgian strongs are not as malty as they should be. I am doing a good job of getting these beers to finish dry so they are not too sweet, and storing them correctly so they don’t oxidize, but they lack that rich malt character that makes these beers so delicious.
I don’t know what the solution is for different brewers making different recipes with different systems, but I am happy that people here recognize how good some of the commercial brews are. I see a lot of posts on these forums from people who swear their homebrew puts any commercial beer of any style to shame, and maybe these guys really are that good, but I know I’m not…
