Brewday - Destroyer Pilsner (40l)

Right, I'll start as I mean to go on I'm currently brewing this.



It's my second take on the CAP style, which I really enjoyed last time as did my guests. This time I'm toning down the alcohol and using Palisade and Mittelfruh hops instead of Centennial and Saaz. This time I'm brewing 40l of it too.

Grist
6Kg Pale Malt
1.5 Kg Polenta

The polenta was cereal mashed with 300g of pale malt before being boiled up and added to the rest of the grist in 15l of water giving a total mash volume that was around 18l. This was left for 90 minutes.

I then put 38l of sparge water through the grain and put it on to boil with 50g of Palisade hops (9.8%) which should give me 30 IBU give or take.

I'm going to cool the wort to 80C and then add 60g of Mittelfruh and leave for 20 minutes before banging it through the chiller and into two FV's and ferment cool with Nottingham.

I should hopefully end up with something mid fours ABV wise 1.042 -> 1.008

That looks great J_P

I'd like to try brewing this style of beer.

Is this a late night boil?

Due to finish the boil in 20 minutes. I'll recirc some of the wort through the chiller straight away to drop the temp down rather than waiting for it to come down naturally so that should speed things up a touch.

Good luck with the rest of it :)

Hope all's gone well J_P

ten minutes left to steep the hops then it's fermenter time

Job well done

Things I have learned on this brew

1) Cereal Mashes take longer to do
2) Plastic stirrers are useless when stirring 18l of mash
3) Stainless steel garden spades are not :lol:
4) Running off twice the beer takes twice as long

I have a quantity of 1.044 crystal clear wort running into fermenters now, two points over, I'll update you on final volume as soon as I know

) Stainless steel garden spades are not

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Vossy1 said:

) Stainless steel garden spades are not

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And they're shiny!

I'm still going, just running off batch two, the scallicopter (police helicopter) is hovering overhead, I hope I don't get a knock from the plod

Just tell them, "I ain't getting on no damn scallicopter fool!" and watch out if they offer you milk

:lol:

ROTFLMAO
:lol: :lol: :lol:

J_P said:

The polenta was cereal mashed with 300g of pale malt

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Could you describe this in better detail please AT? :)

I'm keen to do this as my next and first lager brew. It seems easy enough?

Err anyone heard from JP?

Perhaps he has a antisocial mashing order against him :lol:

MEB said:

J_P said:

The polenta was cereal mashed with 300g of pale malt

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Could you describe this in better detail please

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I'll do a full write up when I get home from work.

Cereal mashing is only slightly more complicated than normal mashing. Apparently it was the method German immigrants to America developed to allow them to mash large quantities of uncooked cereal in with the American Malt to dilute the malt's high nitrogen content. This method allows cereal to make up a maximum of 20% by weight of the total grist.

Cereal mashing is all about making the starch in the polenta available to the enzymes from the barley so they can be turned into maltose. It is not as simple as lobbing the polenta into the mash because the starch is all balled up and the balls stick together so the enzymes cannot get to them. The starch balls must first be separated and then unravelled, this is done in two stages.

1) Mix the polenta in a large pan with 20% by weight of barley malt and pour in warm water at the ratio of 2.5 - 3 litres per kilo of grist. Stir thoroughly and bring up to 65C the mixture will resemble thick yellow concrete. At this stage cover it and leave it for 15 - 20 minutes.

This gives the enzymes chance to turn the small starch chains that stick the balls together into malt, after this rest the mixture in the pan will have changed consistency and be runny.

2) Once the rest is complete bring the pan up to the boil making sure nothing sticks on the bottom and boil it for 20 to 30 minutes. Meanwhile prepare your main mash minus the water you've used in the cereal mash prepare it a few degrees cooler than you normally would because it will heat up when you add the polenta. This is a bit trial and error you may need hot and cold water on standby to adjust the mash temperature.

The boiling of the polenta straightens the starch chains out and allows the enzymes access to turn then into maltose and dextrins.

You can now mash as normal for your 90 minutes.

Top explanation JP

MEB said:

Could you describe this in better detail please AT? :)

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Wha?