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Comment by Mike Neilson on January 18, 2009 at 11:06pm

When you are 'recirculatinf' are you adding heat to the 'recirculatinf' runnings to keep the grist at sparge temp or do you let the grist temp drop?

Comment by JoKing on January 19, 2009 at 9:31am

Depends if I can be bothered keeping the temp consistent or not. Generally if I dont, I'll lose about 2 degrees over the hour. No big deal in my book - as the conversion would have completed withing the first 20 mins. If the malt is less modified - or I have adjuncts in there, I'll go out of my way to ensure there is no temperature drop. There is more info on my blog if you are interested.

Comment by Mike Neilson on January 19, 2009 at 10:45am

Cool, no I meant during the Recirc as I would like to know If your Grist sits in the say 69 deg mark for the Lautering would this increase the unfermentables being converted?

Comment by JoKing on January 19, 2009 at 11:01am

Oh... OK. No - most of the time during recirculation, I increase the temp to around 72 - 76 degrees. Sometimes I use boiling water do do so, but if it a big beer I wont have the room in the mash tun so I gently direct heat. As far as unfermentables go: I like to think that the initial stage of the mash determines how much residual sweetness stays in the beer. I put the utmost importance on maintaining correct strike temp and consistent temps during the first 30 minutes or so in the mash. Once the iodine test is complete I'm a bit less worried about temps. But If it is too cool, the runoff will slow down.

Comment by Mike Neilson on January 19, 2009 at 11:08am

Cheers for that, my thought also but im just trying to asatain in my bigger beers, why the dont attenuate as well as would hope for.

Comment by JoKing on January 19, 2009 at 11:39am

Roger that Mike. I used to have the same issue. I simply started mashing at lower temps for the bigger beers for longer. Yeast selection is critical as well i.e. I wouldn't go near a big beer with wlp002 or wy1968. Starter size is critical too: e.g. S.G 1080 2 Litre starter with stir plate. Massive wort aeration is important too. Following these tips, my last IPA was 1.074 down to 1.012 with no added sugar.

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