Step Mash - Cooler

[Maxkling]

Going to be brewing an Oktoberfest, with help from another post I came up with a mash and really want to drive the FG down for the nice clean easy drinking lager style. I have only done single infusion batch sparge with system. My system is a 3V with the mash tun as a 10 gallon cooler. It has worked perfectly in the past for what I've brewed.

The grain bill is as followed, should be close to Paulaner Oktoberfest :
7 lbs Munich
5 lbs Pilsner

Playing with my equipment profile in BeerSmith, this is the mash schedule I've come up with, I would like a sanity check or some recommendations.

14 qts. at 142 (strike 153) for 30 minutes (1 qt/lb plus dead space)
8 qts. at 154 (strike? 178) for 30 minutes (iodine test until complete conversion)
I will then recirculate for 5 - 10 minutes and pump to BK.
3.2 gals. at 168 for batch sparge
I will then recirculate for 5 - 10 minutes and pump to BK.
Should end up with preboil volume of 6.73 gallons.

Being my first step mash I think I'm going to omit any other rests and try to keep it simple for the first go round. This is kinda what I've pulled together from How To Brew and searching. I didn't want to hijack the other thread.

 

[jdauria]

Looks good. I don't sparge anymore, but when I did, one thing I learned, and it may have been Denny Conn who posted it somewhere, is that for sparge, you want the mash to be at say 168°, which means the water should be hotter, like at 180-190° so that it brings the grain temp up to 168°. However, saying that, I have seen a lot of info about people sparging with cold or room temp water with no issues, so it's a either or I guess.

 

[Maxkling]

Looks good. I don't sparge anymore, but when I did, one thing I learned, and it may have been Denny Conn who posted it somewhere, is that for sparge, you want the mash to be at say 168°, which means the water should be hotter, like at 180-190° so that it brings the grain temp up to 168°. However, saying that, I have seen a lot of info about people sparging with cold or room temp water with no issues, so it's a either or I guess.

Thanks. I have gone back and forth about the sparge temperature too.

 

[Holden Caulfield]

Compared your step mash schedule to my program and came back with similar numbers, go figure - see snapshot. So your schedule seems ok. Note - had to adjust the mash thickness of the initial infusion to account for the .5 gallon of mashtun dead space toggled in Beersmith, which gave me the same quarts of water.

After 10+ step and decoction mashes, below are some helpful hints I have learned and have built into my process and program to help hit temps. If you have a rims or herms system, most of these items are irrelevant.

1. Preheat the mashtun by heating the strike water about 8 degrees warmer than strike temperature and then adding it to the mashtun and let it sit for about 10 minutes. This usually drops the temperature of the strike water very close to strike temperature with a mashtun that won't absorb additional energy. Beersmith may already account for this as it requests the temperature of your mashtun so preheating your tun may cause you to overshoot your mash temperature. Note, 8 degrees works for my 10 gal igloo cooler but may not be the correct amount for your setup.
2. Pull 1 quart of water from the strike water and raise the quart to a boil. Dough in with the remaining water and use the boiling water to raise the temperature of your mash to the correct temperature if needed. I think it is better to undershoot your temperatures than overshoot, as undershooting will not denature enzymes. If you overshoot your target temperature, dipping a clean pot into the mash can act as a heat sink to cool it quickly. I don't like adding ice to cool. Ice is difficult to control as it melts slowly and requires a lot of stirring.
3. Always have a quart of boiling water and the heat sink pot ready to adjust your steps.
4. When adding step mash water and mixing, I lose a couple of degrees in addition to what the mashtun loses over time. To account for this, my program has a factor to reduce the starting temperature of the next step (set the factor to 0 for this comparison), thereby increasing the volume of the next step - not sure if Beersmith allows for this. That said having that quart of boiling water ready to raise the mash temp if needed is very helpful.
5. Don't sweat a degree or two - your beer will turn out great.

Good luck with step mash.

Regards,

https://www.dropbox.com/s/pc1vjpqre9dzjhz/Buildabeer v6.2 - DB.xlsm?dl=0

 

[Maxkling]

Good to know that it matches.
I’m not too worried about missing or not hitting temperatures my equipment and Beersmith are pretty spot on.

I’m also interested in mash thickness and rest times and temperatures if this will get me a highly fermentable worth that will finish pretty dry and crisp. Would anyone adjust rest times or temperatures?

 

[Holden Caulfield]

Regarding mash thickness - see snapshot below from the Braukaiser website. Kai Troster is a wealth of information that is backed up with experimentation and data. He found that mash thickness has minimal impact on fermentation, but it does impact mash efficiency and that thinner is better. Another impact of a thinner mash is that it will maintain the temperature level in a mashtun better than a thick mash. Finally, Gordon Strong points out that a thinner mash also allows for the temperature to be more consistent throughout the mash. All that being said, some thoughts on mash thickness to consider...

1. If your mashtun can handle the additional volume from a thinner initial mash thickness, going thinner, like 1.25, may help with efficiency as well as maintain your mash temperatures
2. Nearly all of the literature I have read use boiling water to raise the mash to the next step - perhaps you are using 178 degree water as that is the temp of your HLT. If dococting, what is added back is always at boiling temperature. By using boiling water to raise to the next step you don't need as much water allowing for a thinner initial mash thickness

Regarding your mash temperatures which is essentially a Hochkurz schedule. Per Braukaiser, http://braukaiser.com/wiki/index.php/Infusion_Mashing, the beta rest is held between 142 - 146. You are at the low end of that and will probably fall below that range over the the course of the 30 min mash, so I would expect beta conversion to happen slowly resulting in a less fermentable wort. In contrast, your alpha amylase rest is well below the Hochkurz range, so the beta amylase should stay active throughout this rest which will result in a more fermentable wort. Tough to say how fermentable your final wort will be but if you want to dry it out more, you could raise your initial infusion to 146, which will not denature the beta amylase and speed up the conversion, or you could lengthen the initial infusion. Alternatively, you could update your target temperatures to align with the Hochkurz mash, which seems to work well for quite a few german brewers.

Below is a snapshot of my typical Hochkurz schedule; steps raised with boiling water. Seems to make good beer - at least I like it. A 10 gal mashtun will hold all the water and grain. Note, the schedule is based on my process and system so calculated volumes and temperatures will differ from Beersmith's

 

[beersk]

Looks good to me. The only comment I have is that I don't think with 7lbs of Munich and 5lbs of pilsner you're going to get the color you're after for Paulaner Oktoberfest. Needs either 2.5-5% caramunich I or a pinch of carafa III special or both. Other than that, it's quite similar to how I step mash with my cooler setup.

 

[Maxkling]

Looks good to me. The only comment I have is that I don't think with 7lbs of Munich and 5lbs of pilsner you're going to get the color you're after for Paulaner Oktoberfest. Needs either 2.5-5% caramunich I or a pinch of carafa III special or both. Other than that, it's quite similar to how I step mash with my cooler setup.

Thanks. I have 2 oz of Carafa I added that later on.