Achieving that distinctive dryness.

[guildofevil]

Hi All,
I have found myself tending towards beers with a certain distinctive dryness lately and I wonder if anyone knows how I could achieve it in my own brews.

The best examples of beers which display the flavour I am looking for are Popperings Hommel Beer (http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/634/1692), Chimay White (http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/215/1346) and Orval (http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/37/129).

Is it hop selection I should be looking at? Yeast? Mashing temperature? Or all three?

Séan

[Derekt2]

Mash temp and yeast. In the case of Orval it is hyper-attenuated by Brettanomyces bacteria in the bottle post-fermentation no less. Also, if you are into brewing Belgian styles stay away from heavy use on crystal-type malts and use sugars to thin out the wort.

[B_rad1969]

I have heard that the lower the F.G. the more dry a beer is. So, with that in mind, you want a wort with a high amount of fermentable sugars and a high attenuation yeast.

[guildofevil]

Ok. So something like this then (23 litre batch):

5Kg pale malt.

mash at about 60C (140F) for an hour.

Dissolve 1Kg of raw can sugar into the wort at the start of the boil.

30g Target (10% AA) For 60 Minutes.
10g East Kent Goldings (6%AA) 20 Minutes.
10g Styrian Goldings (5% AA) 20 Minutes.
10g East Kent Goldings (6%AA) 7 Minutes.
10g Styrian Goldings (5% AA) 7 Minutes.

Should come out at about 35 IBU's

Ferment with a highly attenuating yeast.

Séan

[Mad Scientist]

You can afford to go a little bit higher on the mash temp, say up to 148, but you'll do better to stay at about 144 to 145.

Use belgian candy sugar instead of cane. or at the least, convert the cane sugar to invert sugar.

[HogieWan]

Mashing at 140 would take at least 2 hours to convert. I'd go with the 148 suggested and expect it to go over an hour. It may not, but don't be suprised if it does.

[Mad Scientist]

As a habitual low temp masher, I can agree that hogie is right, 140 will take more than two hours. 144 to 145 takes about an hour with good quality malt that has been well modified (hard to miss that these days). Iodine testing with these temps is a must. Typically, I'll go low for an hour or more, than bring the temp up to 152 or 153 for about 30 minutes, then add a mash-out infusion to get things up to 165 to 168.

[guildofevil]

I usually use a two step system of 60C (140F) for 30-45 minutes and 70C (158F) for 30-45 minutes, depending on the beer I'm trying to make.

I had no idea that it could take two hours for conversion, at that low a temperature and I don't usually bother with an iodine test, so it's a good thing I posted this question! Thanks for the heads up.

Would there be an advantage to mashing at 60C for the two hours required? I use an electric mash tun, so maintaining the temperature is no problem and I'm willing to put in the extra hour.

Séan

[Mad Scientist]

Only if you wanted a very, very fermentable wort.