Becoming the mash master

[justindustrial]

I've read that if you're really good at mashing, you know when to step the temperature / mash out to lock in the mash profile based on fermentables and unfermentables

How do I get really good at mashing, and what steps are involved in designing and locking in a mash profile?

 

[BxBrewer]

Automated equipment.

 

[duboman]

Automated equipment.

Haha! Too funny!

Mash is all about water chemistry and temperature. You need a good calibrated thermometer, a good crush, a proper water report and profile to adjust from and diligence in your process.

Without these items it's a best guess attempt at getting the beer you want with proper efficiency for each grist you mash

 

[pjj2ba]

I've read that if you're really good at mashing, you know when to step the temperature / mash out to lock in the mash profile based on fermentables and unfermentables

How do I get really good at mashing, and what steps are involved in designing and locking in a mash profile?

The same way you get to Carnegie Hall - practice, practice, practice.

It is hard to generalize as everyone's set up is different, and it is going to change with beer styles. You need to be observant and figure out what does and does not work on your system.

 

[MuddyCreek]

refractometer would let you get regular gravity readings. I suppose that would be a very good start. Then once you're a golden god you could just tell from look/smell/taste

I am NOT a golden god.

 

[Teromous]

Get to know your equipment. How hot to warm up your mash tun (especially if using a cooler), how much the temp normally drops over time, how much grain and water you know it can hold, how much the temp drops when the lid is open, get to know where cold/hot spots normally develop so you know where and when to stir (probably more important for rectangle coolers than round ones). Using brewing software will usually get you close, but you really need to take notes. If your calculated temp is consistently off by 5 degrees, then you know to correct it next time. Take note of the strike water temp before adding it to the grains, and after. If possible you can also note the outside temp so that next time you know if a sudden drop in temp was because it was 10F outside or you opened the mash tun too often even though it was 90F outside.

 

[JimRausch]

I've read that if you're really good at mashing, you know when to step the temperature / mash out to lock in the mash profile based on fermentables and unfermentables

How do I get really good at mashing, and what steps are involved in designing and locking in a mash profile?

Are you asking how to stop the mash process at a particular stage of fermentables? That one's easy- just raise the temp. of your mash above 160 to stop all enzyme activity.
If you're asking how to tell the ratio of fermentables:unfermentables in a particular mash, that's harder to answer, and I can't help you there. All I can tell you is the general : a lower temp mash of 145-150 yields more fermentables and a higher temp mash of 155-158 yields more long chain sugars which are not as fermentable. That info. is based on book knowledge, not anything I've read that backs it up with chemistry.

 

[JBOGAN]

Get to know your equipment. How hot to warm up your mash tun (especially if using a cooler), how much the temp normally drops over time, how much grain and water you know it can hold, how much the temp drops when the lid is open, get to know where cold/hot spots normally develop so you know where and when to stir (probably more important for rectangle coolers than round ones). Using brewing software will usually get you close, but you really need to take notes. If your calculated temp is consistently off by 5 degrees, then you know to correct it next time. Take note of the strike water temp before adding it to the grains, and after. If possible you can also note the outside temp so that next time you know if a sudden drop in temp was because it was 10F outside or you opened the mash tun too often even though it was 90F outside.

^^ This for sure.Forgot to warm up MLT one time before a mash and i was shooting for 151 F..Only got to 145 F and had to add time to the mash.Any other time i hit my mash temps either on the head or a degree off.

 

[Wolfbayne]

I think the best approach has already been said....

1. Practice
2. Know your equipment
3. Automation

Try not to rely so heavily on...yes I'll say it...Beersmith. Think of it more like a guide. You can create a recipe by trial and error. Sometimes more by error, but still a good drinkable homebrew. Sometimes we get to serious with this hobby and forget that its a craft. Take notes with careful attention to detail as to what you did on certain brews. Keep it simple and grow. High EFF% doesnt mean its better than a lower EFF% in mashing, just means you need to figure out what you could do to improve.

Environment plays a part as well. Was it hot? cold? humid? windy? All these factors play a part in brewing/mashing. Know your ranges for your mash. Know your water. Take notes. Even go back to your notes and add tasting notes on the finished beer. This will definatley let you know if something needs to be improved. Use it as reference material.

