High Temp for Protein Rest

Hi all, I'm in the middle of mashing a Belgian wit, specifically Austin Homebrew's Blue Moon clone. The grain bill contains

5.00 lb Pilsner (2 Row) Bel (2.0 SRM) Grain 50.0 %
3.00 lb Wheat, Flaked (1.6 SRM) Grain 30.0 %
1.00 lb Oats, Flaked (1.0 SRM) Grain 10.0 %
1.00 lb White Wheat Malt (2.4 SRM) Grain 10.0 %

The problem is, I overshot the strike temp for the protein rest and hovered around 133 F for the 30 min. Now I added my boiling water and am at about 157. According to Palmer (http://www.howtobrew.com/images/f79.gif) I was out of the protein range and into the Beta Amylase range.

Is my beer going to be really dry now? Is there anything I can do if it is?

Thanks in advance for all your help!

Don't worry to much about the higher protein rest. Although your grist with 40% adjuncts could have benefited from it, you should be fine.

When adding boiling water to a mash to raise its temp, don't dump it in in one fell swoop. Add it in in stages, mix well and check the temp of the mash. This way you won't overshoot and hit your temps precisely. There are to many unpredictable factors that make upfront calculation difficult. Get a conservative ball-park number so you know how much water to heat keeping in mind that you may not need it all.

Though 133 F is the beginning of the beta amylase range, you won't see much maltose production since the starch has not gelatinized yet. The latter is necessary for the enzymes to work on the starch chains. You basically mashed at 157 F, which should leave you with a fairly dextrinous beer.

Kai

You might have actually done yourself a favor. Depending on the total protein content of your Pilsner malt, that might be close to the right temperature for a “protein/saccharification” rest. I’ll have to double-check Noonan’s book for the exact protein ranges, but conducting a protein rest at ~120-ish on malts of a certain total protein range can result in reduced head formation/retention. A lot of pilsner malts these days would do better with a rest at the 130-ish range, then a “dextrine” rest at the upper 150’s range. I just did a Helles like this because my Pilsner’s total protein fell into the range that’s better for a 132F protein/saccharification rest. I did a rest at 131F and then decocted to 156F and got 74% attenuation and my head retention has definitely improved. You might end up with a slightly less attenuation, but I don’t think it will be dramatic.

Thanks Kai and menschmaschine! That's what I was hoping someone would say. Overall, I'd say I had a successful brewday, done in just under 5 hours! I'm looking forward to enjoying these in about a month when it warms up a little more.

@ Kai, good advice on adding the boiling water in stages. I saw your decoction videos, and I'm looking forward to adding one to my process soon. Thanks for posting those.

HBT rocks! :rockin:

Just to clarify my post above, I re-read Noonan's book. It's about Soluble Nitrogen Ratio (SNR), not total protein as I've mistakenly stated above. SNR is the soluble nitrogen (or protein) divided by the total nitrogen (or protein). For pilsner malts with an SNR of 33-36%, it's best to do a protein rest at 122dF, then a saccharification rest at 153-155dF. For malts with an SNR of 37-40%, it's best to do a protein/saccharification rest at 131dF, then a dextrin rest at 158dF. I adjusted my dextrin rest on my Helles to 156dF to allow for a little better attenuation. It worked great and still has the maltiness.

For more on malt analysis, here's a great page by Noonan:
http://brewingtechniques.com/bmg/noonan.html