A framework for transforming an arbitrary mash-schedule to an equivalent isothermal mash

[Nordic Brewer]

When I started brewing, I was pretty confused regarding all the different mashing schedules I found in different recipes regarding time, steps and temperatures.
In the process of learning more, I ended up trying to make a framework where one can compare different mashing schedules against an equivalent isothermal mash with the same sugar profile.
I'm not discussing the reason for doing different steps at different temp, because that is a an other discussion.

The framework is unfortunately to large to write in a post, so I have linked up the document.
The document can be found in this link:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B-AhE412SnEheXNvRHRzeDhaNkUtcW1Tc0dPMkExWmxaZFBz

 

[ajdelange]

I'll make two comments
First: You may be able to find a fixed temperature that gives you the same percentage of sugar in a wort as a more complex mashing program but the spectrum of the sugars, and other compounds will be different.

Second: Reference 8 caught my eye. Sienko was a professor at Cornell and co author with Robert Plane of perhaps the most widely used freshman chemistry text ever printed. Plane had a large book case in his office full of copies of this text - no two in the same language. Sienko was kind of a quiet little guy who sort of shuffled through his lectures without, it seemed, much interest in what he was presenting. But on the day he went over fermentation reactions he was a different man altogether. Enthusiastic as could be he bounced around that lecture hall. It was pretty clear what part of chemistry he was interested in!