continous heating no step mash

[NorwegianAle]

Quick question: i have an electric mash tun/boiler all in one system. The heating element can be regulated to a percentage of max. I have been playing with the idea of slowly heating i.e. a german wheat beer which has a lot of steps, slowly, making the total mash time the same, only rising the temperature really slowly while circulating the wort. Any thougts on how this will result compared to decoction mash, multiple infusions or other techniques?

 

[Contrarian]

Would make reproducibility difficult between batches.
Also rest temperatures are usually chosen to target a specific enzymes optimum temperature - by ramping slowly you'll be sitting at inefficient temps where activity is unnecessarily slow.
For the proteolytic enzymes there is greater enzyme diversity so the fuzzy temperature range might actually be beneficial.

However, the only real measure would be to try it. Might give you something you like. I'd certainly be interested in the results.

 

[BigEd]

Quick question: i have an electric mash tun/boiler all in one system. The heating element can be regulated to a percentage of max. I have been playing with the idea of slowly heating i.e. a german wheat beer which has a lot of steps, slowly, making the total mash time the same, only rising the temperature really slowly while circulating the wort. Any thougts on how this will result compared to decoction mash, multiple infusions or other techniques?

It's called a ramped infusion, a mash technique I was told A-B uses. If they do I'm sure it has very high potential efficiency if you get the rate of time/temperature change right. Compared to a decoction you aren't going to get the melanoidin production from boiling.

 

[NTexBrewer]

Belgian Brewers use this method. It will produce a highly fermentable wort.

 

[NorwegianAle]

Belgian Brewers use this method. It will produce a highly fermentable wort.

All great and fast answers, but quick follow up question on this last one; i had a vague idea of reading something similar to this before. Is there also a chance this beer will result watery and thin? (In addition to strong(er))

 

[NorwegianAle]

Belgian Brewers use this method. It will produce a highly fermentable wort.

It's called a ramped infusion, a mash technique I was told A-B uses. If they do I'm sure it has very high potential efficiency if you get the rate of time/temperature change right. Compared to a decoction you aren't going to get the melanoidin production from boiling.

Please forgive my ignorance, but English is not my mother tongue. What is "A-B"?

 

[BigEd]

A-B = Anheuser Busch brewers of American mega-beer Budweiser and now part of InBev. Re the ramped infusion, some years ago I asked questions about the mashing during a brewery tour.

 

[BigEd]

All great and fast answers, but quick follow up question on this last one; i had a vague idea of reading something similar to this before. Is there also a chance this beer will result watery and thin? (In addition to strong(er))

If you choose this method you will want to prepare the grist bill and adjust the temperature/time ratio to make sure you don't wind up with an overly fermentable wort. The ability to suck every last possible molecule of sugar from the mash is probably the reason a big brewer of industrial beer may choose the method.

 

[NTexBrewer]

All great and fast answers, but quick follow up question on this last one; i had a vague idea of reading something similar to this before. Is there also a chance this beer will result watery and thin? (In addition to strong(er))

Yes. But for certain styles this is what the brewer is trying to achieve. When I toured some breweries in Belgium their brewing pamphlet they gave out said that they use a ramped infusion. Brasserie Du Bocq states that they add water to the grain and slowly raise the temperature to a final temp of 78C (172F) over 3 hours. Cantillon says they mash in at 45C (113F) and increase the temperature to 72C (162F) over 2 hours. They do not say if they stop at certain temperature ranges. But for most Belgian beers they want a fermentable wort.

It has been my experience that doing a Decoction mash or any multi step mash usually results in a final gravity lower than what the recipe predicts. Which is my case has been a thinner body than I wanted.

 

[pricelessbrewing]

@Owly055 does something similar to this.

 

[DurtyChemist]

If you can do it and monitor the temps this wouldn't be any different than people doing steps. You're just eliminating the time at each step and the time to rise to the next step. Go for it. This is what makes brewing fun. New ideas might turn into something great