 

[biertourist]

IMHO, you can't improve what you can't measure.

The easy first steps are to accurately measure your water quantity, water temperature, grist mass (dead simple), and mash ph. This means you need calibrated vessels and thermometers and a ph meter. The other "instrument" that I would say that you shouldn't do without if you want to learn about mashing and what the enzymes are doing (the whole purpose after all) is a bit of iodine and an eye dropper. -The iodine from the pharmacy will work. Simply pull a tiny bit of your mash liquid and drop a single drop of iodine into it and observe the color -dark black indicates the presence of a lot of unconverted starch and high molecular weight carbs; as the mash continues this will turn bluish to redish, and eventually will result in basically no color change at all (just iodine dissipating).

-YES temp determines how fermentable your mash is, but the enzymatic power of your mash (the enzymatic power of each malt averaged out based upon the % contribution of each malt in the grist) determines HOW LONG the mash requires to convert (temperature also impacts the speed of conversion). You can actually SEE / MEASURE where conversion is with a simple eye dropper full of iodine. WARNING: Iodine is poison; throw away the part that you test.
If you get a refractometer to keep track of your extract you can simple test each sample for gravity AND starch conversion if you have iodine on hand.

Getting your water into an acceptable range for brewing is important but pre-boiling your water with a campden tablet is dead simple and will get most waters into an acceptable range. The most simple way to get your mash into the right ph range is to test the mash directly (after cooling a sample) and then adding calculated amounts of lactic acid, stirr, wait 4 min and test again. -You'll figure out roughly where your ph typically ends up for light and dark beers pretty quickly.

Also make sure your mash thickness is at an acceptable range (2.5 liters of water per kilo of grain - 3.0 liters per kilo is a great place for most beers and most equipment.)

You want to avoid problems during sparging so again a calibrated ph meter and thermometer are important; batch sparging is simple, possible with any equipment, and less likely to result in extracting tannins/polyphenols. (So start out with batch sparging and you can worry about other methods far in the future (or never, as other methods won't make better beer, they'll just increase your efficiency) after you've got sanitization, yeast, and fermentation down.)

Once you have some experience with your system and have these things dialed in, then you can focus on more advanced water chemistry and adapting your mashing process for your materials (assuming your system supports it). -The single best resource I know for this is the book "New Brewing Lager". Some higher protein malts and wheat beers generally benefit from a protein rest and different temperature rests for different periods of time. -New Brewing Lager will help you to understand what malts / grists will benefit from the more advanced multi step mashes.

If you decide to go crazy and try traditional decoction mashes (with appropriate low modified floor malts that are not available from SOME suppliers), New Brewing Lager will give you the information to do it, assuming you have the equipment necessary to boil the decocted portion separately.


Eventually you can go nuts with highly accurate Pt100 temp probes connected to PID logic controllers with enhanced "fuzzy logic" and possibly RIMS/HERMS equipment to ensure that you always mash at the right temp at the right time, but these things are unnecessary; if you have the right equipment and know your system you can hit the right temps for the right amount of time, too. (A simple keggle can enable you to brew everything; a cooler box mashtun is better suited to infusion mashing but if you go crazy enough with the equipment you can adjust any system to do multi step mashing (RIMS, HERMS, Steam-injection crazy time).)

IMHO, worrying about water chemistry too much early on is focusing on the wrong thing. Start with water that tastes good and is in the acceptible range (1/2 campden + pre-boil) and adjust the ph with lactic acid if necessary; that's ALL. -Add 1 tsp of calcium chloride for malty beers and 1 tsp of gypsum for hoppy beers; 1/2 tsp each for malty and hoppy beers and call water chemistry "good enough" until you get the rest nailed down. (Too many people waste far too many hours on esoteric incredibly minor tweaks to water and ignore some really big items that could dramatically improve their beers.) -On that subject, once you have the basics of not screwing up during mashing down, it's probably better to focus on sanitization, yeast health, and temperature control to make your beer better; then come back to mashing and increase your knowledge and experience there.




Adam