Chestnut Mashing Temperature

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frothdaddy

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I'm planning on doing my first chestnut brew this weekend, and have some questions. I went through the recent thread on chestnuts, but didn't find a concrete answer.

It seems that folks are boiling the chestnuts before bringing the temp down to 150 and adding enzymes. How long should I do this pre-boil for?

Since an optimal mash time would be 24 hours, how is everyone keeping the mash temp up for so long? Are you just keeping it on the stove and applying a little heat as needed, and not really worrying about the overnight drop in temp?

If I dump it all into an insulated cooler, will it hold enough heat for the full 24 hours? Or, are you guys adding small amounts of hot water over the course of the 24 hours to keep the temp up?
 
If you're mashing in the oven, a pretty standard way to do it is to preheat your oven to 170 (the lowest temp for most ovens), heat your mash kettle to 150-something on the stovetop, stick it in the oven and turn off the heat. The oven will cool off faster than it can heat up the water in the kettle. Water has a very high specific heat capacity, and will take a pretty long time to change temperature. You can check your oven and reheat to 170 as needed.

One thing to consider is that enzymes denature at different rates at different temperatures, and the rule of thumb I've heard is that they last about an hour at 158, You could always add more, though. I usually use a really long mash just because I figure it's only going to help.
 
What kind of enzymes are you adding ??
I am clouse to my first try in GF chestnut beer
and are there anything more to ad in the mashing procces .
Edw
 
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