Cereal mash, stepping and single infusion question

[jmo88]

I will be making a saison with toasted raw spelt soon. I will be doing a cereal mash for my first time and have some basic questions.

When I do a cereal mash of 2lbs of spelt, what temps should I hit? Some resources say boil for twenty minutes, others step from the low 100'sF to a boiling.

Every example I've read suggests doing a step mash for the main mash while performing a cereal mash. Why should I? I was planning on doing a cereal mash and then beginning a single infusion once the cereal mash is done by adding it to the main mash.

How much barley malt would you recommend adding to a 2lb spelt cereal mash? Do I even need to add malt to it?

Until I researched more today, I was planning on just boiling the spelt to a gel and adding it to a single infusion mash. Based on my reading it seems there are more steps people do but I don't know how necessary they are.

 

[jmo88]

Not a popular topic, eh?

Well I created a nice starchy spelt goo by cooking it then boiling it for about 40 minutes. It's about a gallon's worth. I'll be adding this to the main mash in a 150F single infusion. Hope it converts...

 

[944play]

The idea is to get your main mash up to sacc rest temp with the infusion of the boiling cereal mash. Maybe that's what you interpreted from "step mash."

 

[jmo88]

The idea is to get your main mash up to sacc rest temp with the infusion of the boiling cereal mash. Maybe that's what you interpreted from "step mash."

Yeah, I kinda figured that it would be more about convenience than necessity. I did the cereal mash already but won't do the main mash until later today. I will make sure the cereal mash is 150F before adding it to the main mash so I don't have to worry about messing up the main mash temp.