What are the basic steps and pitfalls in simple mashing?

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

mew

Well-Known Member
Joined
Nov 7, 2006
Messages
851
Reaction score
10
I am fairly new to brewing, but making all grain batches intrigues me. I realize that I will have to start with partial grain, but I don't know much beyond crush the grains, steep in hot water for some period of time, and then sparge with hot water. Can someone set me straight on the basic steps please? Also, what is the purpose of these steps (in other words, what does it do to the grain)?

Thanks
 
mew said:
I am fairly new to brewing, but making all grain batches intrigues me. I realize that I will have to start with partial grain, but I don't know much beyond crush the grains, steep in hot water for some period of time, and then sparge with hot water. Can someone set me straight on the basic steps please? Also, what is the purpose of these steps (in other words, what does it do to the grain)?

Thanks


converts starch to sugar and if you are going grain go all grain. It is pretty easy.
 
mew said:
I am fairly new to brewing, but making all grain batches intrigues me. I realize that I will have to start with partial grain, but I don't know much beyond crush the grains, steep in hot water for some period of time, and then sparge with hot water. Can someone set me straight on the basic steps please? Also, what is the purpose of these steps (in other words, what does it do to the grain)?

Thanks

I'm new as well, and even though I should probabily be mashing as well because those are my favorite flavors.......its far too complicated to just jump into......

I've looked at this realistically and I can't honestly say that I would even attempt this without a couple years experience under my belt.......

Here are some things to just get your feet wet....

http://www.18000feet.com/minimash/page1.htm
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=8805

Basically, I cant explain the steps, step by step and why you do them but from the reading I have done your extracting the flavor and natural sugars from the grains so that you have a base before you add your extract and stuff.....
 
Mashing isn't that hard, really. It CAN be really complicated, but for most beers a single-infusion mash (just holding one temp for an hour), along with a batch sparge, gets the job done. You might not want to do it on the first batch, but no reason you can't start some mini-mashes fairly early on.
 
The stupid 'Beer at Brian's' videos currently mentioned in this forum, while not exactly 100% the best way to do things, do give a pretty good overview of the mashing process.



Don't take the process as the best way to do it, but if you watch it all as a good overview of what's involved in all grain brewing, it can be helpful.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
the_bird said:
Mashing isn't that hard, really. It CAN be really complicated, but for most beers a single-infusion mash (just holding one temp for an hour), along with a batch sparge, gets the job done. You might not want to do it on the first batch, but no reason you can't start some mini-mashes fairly early on.

Ok, complicated, I'll go with that.....
 
debtman7 said:
The stupid 'Beer at Brian's' videos currently mentioned in this forum, while not exactly 100% the best way to do things, do give a pretty good overview of the mashing process.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XgtnJwEktw

Don't take the process as the best way to do it, but if you watch it all as a good overview of what's involved in all grain brewing, it can be helpful.

Ouch, the dancing red-neck....

I wasn't going to go there........You had to do it.........
 
BeerSlinger said:
Ok, complicated, I'll go with that.....

What is so complicated?

You put grains in.

Add water

Wait 60 minutes

drain water and add more water

Wait 10 minutes

drain

It is easy.

I think if you are going to buy parts to do a partial mash you should just do a full mash.
 
Todd said:
What is so complicated?

You put grains in.

Add water

Wait 60 minutes

drain water and add more water

Wait 10 minutes

drain

It is easy.

I think if you are going to buy parts to do a partial mash you should just do a full mash.

Well, its more complicated then anything i've done.......but like I said, I'm still just starting......
 
Do a couple of extract batches to get your feet wet and learn the basics of the process, but hell - if I can figure out how to mash after three or four batches, so can you. If you're Kaiser, it CAN be really complicated, but it doesn't have to be at all.
 
BeerSlinger said:
Ouch, the dancing red-neck....

I wasn't going to go there........You had to do it.........

Ya know, the video is absolutely hilarious, but I really think that if you've never done mashing and don't know what's involved, I still say it's really good to see it being done. It gives you the big picture of what's involved without overwhelming. And it's amusing.
 
debtman7 said:
Ya know, the video is absolutely hilarious, but I really think that if you've never done mashing and don't know what's involved, I still say it's really good to see it being done. It gives you the big picture of what's involved without overwhelming. And it's amusing.

And a little Jig and some Johnny Cash for no extra charge....

:ban:
 
mew said:
I am fairly new to brewing, but making all grain batches intrigues me. I realize that I will have to start with partial grain, but I don't know much beyond crush the grains, steep in hot water for some period of time, and then sparge with hot water. Can someone set me straight on the basic steps please? Also, what is the purpose of these steps (in other words, what does it do to the grain)?

Thanks

Post 2 (the Baron) gives very good advice.

For an extremely basic explanation, starting with malted grain:

Malted grain (or malt) contains starches (complex carbohydrates), and enzymes (chemicals that can convert starches to sugars), enclosed in a husk (skin).

To make beer, we need to introduce yeast into a solution containing sugars.

Step 1 is to crack the grain. (You don't want to crush it, just divide each kernel into two or three pieces.) This exposes the insides of the grain (which contains the starches and enzymes).

Step 2 is to mash the cracked grain. This simply means that you add warm water to the cracked grains, and mix so that the whole gooey mess gets to a temperature of 142 - 158 degrees f. This activates the enzymes (which were exposed by cracking), and allows them to convert the starches into sugars. This usually takes 20 minutes or so.

Step 3 is to rinse the sugars out of the mashed grain, which produces a wort. This is called sparging.

With extract brews, the cracking, mashing, and sparging has already been done, and the resulting wort is either concentrated (LME) or dried (DME).

-a.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top