BrockOhopter Posted April 28, 2012 Share Posted April 28, 2012 Hey guys. I just put down an Amber Ale, my first time using specialty grains. I think I might have stuffed up. I steeped the cracked grains for 30 mins @ 68deg. C, then added to my FV with BE2, then can of Real ale, without boiling first. I want to know what detrimental effect this blunder will have on my brew. [crying] I was really excited about the recepie too: 1 x Coopers Real Ale can 1 Kg coopers BE2 300g Choc malt 50g Crystal malt Dry hopped with 25g Centennial (7.7%) Coopers ale yeast OG 1.034 23L Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PhilboBaggins Posted April 28, 2012 Share Posted April 28, 2012 Hi Brock. I've done a few brews with specialty grains, and the reason that I've done a boil is mainly to kill any bugs which may be in the grain, as 68c will not be nearly hot enough to kill them off. More experienced members will probably be able to give you other reasons to boil, but this is mine. It may be okay mate, so don't tip it!!! Good luck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Otto Von Blotto Posted April 28, 2012 Share Posted April 28, 2012 That's interesting the percentage on the Centennial there.. I just bought a 90g packet from Craftbrewer the other day and it says 10.5% on that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrockOhopter Posted April 28, 2012 Author Share Posted April 28, 2012 Kelsey, I got my Centennial from Brew cellar, The brand on the pack is Ellerslie hop. 100 g pack. My brew is fermenting quite nicely, so that's something.. Thanks Phil, still not confident of a healthy beer in the end! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PhilboBaggins Posted April 28, 2012 Share Posted April 28, 2012 Mate, I've had brews before where everything that could go wrong, did go wrong, and you know what? I've only had a brew go bad once, and it was one of the times where I swear everything went well. Taste it when you take your hydrometer readings and if it tastes even remotely like beer, chances are it is!! [biggrin] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GrahamB8 Posted April 28, 2012 Share Posted April 28, 2012 Been there done that, Googled the hell out of it which just gave me nightmares .... Beer was fine [cool] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Otto Von Blotto Posted April 28, 2012 Share Posted April 28, 2012 I just did exactly the same thing, with almost exactly the same recipe, the only real difference was that I didn't use choc malt and I used 300g crystal, dry hopped 10-12g EKG (all I had left). I didn't boil the resultant liquid from the crystal steeping although I did put 2 litres of boiling water on top of it in the FV. I will taste it tomorrow when I do a gravity reading but it smelled fine when I dry hopped it on Wednesday. Cheers, Kelsey Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Damien E1 Posted April 29, 2012 Share Posted April 29, 2012 Hey guys. I just put down an Amber Ale, my first time using specialty grains. I think I might have stuffed up. I steeped the cracked grains for 30 mins @ 68deg. C, then added to my FV with BE2, then can of Real ale, without boiling first. I want to know what detrimental effect this blunder will have on my brew. [crying] I was really excited about the recepie too: 1 x Coopers Real Ale can 1 Kg coopers BE2 300g Choc malt 50g Crystal malt Dry hopped with 25g Centennial (7.7%) Coopers ale yeast OG 1.034 23L I can't see how that could possibly create any problems. 68 degrees is more than enough to kill almost all of whatever bacteria may be in there. Boiling will kill even more, but still won't kill any spores so it doesn't make any real difference. 68 degrees is much hotter than dishwashing water will be for example, and I bet you never worry about that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Damien E1 Posted April 29, 2012 Share Posted April 29, 2012 Incidentally your OG looks rather low for the posted recipe. Are you sure it wasn't 1044? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted April 30, 2012 Share Posted April 30, 2012 Boiling the liquid after is to kill off anything in there that shouldn't be. Having someone say that 68C is hotter than dish water so it should be ok because you have no problems with your dishes is rediculous! Bacteria on a plate does no harm to you as a person. However, I dare you to put said dishes in your brew and see if you get an infection. Chances are very high you will! 68C does not kill most bacteria, it will kill some. There is bacteria that can survive hotter temps than this. Now back to the OP question...... You may not have any problems with regards to the not boiling issue, but you could do. It is a chance you have to take now as the job is done. If it is any consulation, there has been a couple of times I haven't boiled and I had no probs. You just need be aware that if there is an infection then it could be highly possible that this was the cause. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted April 30, 2012 Share Posted April 30, 2012 With regards to the AA % on the Centennial being different, it changes every crop. Depending which year the crop is taken from and I believe 2011 crop is 12.7% AA. I also believe that Centennial were 7.7% in 2006. Therefore, you may have some old hops there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrockOhopter Posted April 30, 2012 Author Share Posted April 30, 2012 Thanks for all the input guys, I'm happy to just see how it goes & put this mistake down to experience- whether the result is good or bad. I'll probably leave my weet-bix bowl out of the brew Bill [lol] Damian, I'm now questioning my OG- I'm sure 1.034 is what I read, I also thought is was quite low, but if it turns out a ripping mid-strength, who cares! Thanks again guys, this discussion has answered more questions than I could have wanted- That's good value right there [rightful] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Damien E1 Posted May 6, 2012 Share Posted May 6, 2012 Boiling the liquid after is to kill off anything in there that shouldn't be. Having someone say that 68C is hotter than dish water so it should be ok because you have no problems with your dishes is rediculous! Bacteria on a plate does no harm to you as a person. However, I dare you to put said dishes in your brew and see if you get an infection. Chances are very high you will! 68C does not kill most bacteria, it will kill some. There is bacteria that can survive hotter temps than this. Now back to the OP question...... You may not have any problems with regards to the not boiling issue, but you could do. It is a chance you have to take now as the job is done. If it is any consulation, there has been a couple of times I haven't boiled and I had no probs. You just need be aware that if there is an infection then it could be highly possible that this was the cause. 68 degrees for 30 minutes plus is far, far more than enough to kill 95% of the bacteria and other things that may be on your malts. By the time it's been at that temperature for that long basically only Thermophiles will be left viable, and they're very rarely going to be your issue with bacterial infection in your beer, the vast majority of the time bacterial infections will be from Osmophiles like Micrococcus, which will be killed at temperatures above about 55 degrees. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osmophile http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermophile http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micrococcus Basically, unless boiling it with my hops, which I do usually do, I'd never bother boiling crystal malt. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrockOhopter Posted May 13, 2012 Author Share Posted May 13, 2012 Thanks for the microbiology lesson [lol] . Makes me want to get the microscope our while brewing! Anyhow, this brew has come along well & smells Amazing[wink] . Should be slipping the brew into bottles tomorrow. Can't wait for a taster! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted May 14, 2012 Share Posted May 14, 2012 Now I am not one for Microbiology myself. However, there is bacteria that can survive up to 121 degrees. If you are going to start quoting links then best to not only quote the ones that make it a one way debate. [rightful] Hyperthermophile Hyperthermophiles are a subset of extremophiles, micro-organisms within the domain Archaea, although some bacteria are able to tolerate temperatures of around 100\xb0C (212\xb0F), as well. I have seen some crap from grain into a pot and personally I would rather boil. If people do not want to boil then of course that is their perogative/risk. You may also find Tyndallisation an interesting read. It explains the process of killing bacterial spores that survive in temps up to 121C. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GrahamB8 Posted May 15, 2012 Share Posted May 15, 2012 Hyperthermophile Sounds like it needs locking up [biggrin] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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