Mash Schedule

Hey all, I'm new on here and to the brewing world. My friend and I have brewed about 10 batches thus far, and we think we're doing alright. Our last batch was one I threw together somewhat randomly:

9# 2-row
2# munich
1.5# Crystal 10L
0.5# Caravienne
0.25# Roasted Barley

We have been using the following mash schedule we picked up in a previous recipe:

153F for 30 minutes, 158 for 45 minutes, 163 for 15 minutes, strike at 167. I believe we hit these temps pretty accurately, and ended with about 88% efficiency. What would be the advantage of this mash schedule over 60 minutes at ~155...or vice versa? Any help on this topic would be greatly appreciated. Transfer to secondary fermenter will be in a few days.

I would have gone with 153 @ 45 minutes mashout @ 10 minutes then two equal size sparges. Now does that make it better then what you did? No, a little easier? Maybe.
I'm guessing you are using direct heat on your mash to do the steps if not, yes I would really rather do it my way.
But my way would give you a completly different beer. So It comes down to what you want in the end.

I actually brewed this beer with beer Rph. We have been doing step mashes for all of our batches thus far with direct heat. What would be altered in the beer via your route FSR? Also, a little note, we just moved from Hudsonville in the past year. There's a good sized brewing community in the area. Happy brewing.

Yes, we're using direct heat from a turkey fryer. As far as the different beer from the two mash schedules, does that refer to the malty character of the beer? I remember something from another thread that mentioned that I think.

beer Rph said:

What would be the advantage of this mash schedule over 60 minutes at ~155...or vice versa? Any help on this topic would be greatly appreciated.

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Not much. The fermentability of the wort is set by the beta amylase activity during the first 10 - 30 min. After that the beta amylase has been destroyed. The higher the temp, the shorter it will work and the less fermentable the wort will be. I wrote something about this here: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/wiki/index.php/The_Theory_of_Mashing which also includes nice activity diagrams that I found on the web.

A schedule of 145 *F and then 155*F would have made more of a difference. since the beta a. would have stayed active much longer during the 145 *F rest.

I used to believe that a 2 step saccrification rest makes a difference, but after doing some reading I now think differently.

Kai

schultan said:

I actually brewed this beer with beer Rph. We have been doing step mashes for all of our batches thus far with direct heat. What would be altered in the beer via your route FSR? Also, a little note, we just moved from Hudsonville in the past year. There's a good sized brewing community in the area. Happy brewing.

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Kaiser covered it well. The fact that you stayed at the 153 for a shorter time then the 155 it would give you a higher FG and maltier beer. (not much)
So mine would finish a bit dryer and lighter.


You are right there is a very large brewing community here. To bad we lost you.

when you say 'strike at 167'...I think you technically mean "mash out".

strike temp. is just the temp the water needs to be, to achieve a specific temp in the mash tun.

In other words, you need 3 gallons of water at 160F (the strike volume/temp) to hit 150F for dough-in.

yeah i'm being nit-pickey but it helps when everyone uses the same lingo

Thanks everyone. Malkore, yes, I mean mash out. I don't have a complete grasp on the full vocabulary of brewing. It's not nit-picking...I'm a perfectionist and would rather be accurate than not know what I'm talking about.

Kaiser and FSR, thanks for the input. If this recipe turns out alright I may try it again with the different mash schedule to see how it can change the end result. One last note, would you recommend any specific books I should read? Thanks!

beer Rph said:

One last note, would you recommend any specific books I should read? Thanks!

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Yes I would, read this How to Brew