Explain it like I'm 5: Cereal Mash

[EVILEMRE]

I want to cereal mash buckwheat, but for some reason I'm still not clear on the technique. I know it's probably easy but just for fun, can someone, in clear details, explain the process step by step, so I can get on with my life.
And also, what other GF grains should be cereal mashed?
Thank you in advance.

 

[Marc77]

Well, when two pieces of grain really love each other... Kidding. I had to look it up too because I haven't done a cereal mash either.....yet.

http://beersmith.com/blog/2013/09/06/cereal-mash-steps-for-all-grain-beer-brewing/

Seems like some good info. Anyone else with differing or better info?

 

[QuercusMax]

First off: is this malted buckwheat? If so, you don't want to cereal mash it, as that will destroy the enzymes. You probably want to do a decoction mash instead, or a combination cereal+decoction.

Second: how familiar are you in general with the concept of mashing, rests, enzymes, etc? This stuff can get pretty intense, so

A cereal mash is used on un-malted adjuncts, such as oats, rice, wheat, corn, etc, which do not have diastatic (starch-converting) enzymes. It's used to gelatinize the starches, which basically means to cook the so that they are accessible to the enzymes. If you've ever made oatmeal, grits, or rice pudding, you've done a cereal mash. It's really easy: just boil it till the starches come out, and it gets sort of "gluey".

Once you've gelatinize your adjunct's starches, you will cool it down to mash temperature and add to the main mash with the malted grains.

In your case, though, assuming you're using malted buckwheat, you'd want to do a decoction mash instead. With a decoction mash, you pull out the "thick" part of the mash (with the grain solids), boil it to break it down and help gelatinize starches, then add it back in to raise to the next mash step. The reason you don't just boil the whole thing is because that would destroy the enzymes, which are in the "thin" (liquidy) part of the mash.

Igliashon has an explanatory post here:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f164/poor-efficiency-millet-buckwheat-460357/

He recommends if you're going to cereal mash gluten free malts, to do it with no more than 25% of your grist.

 

[QoB]

I am brewing a gluten free beer as we speak. I used the buckwheat from Seven Bridges Coop. I run a mash with buckwheat and millet at 195F for 2 hours. I add 2 tbl sp each of Calcium Chloride and Termamyl amylase.
Then I cool that mash to 142F and mash for another 50 minutes with 2 tbl sp of Amg-300 amylase.
Then I do the boil - I use this base beer for Belgians or Pale ales. I pitch any of the Fermentis yeasts depending on what I want to drink.
Cheers!!!

 

[QoB]

First off: is this malted buckwheat? If so, you don't want to cereal mash it, as that will destroy the enzymes. You probably want to do a decoction mash instead, or a combination cereal+decoction.

Second: how familiar are you in general with the concept of mashing, rests, enzymes, etc? This stuff can get pretty intense, so

A cereal mash is used on un-malted adjuncts, such as oats, rice, wheat, corn, etc, which do not have diastatic (starch-converting) enzymes. It's used to gelatinize the starches, which basically means to cook the so that they are accessible to the enzymes. If you've ever made oatmeal, grits, or rice pudding, you've done a cereal mash. It's really easy: just boil it till the starches come out, and it gets sort of "gluey".

Once you've gelatinize your adjunct's starches, you will cool it down to mash temperature and add to the main mash with the malted grains.

In your case, though, assuming you're using malted buckwheat, you'd want to do a decoction mash instead. With a decoction mash, you pull out the "thick" part of the mash (with the grain solids), boil it to break it down and help gelatinize starches, then add it back in to raise to the next mash step. The reason you don't just boil the whole thing is because that would destroy the enzymes, which are in the "thin" (liquidy) part of the mash.

Igliashon has an explanatory post here:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f164/poor-efficiency-millet-buckwheat-460357/

He recommends if you're going to cereal mash gluten free malts, to do it with no more than 25% of your grist.

How would that work if you added back to other grains? Then the beer wouldn't be gluten free.

I do a 100% gluten free beer with gluten free grains. You need the amylases though for the conversion and as I wrote above, stick with dry yeasts as they are 100% gluten free. I don't use sorghum because it tastes funky! Too tart.

Cheers!

 

[QuercusMax]

By "other grains" I mean to add back to your main mash, since when you decoct you only pull out part of the mash and boil it. I've done some malted millet & buckwheat GF beers, and was able to get good conversion with a multi-step decoction regime. (As for how it tasted... well, that's another story.)

