Ask The Brewmasters

A seemingly simple question that will yield complex answers. Ultimately I think the weight you should put into your COA and the presumed influence it will have on your production facility is brewery dependent. We operate two brewhouses: a 50bbl automated 5-vessel system w/ a wet mill and a 15bbl manual 4-vessel system w/ an old 2-roller mill. I look at malt COAs very closely for use on the larger system but don't give it much weight regarding the smaller system. I've found the inherent variation associated with the equipment (primarily MT, LT, and the mill) as well as the operators is greater than variation seen on a COA. Not that it isn't important, it just plays a much smaller role in decision making.

To answer your specific questions:

• We pull FF samples on every batch and use this to drive subsequent mash regimes: time, temperature, and steps. 
• We rarely make decisions solely based on COAs, typically we look for trends in attenuation that align with COA changes. I am primarily looking at DP, AA, S/T, and FAN.*
• To be proactive I would trend a few key variables on your COA to your attenuation. Find out what the primary drivers are for you - depending on your equipment you may find strong or weak correlations. As mentioned we have strong correlations with our large system and weak correlations with our smaller system.
• My next suggestion is to understand what process variables cause the most variation in your system. On both our brewhouses we find that mash time is strongly correlated to attenuation and will adjust both temp and rest time accordingly. On the older system, we also find that grist composition plays a role in attenuation in addition to extract. Almost without fail, will a slight mill adjustment bring attenuation back in check. I find grist composition to be extremely important especially if you are using a M/LT combi vessel.

A seemingly simple question that will yield complex answers. Ultimately I think the weight you should put into your COA and the presumed influence it will have on your production facility is brewery dependent. We operate two brewhouses: a 50bbl automated 5-vessel system w/ a wet mill and a 15bbl manual 4-vessel system w/ an old 2-roller mill. I look at malt COAs very closely for use on the larger system but don't give it much weight regarding the smaller system. I've found the inherent variation associated with the equipment (primarily MT, LT, and the mill) as well as the operators is greater than variation seen on a COA. Not that it isn't important, it just plays a much smaller role in decision making.

To answer your specific questions:

• We pull FF samples on every batch and use this to drive subsequent mash regimes: time, temperature, and steps. 
• We rarely make decisions solely based on COAs, typically we look for trends in attenuation that align with COA changes. I am primarily looking at DP, AA, S/T, and FAN.*
• To be proactive I would trend a few key variables on your COA to your attenuation. Find out what the primary drivers are for you - depending on your equipment you may find strong or weak correlations. As mentioned we have strong correlations with our large system and weak correlations with our smaller system.
• My next suggestion is to understand what process variables cause the most variation in your system. On both our brewhouses we find that mash time is strongly correlated to attenuation and will adjust both temp and rest time accordingly. On the older system, we also find that grist composition plays a role in attenuation in addition to extract. Almost without fail, will a slight mill adjustment bring attenuation back in check. I find grist composition to be extremely important especially if you are using a M/LT combi vessel.

A seemingly simple question that will yield complex answers. Ultimately I think the weight you should put into your COA and the presumed influence it will have on your production facility is brewery dependent. We operate two brewhouses: a 50bbl automated 5-vessel system w/ a wet mill and a 15bbl manual 4-vessel system w/ an old 2-roller mill. I look at malt COAs very closely for use on the larger system but don't give it much weight regarding the smaller system. I've found the inherent variation associated with the equipment (primarily MT, LT, and the mill) as well as the operators is greater than variation seen on a COA. Not that it isn't important, it just plays a much smaller role in decision making.

To answer your specific questions:

• We pull FF samples on every batch and use this to drive subsequent mash regimes: time, temperature, and steps. 
• We rarely make decisions solely based on COAs, typically we look for trends in attenuation that align with COA changes. I am primarily looking at DP, AA, S/T, and FAN.*
• To be proactive I would trend a few key variables on your COA to your attenuation. Find out what the primary drivers are for you - depending on your equipment you may find strong or weak correlations. As mentioned we have strong correlations with our large system and weak correlations with our smaller system.
• My next suggestion is to understand what process variables cause the most variation in your system. On both our brewhouses we find that mash time is strongly correlated to attenuation and will adjust both temp and rest time accordingly. On the older system, we also find that grist composition plays a role in attenuation in addition to extract. Almost without fail, will a slight mill adjustment bring attenuation back in check. I find grist composition to be extremely important especially if you are using a M/LT combi vessel.

