Someone either confirm that this is an ambiguous description that makes little to no sense or shed some light on how they actually do it. Green flash makes some very tasty beers.
[quote=“Turkeygecko”]Come on… 55 views and zero replies?
Someone either confirm that this is an ambiguous description that makes little to no sense or shed some light on how they actually do it. Green flash makes some very tasty beers.[/quote]
The link information says that they use an exclusive process so why would you think that we would know what it is? There are breweries who do a lot of different things with their ingredients and their processes and homebrewers aren’t necessarily going to know. Factor in the fact that some of these breweries are just using some marketing skill to make people think that their beer is unparalleled so that it will sell better. What it says is that they FWH their first runnings and then sparge with that (and probably straight water afterwards) and that’s their process. Some breweries add hops directly to the mash. Some breweries boil and then at flameout they lower the temp about 35° and stop the cooling, add hops and whirlpool for 10-15 minutes and then continue to cool. This is supposed to bring really nice, ass-kicking hop character to the beer. Lots of variables here and we’re not necessarily privileged to all of it.
That little blurb is indeed somewhat confusing. It would seem to me that running hopped wort through the mash tun would just diminish the hop character, not intensify it, so I don’t know about that idea. And I don’t really understand the idea of running caramelized wort through the mash tun either…maybe for something malty like a Schotch ale, but not a hoppy beer. It sounds like they’re just trying to be clever and overcomplicating the process instead of just using more traditional methods that work better, like just using more hops in the kettle to intensify the hop character, and just boiling the wort longer to intensify the malt flavor. I have used hops in the mash tun on more than one occasion, though, and I do believe that it definitely does help round out the hop character, so I don’t question that method. All that having been said, in all fairness I have never tried the beer in question, nor have I ever even heard of it, so I certainly can’t say with any degree of authority if their unorthodox methods pay dividends or not. If I ever see it around where I live, I’ll have to give it a shot because I am fairly intrigued.
Not sure what you mean there. I think they’re referring to the caramelization of malt sugar in the brew kettle, which definitely does happen, or at least it can if the boil is conducted for a sufficiently long time with enough heat to really reduce the wort a lot.
[quote=“deliusism1”]I think they’re referring to the caramelization of malt sugar in the brew kettle, which definitely does happen, or at least it can if the boil is conducted for a sufficiently long time with enough heat to really reduce the wort a lot.[/quote]You get maillard reaction products from a long and/or concentrated boil, but it’s not actually caramelization. It’s a commonly used term, but it’s not accurate.
Not necessarily. When you’re talking about a large quantity of wort, I would agree with what you’re saying. But when you’re talking about a very small quantity of wort that has a pretty high proportion of malt sugar to begin with, and you boil it down to the point where it’s really thick, there’s definitely a high enough proportion of maltose to water for some caramelization to occur. Not necessarily a huge amount, but at least a little.
