The 30/30 Experiment

So, I’m a scientist, as I constantly seem to be saying these days and I like to think I understand biochemical and chemical processes quite well. As such I have always wondered why the hell we as brewers do things for certain periods of time. Why do we mash for 60 minutes or even 90? Why do we boil for the same amount of time?

After reading a Brulosophy Article on mash length and seeing some interesting results, I decided that I needed to see this for myself. I did however continue to read the website over at Brulosophy.com and discovered that they had also done an experiment on a 30 minute boil. Me being me decided that given they had tried the experiments (I cant bring myself to use that term “Exbeeriment” *Shudder*) separately, i decided to do them together, to see if it really does make a difference, and if it doesnt, then hell thats an hour off my brew day!

The recipe I decided to follow is below, a pretty standard APA recipe with a hefty dose of MO and a decent chunk of fairly fruity hops.

Title: NZAPA 30/30
Author: ElChemist

Brew Method: All Grain
Style Name: American Pale Ale
Boil Time: 30 min
Batch Size: 23 liters (fermentor volume)
Boil Size: 29 liters
Boil Gravity: 1.037
Efficiency: 80% (brew house)
STATS:
Original Gravity: 1.047
Final Gravity: 1.012
ABV (standard): 4.57%
IBU (tinseth): 25.96
SRM (morey): 7.46

FERMENTABLES:
4 kg – United Kingdom – Maris Otter Pale (93%)
0.3 kg – German – CaraMunich II (7%)

HOPS:
16 g – Southern Cross, Type: Leaf/Whole, AA: 12, Use: Boil for 30 min, IBU: 16.58
25 g – Pacifica, Type: Leaf/Whole, AA: 6.2, Use: Boil for 10 min, IBU: 6.32
25 g – Wai-iti, Type: Leaf/Whole, AA: 3, Use: Boil for 10 min, IBU: 3.06
30 g – Pacifica, Type: Leaf/Whole, AA: 6.2, Use: Dry Hop for 5 days
50 g – Wai-iti, Type: Leaf/Whole, AA: 3, Use: Dry Hop for 5 days

MASH GUIDELINES:
1) Sparge, Temp: 66 C, Time: 30 min, Amount: 16 L, Sparge with 14L @ 68

OTHER INGREDIENTS:
0.5 each – Protofloc, Time: 15 min, Type: Fining, Use: Boil

YEAST:
Danstar – American West Coast Yeast BRY-97
Starter: No
Form: Dry
Attenuation (avg): 72%
Flocculation: High
Optimum Temp: 16.67 – 23.89 C
Fermentation Temp: 20 C
Pitch Rate: 0.35 (M cells / ml / deg P)

NOTES:
30 min mash/ 30 min boil experiment.

So, this has just finished its dry hopping and is being transferred to the bottling bucket for final settling before it gets bottled tonight or tomorrow. Ive been trying the samples that come out of the gravity jar, and my fairly wrecked and untrained talentless palette cannot detect any DMS or Diacetyl in that.

I’m planning to carb this up to my standard 2.2vols of CO2 and will be sending some bottles to my fellow MateswhoBrew Jamie and Tricky Ricky for testing purposes.

I’m hoping that this gives a pleasent tasty beer as if I can chop an hour off my brewdays it’ll mean I can brew after work without an issue and that will make HB Wednesdays a true possibility for me during the summer months while I’m at work.

Follow up to this post will be in a few weeks when I’ve carbed and sent the beers to Jamie and Rich for testing and had a few myself.

5 Comments on “The 30/30 Experiment

  1. Boys, I think y’all need to strap in and get ready for the beer mail thats coming your way, cos it aint gonna be a small delivery, there are at least 6 or 7 bottles coming to each of you, if only I could remember what the hell the individual bottle cap colours mean…

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