All grain - mash temperature?

I'm making the following beer:
57% abbey malt
6% chocolate
6% cara 40
6% cara 80
20% smoked
5% flaked barley
hop is EK Goldings.

What temperature should I mash at if I want at least a medium bodied beer?

I've been playing around with mash temperature and had some hit n misses. I know i'm aiming for higher - so does that mean 155F-158F?

Other than beersmith is there another program that would recommend an appropriate mash temperature? I'd like to mash for an hour.

Thanks in advance!!

If you want medium body, I'd shoot for 154. Any lower and you're approaching dry, any higher and you're approaching heavy.

Now, if your MLT can't hold temps very well and will lose 2* over an hour, I'd start at 155.

I'd say 154 is in the medium bodied range and would be a suitable hour long mash. 155-158 is more on the higher end of the spectrum for me. Especially with 12% cara 40/80 and some flaked barley.

With that malt bill, you could probably mash at 149F and still get medium body... lots of character malts in that puppy!

ok maybe i'll stick to 155. i lose 2F over the hour normally.

What about a wheat beer (never brewerd one before) consisting of 50% pale wheat, 25% german pils and 25% munich?

brulosopher - 149F - really? hmmmm. maybe i would need to lower it. are you suggesting that because of the cara malts and flaked barley?

ninkasi2012 said:

brulosopher - 149F - really? hmmmm. maybe i would need to lower it. are you suggesting that because of the cara malts and flaked barley?

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Yes. There are a lot of unfermentables in that grain bill, leaving more body. How much are you looking for? What is the style?

ninkasi2012 said:

ok maybe i'll stick to 155. i lose 2F over the hour normally.

What about a wheat beer (never brewerd one before) consisting of 50% pale wheat, 25% german pils and 25% munich?

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I mash them to be fairly dry, 152 probably.

tre9er - thanks!

i'm kinda aiming for a smoked/chocolate porter..i guess perhaps with heavier body than a porter.

ninkasi2012 said:

tre9er - thanks!

i'm kinda aiming for a smoked/chocolate porter..i guess perhaps with heavier body than a porter.

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Then I would stick with 154ish.

ninkasi2012 said:

brulosopher - 149F - really? hmmmm. maybe i would need to lower it. are you suggesting that because of the cara malts and flaked barley?

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I was being extreme for effect Still, I'd probably mash no warmer than 154F, probably closer to 152 given the character malts (yes, cara and flaked barley)... you don't want syrup.

And I just realized you have 20% smoked malt... whew! I'd back off of that a bit, down to 10% or less. Just a preference thing

Brulosopher said:

And I just realized you have 20% smoked malt... whew! I'd back off of that a bit, down to 10% or less. Just a preference thing

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I agree, that's quite a bit of smoked malt.

To answer your question, I'd say 153F-154F just like tre9er said.

Ok thanks guys I'll stick to 153. And I'll tame the smoked malt....though I love smoked malt

20% Breiss smoked malt is definitely not too much for a rauchbier. I recently brewed a german lager using 20% Breiss smoked and it came out perfect. Depending on the environment, it sometimes seemed subtle, other times bold. Compared very closely to Schlenkerla, which was exactly my goal.

Stick between 152-154 degrees. With that malt bill that should give you a nice medium to high medium body.