The CO2 adds bitterness, I remember years ago in a science lesson it being explained that's why fizzy drinks had so much sugar in them to mask the bitterness. It is sadly also why some people let their full sugar fizzy drinks go flat before drinking so they taste sweeter - according to a dentist friend it is quite a widespread thing to do in Scotland
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Hmm v interesting, using a spray to increase evaporation or on a film surface is a really interesting idea. It does though mean the LME will have lots of oxygen dissolved in it. I'm not aiming to make true LME/DME, so this is an interesting idea of cooling using evaporation rather than a chiller. I can see an @The-Engineer-That-Brews / @Hazelwood Brewery type solution to this with a pipe with holes in it letting the liquid run down a plastic sheet, though sanitising that might be a bit of a challenge.
I'm planning something that sounds a bit daft
So although I do like all the planning and thinking around recipes, when it comes to putting on a quick beer or cider for my eldest son/daughter or simply to hold in stock.. kits are pretty good and low stress. I now have some MJ kits courtesy of another thread about a store discounting its stock. Problem is I'd forgotten these need malt extract. Now I'm really not on for paying lots to purchase malt extract when I can just as easily do a mash and make my own. It doesn't need to be as concentrated as LME since that gets diluted anyway, but I am wondering about making some basic stock wort for the kits and freezing some of it for use as required. So the questions are:
- How thick can I make my mash before efficiency starts to drop off - ie, what's the lowest practical water to grist ratio?
- With a boil the amount boiled off per hour will reduce as the wort thickens and the boiling point will increase.. how hot would be too hot and risk Maillard reactions?
- Am I being daft and should just 'woman up' and pay to buy some DME?
From looking into this a bit it looks like the boiling point isn't really a problem since the concentrations aren't going to be close to 60% of sugars which is when it really starts to increase the boil temp required. This just appeals as something to tack on to a brewday to make some almost LME.
Anna
My mother gave me a food dehydrator/evaporator one year for Christmas and sadly enough it's not been used that often - I have used it to make onion powder though. I'm thinking of a spiral half flat pipe feeding through the levels top to bottom ... either that or I make it simple and do a relatively inefficient thick mash with an hour's boil to achieve the same thing with much less fuss!
... I know I know.... shiny toys 
and all that . I had planned on getting a grain mill and had purchased a cheap one through Vevor - that was before reading about them being a skilled scam site then receiving an email saying they actually didn't have it in stock, offered to send me something else or I could wait till August and try then.... so paypal dispute opened to require a refund, resolved nicely within 24 hours, which was a huge relief, full refund.
Oh dear, Monday madness, managed to buy a grainfather electric grain mill today
So then ruined the idea of a cheap grain mill by buying one of these:
Wondering if I should offer grain milling to anyone local, what's interesting about this is the grind wheel set up with larger diameter milled wheels, which by the looks of it really cuts down on the amount of fine flour generated. I've also arranged to collect a 25 kg bag of both Pop's pale and Lucky's larger malt from the Crafty Maltsters, and this time will take it as uncrushed grain which should really simplify storing it.
Anna
I'm awful, genuinely awful... total weakness for elegantly designed shiny equipment - (No surprise we are an Apple computer household thenI’ll bet you’re already looking for the next gadget!
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You’re in good company here, this is the church of shiny worship!I'm awful, genuinely awful... total weakness for elegantly designed shiny equipment - (No surprise we are an Apple computer household then
Feeling a wee bit embarrassed by this one I have to admit.
Phew .... well done you. One of the reasons I always use PayPal if I possibly can
The video shows it munching through the grain at rather high speed and since it's motorised the hopper is essentially tokenistic as you pour the grain in. One of the things that appealed was that it was really compact and I wasn't keen on the large hoppers with the standard mills. I guess I'll find out next weekend
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The video shows it munching through the grain at rather high speed and since it's motorised the hopper is essentially tokenistic as you pour the grain in. One of the things that appealed was that it was really compact and I wasn't keen on the large hoppers with the standard mills. I guess I'll find out next weekend
EDIT - just twigged to the idea of using a cut down water bottle on the top - hmmm that's a really clever idea actually.
Oh dear, Monday madness, managed to buy a grainfather electric grain mill today
So then ruined the idea of a cheap grain mill by buying one of these:
Wondering if I should offer grain milling to anyone local, what's interesting about this is the grind wheel set up with larger diameter milled wheels, which by the looks of it really cuts down on the amount of fine flour generated. I've also arranged to collect a 25 kg bag of both Pop's pale and Lucky's larger malt from the Crafty Maltsters, and this time will take it as uncrushed grain which should really simplify storing it.
Anna
