Brewing Activities (May edition)

It does add some additional time to clean the player chiller and herms coil.

 

Tossing together a recipe for a session. It is that time of year.

Anyone have one they stand by?

Mine looks a little something like 4lbs of Carafoam, 4lbs of maris otter and a splash of oats for body. Some Citra and Simcoe.

Normally just use S-05 but thinking about about taking a NEIPA hop schedule and switching the yeast, but, I feel like Burlington or the likes is just too vicious of a yeast for a session?

 

A session what?

Hopefully a typo, but I can't think of any style where an amount of carafoam equal to the amount of base malt would be a good idea. What are your goals for the beer?

 

@Kraz
Why use carafoam when also using marris otter which is darker in color than other base malts... I think it would be easier to just use pilsner or plain old “2 row” ale malt and a little c-10. In my experience it would give you better body and head retention and right around the same color. 5% of the grist wouldn’t affect color much at all. Definitely don’t need a pound let alone four if only using 4 pds of base malt.

 

@VikeMan @Prep8611 Haha definitely was a typo, I was looking at my recipe in a word doc and was thinking about adding carafoam so I had it on my mind, I split maris otter and pislen 4/4lb. It is a hoppy session ipa. My notes show 4.2% last year

 

Okay very good. Just stating that carafoam with darker malts is somewhat redundant. I pretty much only use carapils or carafoam when making light beers like cream ales and pilsners where the crystal malt will effect color negatively.

 

While I've been waiting on my festbier to clean up diacetyl, I brewed my first APA since my very first brew, which was an extract SNPA clone kit. It's hard to believe I've never taken a real crack at the style, but I've been so fixated on IPAs and session IPAs that it never really crossed my mind. This time, I went with a 50/50 split of pils and Munich, hopped exclusively with Columbus, and used WLP090 for the first time. With a malty base, WC water profile, high BU:GU ratio, a classic C hop, and a neutral, highly attenuative ale yeast, I'm hoping this cleanses my palate a bit from all of the NEIPAs out there today.

 

Beautiful! So that’s what the instructions mean when they say “pitch the resultant cream into the Fermentation vessel”.

 

Why is Carafoam with darker malts redundant? Carapils and Carafoam are also somewhat different.

 

Personally, I'm a huge fan of Munich for session beers. I did a session IPA with 100% Weyermann Munich I other than a pound each of flaked rye and CaraFoam, I think. I'd drop the CaraFoam today, as I'm not convinced it really brings anything to the table. Regardless, I was really impressed with that beer, given the 3.6% ABV. I think MO should work in a similar fashion. Don't be afraid to use it up to 100% of the grain bill, depending on how low you push the ABV. Remember, you're sort of "watering down" the resultant wort by using less grain, so it won't be as rich as you might think.

I think the bigger issue is the US-05. I'd definitely swap it out for something less attenuative and more characterful. I used 1318, but I'm sure there are many decent options, but I'd recommend an English yeast. Also, be sure to mash high. I mash at 160° for session beers.

Edit: I think Burlington would be a good choice.

 

Cause they are both dextrin malts who basically do something very similiar to crystal malts without effecting color and adding some sweetness. If you aren’t making a light colored beer I don’t see why they would be needed. I use c10 in most of my beers like pale ales and ipas cause I’m already using a base malt like marris otter or some Munich/Vienna so why do I care about a little color fromma VERY small amount of c10. Maximum 8 ounces and often 4 ounces.

 

Good discussion about that stuff, thanks.

 

Not sure I follow... CaraPils would certainly be somewhat redundant with other crystal or caramel malts in the mix, but MO is not that. Assuming his corrected recipe of 50/50 MO and pilsner malt, there is zero dextrin malt in the grist.

Definitely agree. I tasted them side-by-side at my LHBS, and CaraPils was glassy, while CaraFoam was not. I've seen an experiment online that showed CaraFoam to be a bit fermentable and even a bit diastatic while CaraPils is not. Some have suggested that CaraFoam is more like an undermodified pilsner malt, while CaraPils is basically a very light crystal malt. The confusion is due to the fact that Weyermann first marketed its version as CaraPils outside of the US, and then Briess created its own, different version and marketed it as CaraPils in the US. Weyermann was then forced to choose a new name for the US and came up with CaraFoam.

Either way, I don't think either of these malts really offer anything unique to the all grain brewer. CaraFoam may offer some extra control to those using more complicated mashed thanks to its being undermodified, but single infusion mashers probably won't see any difference. It is also said to add some additional protein, but with other protein-positive adjuncts in such common usage today, the actual use case for that reason seems less valuable. CaraPils doesn't claim to offer anything except dextrins, which I take two issues with: 1) Briess claims that it is not a caramel malt and that it is glassy because the starches have been converted to "resistant dextrines" and dried. Whether these dextrins are truly resistant to mash enzymes is beyond my level of expertise, but it sounds a bit fishy, especially since the manufacturing process used to make CaraPils is proprietary, and therefore secret. If these dextrins are, in fact, not resistant to mash enzymes, they will be broken down into fermentables like any other malt. 2) Even if it does contribute unfermentable dextrins to the final beer, all-grain brewers have a better option at their disposal to achieve that effect: increased mash temperature. In theory, extract brewers could benefit from steeping CaraPils, since they cannot control mash temperature.

Rant over. Needless to say, I don't use either malt anymore, and I don't feel my beers' mouthfeel or head retention has suffered for it. I certainly don't have all of the answers, but I know for sure that these dextrin malts are some of the most misunderstood brewing ingredients. More clarity is much needed.

 

My wife is out with her sisters, and the kids are in bed, so I’m doing a 2 1/2 gallon stove-top gose. I’m taking the lazy route and just planning to add lactic acid at bottling time to taste.