Full body vs Medium Body vs Light Body mashing

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

msa8967

mickaweapon
HBT Supporter
Joined
May 13, 2009
Messages
2,894
Reaction score
113
Location
North Liberty, Iowa
Can anyone give me a good description of the differences between these types of mash processes as given in Beer Smith?

Single Infusion, Full Body, Batch Sparge vs Single Infusion, Medium Body, Batch Sparge vs Single Infusion, Light Body, Batch Sparge

Will the taste and alcohol content vary with each of these? I am wanting to make a summer wheat beer/ale. Which type of process will be the best and what might I use the other types to create
 
I'm not familiar with beersmith, but the temperatures and times of your mash schedule will determine the body.

A long protein rest (roughly 120-130) and a long beta-amylase rest (roughly 146-152) will result in a lighter bodied beer than say a mash-in with a temp at 156 (amylase rest) which won't allow much beta-amylase or protease activity.
 
The differences between those three are temperature of the mash. Higher temps give you more fermentables and a lighter bodied beer (think of your standard american style lager). Lower temps leave more unfermentables in the wort so you'll have a thicker, heavier bodied beer (think of a stout). Medium would be somewhere in between.

You can use those settings to adjust how you want the body of your beer to come out depending on what style you're brewing and what ingredients you're using.
 
OK...Since this is my first try at making my own recipe via BeerSmith I will give medium body a shot. The full body option on Beer Smith says to mash at 158 F for 45 min. The medium body option says to mash at 154 for 60 min and the light body option says to mash at 150 F for 75 min.

Thus, if I understand this the lighter body option will yield a crisper beer with a higher alcohol content and the full body option will yield a heavier fuller tasting beer with a lower alcohol content. The medium body option is a balance of these two.

Please let me know if I have this backwards or turned around because the temps described by the beer smith software seem opposite of what your reply stated and thus I am not sure if I am putting the correct options into beer smith. These are all to be one step infusion with batch sparging.
 
You have things basically right.

The full body rest essentially kills the beta-amylase, which would produce fermentables that the alpha-amylase can't. By killing it with the higher temperature, you leave more unfermentables in the wort which is what a fuller body basically is.



Do you know how to do the starch iodine test?
 
Chshre...isn't that backwards? Lower temps give you more ferementable, lighter bodied beers. Higher temps have less fermentables and heavier bodied beers.

Yeah, he has it backwards, higher mash temp, more unfermentables, lower temps more fermentables, drier beer. Mash times matter also, as does mash density as far as finished product.

I almost always use the medium body mash in beersmith, then I tweek the temp. and mash density from 154 down or up as desired...
 
Look at the details on each of the options. They all have different temperatures. Everyone else has given a good explaination, so I'll spare the details. I end up changing it. I pick the basic profile I want, then change the temp in the details.
 
Chshre...isn't that backwards? Lower temps give you more ferementable, lighter bodied beers. Higher temps have less fermentables and heavier bodied beers.

And I haven't even started drinking tonight! :D

As my dad once told me "Do as I mean, not as I say!"
 
I am using a 65 qt YETI cooler as my mash tun....I too am using beersmith and have been getting low efficiency from my mash. Ive been trying to play around with beersmith so i can improve my efficiency... With that being said, I am trying to make a Barleywine recipe and my recipe calls out for 7.24 gallons of volume needed for this recipe. How am i supposed to be inputting in the information into beersmith because i put that i have 7 gallons of tun deadspace and it wants me to mash in with almost 13 gallons. If i uncheck the box to Adjust Mash Volume for deadspace, it then changes to almost 6 gallons to mash in with. However, it gives me 2 batch sparge steps. This has been my weakest point in beer smith, trying to get this step down so i can increase my efficiency. Help is greatly appreciated!
Cheers
 
I am using a 65 qt YETI cooler as my mash tun....I too am using beersmith and have been getting low efficiency from my mash. Ive been trying to play around with beersmith so i can improve my efficiency... With that being said, I am trying to make a Barleywine recipe and my recipe calls out for 7.24 gallons of volume needed for this recipe. How am i supposed to be inputting in the information into beersmith because i put that i have 7 gallons of tun deadspace and it wants me to mash in with almost 13 gallons. If i uncheck the box to Adjust Mash Volume for deadspace, it then changes to almost 6 gallons to mash in with. However, it gives me 2 batch sparge steps. This has been my weakest point in beer smith, trying to get this step down so i can increase my efficiency. Help is greatly appreciated!
Cheers
Not sure why you posted a question about efficiency in a five year old thread about mash profiles. Might get more response if you asked in one of the current threads about mash efficiency, or started a new thread with your questions. When you start new threads, you should always make the title as descriptive as possible in order to maximize your chances of getting the answers you are looking for.

Beersmith won't help you fix your efficiency. It's a great program (I use it) for designing recipes and doing calculations, but to improve your efficiency, you have to improve your process. Improving your calculations won't affect your efficiency. There are two things that determine your efficiency:
  1. How much of the available starch in the grain that you convert to sugar in the mash. This is your Conversion Efficiency.
  2. How much of the sugar you created in the mash actually makes it into the boil kettle. This is your Lauter Efficiency.
Mash Efficiency = Conversion Efficiency * Lauter Efficiency
If your efficiency is low at least one of the above, but probably both, are lower than they could and should be. What you do with your process to fix the two different contributors is different, so you need to know which of the efficiencies is low in order to know where to look in your process. I give more details here, here, and here.

Why do you think you have 7 gal of deadspace in your mash tun? For the mash water calculations, deadspace is the volume under a false bottom in the mash tun. Since this volume won't contain grain during the mash, you need to add this much extra water to the mash so that the grain will have enough water above the false bottom for a proper mash thickness (water to grain ratio). If your mash tun does not have a false bottom, then the deadspace is 0.

There is another deadspace defined for a mash tun, and that is the volume of liquid that is left in the bottom of the MLT after it is drained. This deadspace does not affect the mash water calculations, but it does affect your lauter efficiency. The higher the undrainable volume, the lower your lauter efficiency will be, so you want to minimize this volume to maximize your efficiency.

If you have more specific questions, don't hesitate to ask them.

Brew on :mug:
 
Well I didn't even notice how long ago this post was made. However, thank you for your response. You answered one of my main questions about deadspace. I didn't know that it was referring to the deadspace below the grain. I was thinking the opposite.
 
I know that beer smith won't actually help my efficiency. I worded that wrong. I was trying to say that it'll help me get better understanding of what things should be.
 
Back
Top