I am going to attempt a hefeweizen for my first all grain. I have a 5 gal Igloo MLT. My grain bill is 5.5lbs of 2-row, 5.5lbs. wheat malt and .5lbs of rice hulls. I plan on mashing at 152 degrees for 60 minutes. Do I need to do a mash out after 60 minutes or will I be able to drain and batch sparge without performing a mash-out. Thanks for the help.
First all grain and a question about mash-out.
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à Flannagáin
Well-Known Member
I'm farily new to AG. What is a mash-out? When I made my hefeweizen I mashed for 60 minutes, then sparged/drained... I of course recirculated the first few quarts, until the water was clearer.
cweston
Well-Known Member
MAsh out = raising your mash to the temp (about 168) where all enzimatic activity stops. It helps prevent your finished product from being too dry and seems to help efficiency a bit.
Do your mash and drain your first runnings then when you batch sparge do it at 170°F this will help "mash out" It doesn't really matter because with batch sparging you will be boiling the wort soon after sparging begins.
The reason for doing a "mash out" is that it conversion continues at lower temperatures you'll end up with a very fermentable wort which can give BMCitous. (Dry thin beer (that you'll need to super chill and carbonate)
The reason for doing a "mash out" is that it conversion continues at lower temperatures you'll end up with a very fermentable wort which can give BMCitous. (Dry thin beer (that you'll need to super chill and carbonate)
Bugeaterbrewing
Well-Known Member
A true mashout is only needed if it is going to be an hour or two before you are able to boil your wort. Even then it really isn't necessary if you adjust your mash temperature a little higher to compensate.
A true mashout requires that you raise the grain bed temperature to at least 170° and hold it there for at least 20 - 25 minutes to actually denature the enzymes and stop further conversion. If you are batch sparging, you should be well on your way to a boil in that amount of time, so the mashout is just a waste of time. However, when doing a batch sparge, you do want to sparge with water in the 170° to 180° range as this will more efficiently rinse the sugars from the grains.
Don't be scared to go as high as 180° with your sparge water. Even that will not raise the temperature of the grain bed above 170°. You can get away with even hotter water than that. The so called problem of extracting tannins only shows up when you have the grain bed above 170° and your ph is above 7. When batch sparging, the ph almost never gets that high. You may approach that when doing a fly sparge. In fly sparging they say to stop sparging when the gravity of the runnings hits 1.010. The reason is not the gravity, per se, but the accompaning rise in ph. In batch sparging, in most cases you will not reach this level so it becomes pretty much a non - issue.
In short, don't stress over doing a mashout and extracting tannins. Just sparge with hot water and let it go. Good luck and have fun.
Wayne
Bugeater Brewing Company
A true mashout requires that you raise the grain bed temperature to at least 170° and hold it there for at least 20 - 25 minutes to actually denature the enzymes and stop further conversion. If you are batch sparging, you should be well on your way to a boil in that amount of time, so the mashout is just a waste of time. However, when doing a batch sparge, you do want to sparge with water in the 170° to 180° range as this will more efficiently rinse the sugars from the grains.
Don't be scared to go as high as 180° with your sparge water. Even that will not raise the temperature of the grain bed above 170°. You can get away with even hotter water than that. The so called problem of extracting tannins only shows up when you have the grain bed above 170° and your ph is above 7. When batch sparging, the ph almost never gets that high. You may approach that when doing a fly sparge. In fly sparging they say to stop sparging when the gravity of the runnings hits 1.010. The reason is not the gravity, per se, but the accompaning rise in ph. In batch sparging, in most cases you will not reach this level so it becomes pretty much a non - issue.
In short, don't stress over doing a mashout and extracting tannins. Just sparge with hot water and let it go. Good luck and have fun.
Wayne
Bugeater Brewing Company
Don't forget, in batch sparging almost all of the enzymes are in the first runnings, unless you mash out before draining. Higher temperatures for the sparge are good for efficiency, but I've never worried about mash out.
If you are worried about getting a highly fermentable wort, start heating the first runnings immediately. With my burner, about the time the first running starts boiling, the second running goes in, ditto on the third. This also cuts the total brewing time.
If you are worried about getting a highly fermentable wort, start heating the first runnings immediately. With my burner, about the time the first running starts boiling, the second running goes in, ditto on the third. This also cuts the total brewing time.
Well, I just finished brewing. I think that everything went smoothly, except for the fact that I only got about 60% efficiency. I know this is pretty low. Is that typical for a first timer? What can I do to improve my efficiency? I mashed for and hour and did one batch sparge for 10 minutes. Would mashing for 75 minutes help any? Thanks for the input.
Brewsmith
Home brewing moogerfooger
Wheat in notorious for lower efficiency. How much wort did you collect?
Agree. My Wit today had 50% flaked wheat and came in at 1038.Brewsmith said:
Can you say "Wit for lunch?"