A seemingly simple question that will yield complex answers. Ultimately I think the weight you should put into your COA and the presumed influence it will have on your production facility is brewery dependent. We operate two brewhouses: a 50bbl automated 5-vessel system w/ a wet mill and a 15bbl manual 4-vessel system w/ an old 2-roller mill. I look at malt COAs very closely for use on the larger system but don't give it much weight regarding the smaller system. I've found the inherent variation associated with the equipment (primarily MT, LT, and the mill) as well as the operators is greater than variation seen on a COA. Not that it isn't important, it just plays a much smaller role in decision making.

To answer your specific questions:

• We pull FF samples on every batch and use this to drive subsequent mash regimes: time, temperature, and steps. 
• We rarely make decisions solely based on COAs, typically we look for trends in attenuation that align with COA changes. I am primarily looking at DP, AA, S/T, and FAN.*
• To be proactive I would trend a few key variables on your COA to your attenuation. Find out what the primary drivers are for you - depending on your equipment you may find strong or weak correlations. As mentioned we have strong correlations with our large system and weak correlations with our smaller system.
• My next suggestion is to understand what process variables cause the most variation in your system. On both our brewhouses we find that mash time is strongly correlated to attenuation and will adjust both temp and rest time accordingly. On the older system, we also find that grist composition plays a role in attenuation in addition to extract. Almost without fail, will a slight mill adjustment bring attenuation back in check. I find grist composition to be extremely important especially if you are using a M/LT combi vessel.

A seemingly simple question that will yield complex answers. Ultimately I think the weight you should put into your COA and the presumed influence it will have on your production facility is brewery dependent. We operate two brewhouses: a 50bbl automated 5-vessel system w/ a wet mill and a 15bbl manual 4-vessel system w/ an old 2-roller mill. I look at malt COAs very closely for use on the larger system but don't give it much weight regarding the smaller system. I've found the inherent variation associated with the equipment (primarily MT, LT, and the mill) as well as the operators is greater than variation seen on a COA. Not that it isn't important, it just plays a much smaller role in decision making.

To answer your specific questions:

• We pull FF samples on every batch and use this to drive subsequent mash regimes: time, temperature, and steps. 
• We rarely make decisions solely based on COAs, typically we look for trends in attenuation that align with COA changes. I am primarily looking at DP, AA, S/T, and FAN.*
• To be proactive I would trend a few key variables on your COA to your attenuation. Find out what the primary drivers are for you - depending on your equipment you may find strong or weak correlations. As mentioned we have strong correlations with our large system and weak correlations with our smaller system.
• My next suggestion is to understand what process variables cause the most variation in your system. On both our brewhouses we find that mash time is strongly correlated to attenuation and will adjust both temp and rest time accordingly. On the older system, we also find that grist composition plays a role in attenuation in addition to extract. Almost without fail, will a slight mill adjustment bring attenuation back in check. I find grist composition to be extremely important especially if you are using a M/LT combi vessel.

A seemingly simple question that will yield complex answers. Ultimately I think the weight you should put into your COA and the presumed influence it will have on your production facility is brewery dependent. We operate two brewhouses: a 50bbl automated 5-vessel system w/ a wet mill and a 15bbl manual 4-vessel system w/ an old 2-roller mill. I look at malt COAs very closely for use on the larger system but don't give it much weight regarding the smaller system. I've found the inherent variation associated with the equipment (primarily MT, LT, and the mill) as well as the operators is greater than variation seen on a COA. Not that it isn't important, it just plays a much smaller role in decision making.

To answer your specific questions:

• We pull FF samples on every batch and use this to drive subsequent mash regimes: time, temperature, and steps. 
• We rarely make decisions solely based on COAs, typically we look for trends in attenuation that align with COA changes. I am primarily looking at DP, AA, S/T, and FAN.*
• To be proactive I would trend a few key variables on your COA to your attenuation. Find out what the primary drivers are for you - depending on your equipment you may find strong or weak correlations. As mentioned we have strong correlations with our large system and weak correlations with our smaller system.
• My next suggestion is to understand what process variables cause the most variation in your system. On both our brewhouses we find that mash time is strongly correlated to attenuation and will adjust both temp and rest time accordingly. On the older system, we also find that grist composition plays a role in attenuation in addition to extract. Almost without fail, will a slight mill adjustment bring attenuation back in check. I find grist composition to be extremely important especially if you are using a M/LT combi vessel.