Mash Schedule

If your kit has this mash schedule:

Mash Schedule
122° F for 20 minutes
153° F for 60 minutes
170° F for 10 minutes

is the 170 for 10 when you mash out or is it the sparging temp? Also what's the advantage of using this schedule rather than just 153 degrees for 60min?

 

The 170°F is the mash-out temp if you're fly sparging... and you can keep the sparge water at that temp as well.

The instructions with kits are best taken with a grain of salt. I guarantee the 122°F rest is unnecessary and potentially detrimental to the beer. What type of beer is this? What's the recipe? What malts are these (maltster)? We can probably give you a better mash schedule than that.

 

Do some reading on the enzymatic activity and how the different temps activate / deactivate the different enzymes and convert the starches to sugars. It's much easier to understand when you get a basic overview of the whys and hows involved.
That being said I always do a single infusion mash 60 min or more at a temp between 145 and 158 F depending on the style and whether I want a sweeter or dryer finishing beer.

 

It's a cream ale. Do you recomand a single infusion at 60min around 153 then?

 

I'd probably lower that a degree or two. It depends on what kind of attenuation you're expected to get and what the yeast strain is. I've never made a cream ale, but I imagine they're pretty attenuated.

 

The 122° is a protein rest that is pretty optional these days. Back when malt was unevenly malted and roasted (say before 1920CE or so) the protein rest was pretty important for head retention.

These days with modern malts in 2010CE the protease activity is probably going to be detrimental to head retention, most brewers skip it; unless they have a tun full of adjuncts like rice or corn.

 

Which may be why they included it in this cream ale recipe. Don't know the recipe, but I would be willing to bet that it's not a whole lot of adjuncts and you can skip it if you want. Look at BM's cream of three crops. It's a pretty good cream ale.

 

That's why Poindexter always has the drop on us. He's from the future!

 

This sounds like the Northern Brewer Cream Ale kit. If it is, this kit has no flaked corn or rice in the recipe. It also inst a good representation of a cream ale but none the less a good beer. There are a few threads about this kit also.

* 7 lbs. Rahr 2-Row Pale
* 0.75 lbs. Gambrinus Honey Malt
* 0.25 lbs. Dingemans Biscuit