Extract Equivalent Mash temp?

I am planning on my next batch (2nd) being another kit - The MoreBeer Dubbel, unless someone scares me away from it.

My concern, however, is that I LOOOOOOVE Belgian Dubbels and Quads, but I find the really good ones are sweet up front, but don't have that cloying body and sweetness of ones I don't like as well.


I am working towards AG brewing, but probably won't have time for another couple batches. The thing I keep seeing, though, for great belgians is mashing at lower temps to get more fermentables and fewer dextrins.

This has me wondering what mash profile would be comparable to extract? Is there anything that can be done to increase fermentables? does *enzyme addition* have a place in exract brewing?

Thanks,
Ray

*Originally said Beano - doing some reading tells me its a bad idea. But what about enzymes?

I think the more important variable to get the best attenuation (most complete ferment) of your wort will be your choice of yeast. Ask your LHBS owner for the best-attenuating yeast for the style you're doing.

Basically, since your fermentables are set (unless you're doing a partial-mash), I doubt that adding enzymes would be a good idea, or even effective, without bringing the diluted extract to mash temps to allow the enzymes to do their thing. In which case, why use extract anyway, since you're doing all the work of all-grain and still dealing with (at least most of) the issues of extract?

As a longtime extract/PM brewer who went fully all-grain last year, one of the major reasons for doing so is this sort of control over fermentability. If there were a way to make a predone wort extract more fermentable than it was when extracted, I'm sure there would be more info out there.

-Rich

My intent is to get to all grain, but I'm going to get another extract batch or two in the pipeline so I have something to RDWHAHB while builing my Mash Tun and trying out AG.

You're right about the enzyme thing though - I hadn't considered that the enzymes need to be held at mash temps to do anything.

I will go back to my initial question though: Do we know how the ferment-ability vs Dextrin makeup of Extract compares All-Grain Mash temperatures?

rayfound said:

I will go back to my initial question though: Do we know how the ferment-ability vs Dextrin makeup of Extract compares All-Grain Mash temperatures?

Click to expand...

This wound up being a very interesting question. First, I did this Google search, which turned up these links:

• Stack Exchange
• Homebrewtalk Wiki
• Beersmith Forum

The upshot is that apparently different extracts have different fermentability/attentuative properties as manufactured, and that in turn might vary from batch to batch. I wasn't able to find a reference chart quickly, but it's info your LHBS might be able to lay hands on.

For improving the fermentability of a given sample of extract, I did find this tip, apparently from Jamil.

• Reddit

Thanks for getting me thinking and researching! Fascinating stuff.

-Rich

So I had done most of the same searching... and what I have found is a lot of conjecture and curiosity, but not much in the way of people who have actually tried it, and decidedly NO ANSWER on what is actually in the extract, compared to a mash of the same grains at various temps.

My Instinct with the Amalyse Enzyme seems to go with what the guys on Reddit said from the Jamil show...

I also see guys saying they get plenty low on Extract brews, so maybe my concerns of excessive body and unfermentable sweetness are unfounded.

I'll probably just go ahead and brew it, and see how it comes out, I just wish could KNOW what the extract actually is... (This is one of the reasons I know I need to make the jump quickly to AG)