I've heard a lot of differing opinions on this recently. So I thought I would bring it up here.
The owner of my LHBS is a transplanted professional brewer. He earned a brewing degree from UC Davis so I tend to put at least some stock in the advice he gives me.
I am returning to lager brewing (had not brewed one in more than 10 years) and was picking his brain for some tips the other day. I asked him about a protein rest. "Don't worry about it" was his answer. His reasoning was that with the highly modified malts available on the market today, a protein rest is not needed.
Time will tell. I just made a light-bodied pilsner over the weekend that was primarily pilsner malt (with a little flaked rice added in since I am serving it at a party to a bunch of BudMilloors drinkers). I used a single step sacc mash at 151F until conversion was complete. I do still throw in a mash out step in the 160s just to shut down starch conversion for 10 min or so after I have had a successful iodine test.
So what are some of the prevailing thoughts on multi-step mashes? Is there some complexity of flavor, body, etc., by going all single step infusion mash? I have gone with the single step mash most of my brewing life because it's easier. I mash with a converted beverage cooler and until I picked up some tips from a BYO all grain article awhile back, I'd had enough trouble hitting one temperature, let alone stepping it up 2 or 3 times.
Until I plunk down the cash to buy or build something like the Brutus 10 that allows me tighter control of temperature steps, what am I missing out on by going with one sacc temp, mash out, then batch sparge?
The owner of my LHBS is a transplanted professional brewer. He earned a brewing degree from UC Davis so I tend to put at least some stock in the advice he gives me.
I am returning to lager brewing (had not brewed one in more than 10 years) and was picking his brain for some tips the other day. I asked him about a protein rest. "Don't worry about it" was his answer. His reasoning was that with the highly modified malts available on the market today, a protein rest is not needed.
Time will tell. I just made a light-bodied pilsner over the weekend that was primarily pilsner malt (with a little flaked rice added in since I am serving it at a party to a bunch of BudMilloors drinkers). I used a single step sacc mash at 151F until conversion was complete. I do still throw in a mash out step in the 160s just to shut down starch conversion for 10 min or so after I have had a successful iodine test.
So what are some of the prevailing thoughts on multi-step mashes? Is there some complexity of flavor, body, etc., by going all single step infusion mash? I have gone with the single step mash most of my brewing life because it's easier. I mash with a converted beverage cooler and until I picked up some tips from a BYO all grain article awhile back, I'd had enough trouble hitting one temperature, let alone stepping it up 2 or 3 times.
Until I plunk down the cash to buy or build something like the Brutus 10 that allows me tighter control of temperature steps, what am I missing out on by going with one sacc temp, mash out, then batch sparge?