Help With A Recipe's Instructions

Brewing friends...

I have a recipe for an all grain "Spotted Cow" clone. "Spotted Cow" is brewed by New Glarus Brewing, New Glarus, Wisconsin, and is SWMBO's favorite commercial beer.

The problem I'm having with the recipe is this instruction:

90 minute mash; 30 at 154; 60 at 170.

I get the part about 30 minutes at 154° but I don't understand what's next. Do I simply increase the temperature to 170° and let it cook for another 60 minutes? Do I heat other water to 170° and pour it slowly over the mash and THEN cook the mash another 60 minutes?

After the mash, the directions do call for a 90-minute boil.

Can some of you very smart brewers out there get me straightened out on this mashing technique?

glenn514

Yeah, that's a step mash. You can do it by adding more hot water to the tun, or you can heat your mash tun if it's a metal pot.

The instructions look really strange to me, though.

170*F for 60 minutes? That seems REALLY hot for a mash.

I think the recipe is misprinted.
30 minutes at 154 will probably work for the mash, and there may be a reason why they have cut the time to 30 minutes from the normal 60 - 90 minutes.
The 170F rest is a mash out. I can't see any point in doing this for more than 15 minutes.

-a.

Walker and ajf...

I truly appreciate your replies. I also asked the same question on the thread that contains the recipe I have. Answers there were similar, i.e. a 170° mash for 60 minutes is a.) really LONG, and b.) really HOT.

From your posts and the others, I believe I will adjust the recipe to mash at 154° for an hour...60 minutes...and then pour some additional water, heated to 170°, over the grains s-l-o-w-l-y. Then, turn up the heat and start the boil.

Does that seem logical and proper procedure?

glenn514

glenn514 said:

Walker and ajf...

I truly appreciate your replies. I also asked the same question on the thread that contains the recipe I have. Answers there were similar, i.e. a 170° mash for 60 minutes is a.) really LONG, and b.) really HOT.

From your posts and the others, I believe I will adjust the recipe to mash at 154° for an hour...60 minutes...and then pour some additional water, heated to 170°, over the grains s-l-o-w-l-y. Then, turn up the heat and start the boil.

Does that seem logical and proper procedure?

glenn514

Click to expand...

No need to do it that way. You can do the "mashout" if you want- that is, adding hot water (hotter than 170, more like 200 degrees) so that the grain bed hits 170.

If it were me, though, I'd do the 154 degree mash. (I would probably mash a Spotted Cow clone at 150, though). Anyway, after 60 minutes, drain all of the liquid out. Do a batch sparge, and add the sparge water to the MLT. Stir well and drain. Then, go ahead with the boil.

There isn't any reason to add your sparge water slowly, unless you are doing a fly (continuous) sparge. In that case, you drain as fast as you add the water.

Thanks muchly, Yooper! I do appreciate the enlightenment! That line in the instructions yet seemed very strange to me. I like your way of batch sparging!

glenn514