Mash Schedule

What differences will I see with a step mash of 30 minutes at 140F and another 30 minutes at 158F, versus a single infusion for 60 minutes at 152F-154F?

I note that Charlie P uses the 140 to 158 schedule and am wondering

I'm considering the same thing. The guy at my LHBS said that you'll get better efficiency since the alpha and beta amalyse ranges overlap. Gonna give it a try this weekend.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/wiki/index.php/The_Theory_of_Mashing

A little over half way down, there's a paragraph on this procedure that German brewers use to produce a more fermentable wort. Too much of a pain for my setup...I'll stick with a single infusion.

What I'm going to do this weekend is going to be a PITA, but if the beer comes out good it'll be worth it.

This weekend = step mashing in 10 gal pot and THEN transferring the hot wort AND grains to my MLT. = PITA

its a protein rest, and although I did it a few times early on, its really not required with the refined grains we have now-a-days. Actually, it could hurt the amount of head your brew ends up with. Just sayin

Snafu said:

its a protein rest, and although I did it a few times early on, its really not required with the refined grains we have now-a-days. Actually, it could hurt the amount of head your brew ends up with. Just sayin

Click to expand...

Sorry, but 140 isn't a protein rest. Too hot. Protein rest generally occurs between 120-130. But you are right about a PR with modern grains. Not really necessary.

The 140 and 158 rests hit the mid-points for both Beta (140) and Alpha (158), so in theory, you get the best enzyme action using those two rest points.

You Sir, are correct. 120-130, I was only halfway paying attention there, been posting too much on here today. Personally, depending on whats cooking, my typical range is 152-158

So I did the PITA method yesterday. I'm going to start of by saying that this is going to be my "new" way of mashing.

The ease of controlling the mash temp was insanely easy. Why I didn't do it before is...well, my own stupidity I guess. I knocked my efficiency up to around 90%. I was able to get 2 beers from one mash, a la parti-gyle style. the only bad part was moving the grain from my SS kettle to my Home Depot MT, and with the efficiency I got, it was well worth that minor PITA.

I am going to do this in a couple of weeks. I don't think it is very hard if you mash slightly thicker and then add boiling water using one of the many calculators to boost to 158F. I want to get about 1/2 my boil volume from initial running, so I just back into the calculation. I strongly suspect that it will boost efficiency, but really think it may give better control over the body and perhaps give a better wort. Just thinking on this in a theoretical manner.

My last batch was my first AG attempt. I messed up and poured 154 deg. water into my mash tun and mashed for 60 min. at 144 deg. At the end my efficiency ended up being 90%.

This past weekend I mashed at the specified temp. of 154 deg. for 60 min. and in the end my efficiency was 68%. Now these were two different beers and all, but does the 140-146 deg. range boost efficiency? Maybe that two step method is the way to go.

Mash efficiency does not equal beer quality.