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smarek82

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New to the all grain brewing technique and trying to brew an easy blonde ale this weekend.

What is the difference between letting a mash sit for 60 min or 90+ min???

Will it have any effect on the amount of fermentables or will it make the mash less viscous?

Thanks to all that reply
 
Well generally on a simple single infusion mash you'll have full conversion by 30-45 minutes (sometimes even less) but a lot of people wait till 60 to be sure. If you wait till 90 there won't be much difference, but depending on your mash temp you will get a more fermentable wort as you let it sit. I don't think the difference between 60 and 90 will affect the attenuation too much, overnight definitely does.
 
The types of sugars formed as the enzymes do their job also effects the FG. If you mash high for a short period, you'll end up with more unfermentable sugars than if you mash low for a long time.
 
The difference is 15 minutes.


The longer rest allows more time for enzymes to locate and cleave longer chains of starches thus reducing them to simpler and simpler sugars and making them more readily available to yeast so thet they may ferment them.

Yeast attentuation is not the only determining factor on the beers profile. With extract the fermentability of the wort was set by the manuafcturer. From there attenuation is a guide to how much the yeast actually metabolized.

Unfortunately, there is no simple way to definitively predict or assertain a wort fermentability or differentiate whether the yeast gave up or just had nothing left that they could eat.
 
I see and thats where the whole high temp mash = more body as compared to low temp mash = dry and crisp
 
I see and thats where the whole high temp mash = more body as compared to low temp mash = dry and crisp

Yes.

At higher temps Alpha amylazes are most active but, they can only cleave the twiggy bits of the starchy tree. Fewer simpler sugars result and the body is more viscous (dextrins) and sweeter.

At the lower end Beta is more active and is able to saw through the heavy branches of the trees canopy. Thus reducing the long chains into smaller more manageble chains for the alpha to work on later.
 
So if you start high and let the temp drop to 150 or so and hold it there for say 40 minutes will you get both results?

An intoxicating sweet body ??

It's pretty hard to do that, and it's not really necessary. At 150 the beta amylase is still active, so if you mash longer you give it more time to do its work.
 
So if you start high and let the temp drop to 150 or so and hold it there for say 40 minutes will you get both results?

Possible, I suppose, provided you don't start too high as to denature the lower range enzymes.


An intoxicating sweet body ??

Again possible I think but not sure how this could be done in a single mash. Again, the simple sugars are the yeast food that create alcohol and the long chain sugars/dextrins provide the body and sweetness. You have to break down the sweet to get the dry or sacrifice the pot ABV to maintain some body. An overgeneralization for sure.

Which is why most recipes taht want a high ABV and heavy body and sweetness (Milk Stout) incorporate malts or sugars that provide for a high level of unfermentables.

Even then, the yeast has to be paired properly too.
 
I think the problem is if you start too high, the beta enzymes will start to denature, and when the temp drops down to 150, they won't be there to do the job any more.
 
IIRC, Beta is denatured completely at 154* to 156*F. Coincedentally, Alpha doesn't get really active until it reaches this temp.

So, their is a band that both are active but, in wildly varied levels of activity. 153* is a good compromise for both amylazes but, as stated before, you'd have to combine two mashes or use specifically unfermentable sugars / malts to get the "Intoxicating, Sweet" or use a huge grainbill at a high rest temp.

Scotch Ale anyone?
 
IIRC, Beta is denatured completely at 154* to 156*F. Coincedentally, Alpha doesn't get really active until it reaches this temp.

So, their is a band that both are active but, in wildly varied levels of activity. 153* is a good compromise for both amylazes but, as stated before, you'd have to combine two mashes or use specifically unfermentable sugars / malts to get the "Intoxicating, Sweet" or use a huge grainbill at a high rest temp.

Scotch Ale anyone?

Hmm if the goal is an intoxicating, sweet beer then go for a barleywine I'd say. Just a crapload of fermentables that will take a year or more before it reaches it's peak.

.... I really need to bottle my 999, I keep hitting the taps, bottles will let me stay way from it a lot longer.
 
IIRC, Beta is denatured completely at 154* to 156*F. Coincedentally, Alpha doesn't get really active until it reaches this temp.

So, their is a band that both are active but, in wildly varied levels of activity. 153* is a good compromise for both amylazes but, as stated before, you'd have to combine two mashes or use specifically unfermentable sugars / malts to get the "Intoxicating, Sweet" or use a huge grainbill at a high rest temp.

Scotch Ale anyone?

From How to Brew...

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