Mash temp... how big of a deal is it?

Call me a little on the ignorant side, but what are the effects of various mash temps? Does it really affect taste that greatly? Sorry if this has been posted before, just wondering 'cause i missed my mash temp today by about 4 degrees. Happy Easter!

If your mash temp is low you will get more fermentable sugar, so the beer will be more dry and have less body. If your mash temp is high you will get more complex sugars that the yeast cannot ferment which will give you a heavier body and more residual sweetness.

Remember MALT

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Alcohol
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Temperature

Did you go high or low? Either way, you'll have beer.

In addition to what the other poster have said, I find low attenuating yeast more sensitive to mash temp than high attenuating yeast.

I can coax a low attenuator into a high attenuator using mash temp and time, but have a hard time making a high attenuator into a low attenuator with higher mash temp.

djfriesen said:

Remember MALT

More
Alcohol
Lower
Temperature

Did you go high or low? Either way, you'll have beer.

and

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Went high, was supposed to be 150, ended up at 154. Not real worried was just wondering if the taste would have been affected that much or not. Apreciate it everyone!!

150 is considered a fairly low mash temp, for creating a dry, attenuated beer with thinner mouth-feel.
154 is a 'typical' mash temp for medium body, lower attenuation, thicker or richer mouth-feel.
Taste will be different - which does not mean bad! Take notes so you can adjust next time if you want to.

Most of what has been posted to here is simplified information on starch conversion. Here is an article that gives you detailed information on starch conversion. If you want to get the most out of your mashing then give it a read and adjust according to your equipment and time.

http://braukaiser.com/wiki/index.php?title=Starch_Conversion

BobC said:

Most of what has been posted to here is simplified information on starch conversion. Here is an article that gives you detailed information on starch conversion. If you want to get the most out of your mashing then give it a read and adjust according to your equipment and time.

http://braukaiser.com/wiki/index.php?title=Starch_Conversion

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Wow, great information there. I've known the basic concept of mash temp/starch conversion for some time, but that article ties it all together for me! Thanks for posting!

If you're brewing to win a competition, it matters a ton. The mouthfeel of the beer will be completely off if the temperature was off by 4 degrees.

The saving grace is that unfermentable sugars don't tend to be all that sweet, so the beer's flavor is still fine. So, a high mash will give you a bit of a thick beer with a heavy mouthfeel, but it will not be cloyingly sweet. Your friends probably won't notice.

Exact mash temps don't matter as much for Partial Mash beers, but they certainly do when brewing All Grain.

I've had the same experience as Reno with high-attenuating yeasts. For example, if you mashed at 154 instead of 150 with Nottingham, you're still going to have crazy attenuation. With Notty, I can ferment at 158 and still get sub-1.010 final gravities. With low-attenuators like Wyeast 1332 or 1968 for instance, such may not be the case.

again, thanks everybody! ton of useful info on that link

If you mashed too high, a longer mash time may remedy that, for 4* I would guess 15 minutes.. Vice versa, not so much.