Tannins?

Last night I brewed a hazelnut brown ale. It’s been a few months since I last brewed as I turned my attentions to another hobby for a while, so I was a little rusty and made some mistakes. I also haven’t done a BIAB quite this large.

While getting set up I lost my mind and was preparing for an oatmeal stout I’ll be making, and so I used a little more water than I wanted, maybe a gallon extra for 4 1/2 lbs of grains. I brought the temp up to about 165* before I added my grains, and the temp dropped to about 150* and stayed under 155* for over 1/2 an hour. I added 10 mins to my mash time, and turned the heat up from 4 to 4.5 and checked it every few mins, but just no real temp climb.

I was watching an MMA fight online and got caught up in it allowing maybe 15 mins to go by. When I checked it the temp was just about 180*!!! Yikes!!! I took it off of the heat and added cold tap water to help bring the temp back down. That took maybe 5 mins or more, and I have no idea how long it was above 175*, but I’d guess it’s safe to assume I released some tannins.

Would 10-15 mins between 175-180* release enough tannins to make it noticeable? Will adding the hazelnut extract help mask it? Time doesn’t help cases such as this either right? Not even a little?

On an aside I had figured my OG would be lower as I used too much water, but I actually got better efficiency than the default 75%. It should have been 1.054 but came out to 1.056 when adjusted +/- 1.

Tannin extraction is pretty much dependent on pH, not temp. If your pH is OK, high temps don’t matter. Think of a decoction mash…you actually boil the grain, but becasue the pH is low you don’t get tannins. Of course, it doesn’t look like you have a way to check pH.

IMO, worries of tannin extraction are WAAAYYY overblown. I wouldn’t worry about it.

As Denny said, pH is more a factor than temperature. Another factor is over-sparging. I chased that problem for several brews as I was getting used to my new system. I suggest stopping fly sparging at a gravity of about 3 Brix to avoid tannin extraction. For those of you that batch sparge, over sparging should not be an issue…or at least Denny keeps telling me that. :smiley:

Someday we’ll have to brew together on my system, Martin. I’m sure it would be a shock to you! :wink:

Appreciate it fellas!