Can you clarify these instructions?

[corycorycory09]

I have made 4 extract batches and I'm ready to try my hand at an all grain brew.

I want to attempt a clone of one of my favorite beers, the Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA.

Here is the recipe:

90-Minute IPA clone
(Dogfish Head)
(5 gallons/19 L, all-grain)
OG = 1.088 FG = 1.021
IBU = 90 SRM = 13 ABV = 8.7%
Ingredients
16.5 lbs. (7.5 kg) Pilsner malt
1.66 lbs. (0.75 kg) amber malt (35 °L)
16 AAU Amarillo hops (90–0 mins)
(2.0 oz./57 g of 8.0% alpha acids)
8.0 AAU Simcoe hops (90–0 mins)
(0.62 oz./17 g of 13% alpha acids)
8.0 AAU Warrior hops (90–0 mins)
(0.53 oz./15 g of 15% alpha acids)
1 oz. (28 g) Amarillo hops (dry hops)
0.5 oz (14 g) Simcoe hops (dry hops)
0.5 oz. (14 g) Warrior hops (dry hops)
1 tsp. Irish moss (15 mins)
Wyeast 1099 (Whitbread Ale) yeast
0.75 cups corn sugar (for priming)

Step by Step
Mash in at 122 °F (50 °C), then raise the temperature to 149 °F (65 °C) until conversion is complete. Mash out to 170 °F (77 °C). Boil the wort for 105 minutes. Starting with 90 minutes left in the boil, begin slowly and evenly adding hops to the kettle. (This works out to a little over 0.25 oz. (7 g) of hops every 7.5 minutes.) Start fermentation at 71 °F (22 °C) and let raise to 74 °F (23 °C). Dry hop in secondary at 71 °F for 3–5 days, then cool to 32 °F (0 °C).

I am a bit confused about the process of "mashing in" at 122 degrees and then raising to 149 degrees. What does this process look like? I thought 148-158 was the ideal range for enzymes to convert the starch into sugar... why 122 degrees in this recipe?

Thanks!

 

[histo320]

I think this would be considered a protein rest. I believe it is not beneficial when using highly modified malt, Pilsner being one of those.

My process is to add 170F water to my mash tun to preheat it, then once it gets down to 168 I mix in the grains and it usually settles about 152F.

 

[Yooper]

It's a step mash, with a protein rest. It is totally unnecessarily, and actually not recommended for highly modified malts anyway- so you can just go ahead and mash at 148/149 and not worry about raising the mash temp like that.

Since you're mashing at 149, I'd go with a bit of a longer mash (75-90 minutes) to ensure complete conversion but otherwise wouldn't do anything special.

 

[feinbera]

What it looks like depends on whether you're mashing in something fireproof. If you mash in a stainless pot/keggle/similar, just throw it on your burner when you need to heat it up. If you're mashing in a cooler, you'll need to stir in boiling water to raise the temp of the whole kit and caboodle – for a 27° step, that's gonna work out to a lot of boiling water, so, you'll probably wanna do that 122° on the thick side, so your main mash isn't ridiculously thin.

Either way, you'll probably wanna find a mash temperature calculator you trust, so you'll know how much water at what temp you'll want to start with and add for any steps – my personal fave is Green Bay Rackers (I heat a couple degrees above what it recommends, to account for heat losses warming up my cooler).

 

[b-boy]

That's a complicated first time All grain brew. It's pretty much continuously hopped. My advice would be to do a simple beer, like a pale ale for your first all grain until you get the hang of it. Just my opinion. I know for me my first AG brew was a little overwelming and I did a kit.