Mike B1190
Member
Hi All,
I attempted step mashing last night on a pilsner. I batch sparge in a 48 quart rectangular cooler. I just wanted to do a simple step from a Beta Sacch rest at 148 to an Alpha Sacch rest at 158. Why do this with today's modified malts? To try it out and see if it would make a dryer beer. I've also read that a rest toward the high end of the range can help promote head retention. Not sure of the validity to that.
Anyway, it was my first attempt at doing such a thing. It didn't workout like I hoped. I was low on my first rest. I crushed a little too fine and had to stir excessively to get the dough balls broken up and lost a lot of temp. It settled at 145. At this point, I knew my second step would be off. I had treated the total volume of my mash water with acid/salts and reserved the volume I was going to need for the second infusion. I knew I would be low, but I couldn't believe how low I was. The temp only rose to 150 and I had even attempted to account for a few degrees of temperature loss. I used the online Brewer's Friend step mash calculator to determine volumes. For those curious, it was 9.5lbs of pilsner malt. Dough in was at 1.25 qt/lb. (I rounded to 3 gallons) I added 3.2 quarts of boiling water for around 1.58 qt/lb in total.
Anyway, I've searched around a bit and it seems that step mashing with water infusions can be hit or miss. But I'm curious to know if there's anyone that does so reliably? If so, how do you accurately calculate your infusions? Is it just trial and error for your equipment/recipe? Anything I may not have accounted for?
Secondly, admitting that I'm pretty ignorant when it comes to water chemistry, yet insist on making adjustments anyway-- what is typical practice for treating the water when doing step infusions? As I mentioned, I treated the total mash volume, so I'm not sure that the pH was correct for the first rest. I don't have a pH meter. I tend to plug the numbers in EZ Water and just trust that I'm close enough. I'm thinking that I should probably be treating the infusions separately, but I'm not exactly sure how to go about it. I'm also not sure if 3.2 quarts would make all that much difference.
Finally, I had 2 ideas regarding alternative ways to heat the mash with the cooler setup. Opinions are encouraged.
1. I have a heat stick that I homemade with an electric water heater element to help get the wort to boiling on my weak electric stove. My thought was that I could place that in the cooler and keep it moving through the mash until the temp came up to the next rest. Concerns would be scorching the grains with the element and/or melting the cooler with the element. I'm not thinking this would work very well, but maybe someone has tried this or something similar before?
OR
2. Dough in the full mash volume at my typical 1.5 qt/lb and do a beta Sacch rest at 148. Then drain the thin mash into a kettle as if lautering, heat that up on the stove a little bit above the temp of the next rest and return it to the mash tun with the grain. Other than potential losses that would impact brewhouse efficiency and the added time it would take are there any downsides to this method? Any chance of hurting the enzymes this way?
Sorry, that turned into a pretty long post.
TL;DR
1. Any advice on reliably step mashing in a cooler?
2. What is best practice for water treatment when using multiple mash water infusions?
3. Are there any downsides to heating thin mash in a kettle and returning it to the mash tun with the grain to hit mash steps?
I attempted step mashing last night on a pilsner. I batch sparge in a 48 quart rectangular cooler. I just wanted to do a simple step from a Beta Sacch rest at 148 to an Alpha Sacch rest at 158. Why do this with today's modified malts? To try it out and see if it would make a dryer beer. I've also read that a rest toward the high end of the range can help promote head retention. Not sure of the validity to that.
Anyway, it was my first attempt at doing such a thing. It didn't workout like I hoped. I was low on my first rest. I crushed a little too fine and had to stir excessively to get the dough balls broken up and lost a lot of temp. It settled at 145. At this point, I knew my second step would be off. I had treated the total volume of my mash water with acid/salts and reserved the volume I was going to need for the second infusion. I knew I would be low, but I couldn't believe how low I was. The temp only rose to 150 and I had even attempted to account for a few degrees of temperature loss. I used the online Brewer's Friend step mash calculator to determine volumes. For those curious, it was 9.5lbs of pilsner malt. Dough in was at 1.25 qt/lb. (I rounded to 3 gallons) I added 3.2 quarts of boiling water for around 1.58 qt/lb in total.
Anyway, I've searched around a bit and it seems that step mashing with water infusions can be hit or miss. But I'm curious to know if there's anyone that does so reliably? If so, how do you accurately calculate your infusions? Is it just trial and error for your equipment/recipe? Anything I may not have accounted for?
Secondly, admitting that I'm pretty ignorant when it comes to water chemistry, yet insist on making adjustments anyway-- what is typical practice for treating the water when doing step infusions? As I mentioned, I treated the total mash volume, so I'm not sure that the pH was correct for the first rest. I don't have a pH meter. I tend to plug the numbers in EZ Water and just trust that I'm close enough. I'm thinking that I should probably be treating the infusions separately, but I'm not exactly sure how to go about it. I'm also not sure if 3.2 quarts would make all that much difference.
Finally, I had 2 ideas regarding alternative ways to heat the mash with the cooler setup. Opinions are encouraged.
1. I have a heat stick that I homemade with an electric water heater element to help get the wort to boiling on my weak electric stove. My thought was that I could place that in the cooler and keep it moving through the mash until the temp came up to the next rest. Concerns would be scorching the grains with the element and/or melting the cooler with the element. I'm not thinking this would work very well, but maybe someone has tried this or something similar before?
OR
2. Dough in the full mash volume at my typical 1.5 qt/lb and do a beta Sacch rest at 148. Then drain the thin mash into a kettle as if lautering, heat that up on the stove a little bit above the temp of the next rest and return it to the mash tun with the grain. Other than potential losses that would impact brewhouse efficiency and the added time it would take are there any downsides to this method? Any chance of hurting the enzymes this way?
Sorry, that turned into a pretty long post.
TL;DR
1. Any advice on reliably step mashing in a cooler?
2. What is best practice for water treatment when using multiple mash water infusions?
3. Are there any downsides to heating thin mash in a kettle and returning it to the mash tun with the grain to hit mash steps?