 

[IslandLizard]

One note about decoctions, which is not clear from what was said above.

Although you ultimately boil the thick mash you've separated out, you do not boil it right away. After bringing it to a certain temp, you keep it there for a set amount of time to enable complete conversion of that step. You then gradually raise the temp to the next step(s) and hold it there again, each time. At the end of the schedule you'll end with a boil for some time which develops those desired decoction flavors you can't get any other way. The temps and time schedules depend on your grain, to hit those regions you want the grains' enzymes to work at.

 

[glutarded-chris]

I do partial mashes and use Buckwheat in every batch. I like the head retention it brings to the table but it does complicate the mash schedule. As said above, cereal mashing is performed for unmalted adjuncts, but it is necessary for malted buckwheat also from what I have read and from my experience. I use malted buckwheat in my mashes and I cereal mash the pale buckwheat every time. When you cereal mash, you wipe out any enzymes that were in the buckwheat pale malt so get conversion, you have to have enough from the other malt or add some on top of that.

What I do may not be the best, but the process that I have ended up with seems to work pretty well.

With good efficiency, you can offset a 3.3 lb can of sorghum syrup with a gluten free grain bill of about 5 lb (using millet and 25% or less Buckwheat). I do either 6 lb or 8 lb mashes.

For a 6 lb grain bill I do the following:

I prepare 7 gallons of water for the partial mash.
Put a gallon jug of the water in an ice bath.

Grain bill:
1.5 lb pale buckwheat malt (25%)
3.5 lb pale millet (58%)
1 lb usually a mix of roasted millet malt, millet crystal, etc.

Cereal mash step:
Boil 1.5 lb buckwheat with 3.5 quarts water for 10 to 12 minutes stirring constantly. Set “porridge” aside.

Millet mash dough in:
Add remainder of grain to 5.5 quarts of 110F water (15 to 25 minute rest)

Add cerial mashed buckwheat “porridge” to millet mash and hold at 125 to 135F (25 minute rest)

Add 2 or 3 quarts water (above 200F) to bring up temperature and to add some extra water for decant. Add water slowly and stir at point where hot water enters the mash. Let sit 10 minutes or so, so that mash settles.

With a cup or ladle, decant 3 quarts of water from the top of the mash. This is enzyme rich water that we will add later. Put this in a pan or container with a lid and put in an ice bath.

Heat to 150F (20 minute rest)
Heat to 200F (5 minutes )

I use a cooler lined with a voile bag as a mash tun. Simple and effective.

After the 200F rest, I add the mash to the mash tun. You can add hydrated rice hulls if you want.

At this point I add the clear water from the jug in the ice bath. Add cold water until the mash temperature dips below 160F.

With the mash below 160F it is safe to add the chilled enzyme rich decanted liquid.

Get temperature down to 130 to 140F and add Diatase enzyme.

Hold at 130 to 140F (90 minute rest)

I do a “teabag sparge”. I have a second kettle with 2 gallons of 170F water. When I pull the grain bag from the mash tun, I put it in the sparge water kettle. I pour the first runnings from the mash tun in the boil kettle. Then I pull the bag from the sparge kettle and put the bag with the dry grain back into the mash tun to sit until I am ready to clean. Add the second runnings to the boil kettle.

Record the total amount of collected wart and the gravity. If you have a refractometer, you can get a quick gravity reading otherwise chill a sample to room temperature and use a hydrometer. I like to measure the yield in ppg which is the gravity points for one pound in one gallon. I use the formula:

ppg = (gravity points of collected wart)*(gallons of wart collected)/(pounds of grain)

Hope this helps!

Chris

 

[inda_bebe]

Ive always been wanting to do a cereal mash cause my favorite styles to brew is Saisons. Had recipe ideas to use Buckwheat, Rice and Spelt but cereal mashing has always intimidated me. Is there a supplier that sells malted Spelt and Buckwheat?

I have a rice cooker that has a porridge setting, can i just cook some buckwheat porridge the night before and add it to my early morning mash the next day? I thought about adding the porridge into the my strike water as the target temp reaches, then adding my grains for mashing as usual. anything wrong with doing it this way?

 

[m3B.eer]

@inda_bebe have you tried this way?

 

[BBBF]

Well, when two pieces of grain really love each other...

That's how you get triticale. Unfortunately, not gluten free.