Forgot to Mash Out??

[hal simmons]

Just finished my third AG batch, a late hopped pale ale. I realized when I was almost done with the sparge that I forgot to mash out. Is this going to affect the batch in any way?

I mash in a converted keg with false bottom, fly sparge, and have gotten 85% efficiency in all three AG batches i've done. I nailed my OG reading, so I know my efficiency didn't suffer because of it. I mashed at 152 for 60 min, the temp dropped to 150 over the hour, then I proceeded to sparge and forgot to mash out at 168. I heated my sparge water to 175 before sparging. My sparge also took 30 minutes longer than my usual 45 min, since the sparge arm had some plugged holes and wasn't running as much water through.

Are there any issues that might arise from this? Either the lack of mash out, OR the longer than usual sparge with the mash temp being lower than it should be?

 

[TexLaw]

I wouldn't worry about it for another moment. The long sparge might have made up for the missed mash out, or the beer gods may just have been smiling on you. In any case, there is nothing to worry about.


TL

 

[CBBaron]

A mashout does 2 things. Starts to denature the enzymes preventing any more conversion including converting complex sugars into fermentable sugars. And it makes the sugars less viscous allowing them to dissolve into the sparge water faster.
Your efficiency wasn't affected, probably because of your longer sparge time, so the only affect might be the slight increase in fermentability.
So basically no worries.
The only reason I do a mash out is to increase the amount of wort drained in moderate beers in my first batch so that I can fit my total pre-boil volume in the next two sparges. My 5gal cooler is limiting at times . On larger beers my strike water completely fills the MLT so a mashout is not possible.

Craig

 

[BierMuncher]

I don't mash out.

 

[dougler13]

I'm gonna be starting all grain soon and have a pretty good idea what most of the terms mean. But what exactly is "mash out"?

 

[BierMuncher]

I'm gonna be starting all grain soon and have a pretty good idea what most of the terms mean. But what exactly is "mash out"?

Here ya go.

 

[dougler13]

So to mash out without being able to heat your tun you would just heat you sparge water to say 190F to get your mash tun up to 170?

 

[BierMuncher]

So to mash out without being able to heat your tun you would just heat you sparge water to say 190F to get your mash tun up to 170?

Yeah basically. But folks who use coolers that batch spargel, don't (usually) worry about it.

You're fine just draining off your first runnings, stopping the drain before it goes completely dry (you don't want the grain bed settling to tightly) and then sparging with 180-190 degree water.

 

[Evets]

I don't mash out either and my beers are good anyway.

 

[dougler13]

Thanks for answering some newb questions. And sorry for sidetracking the thread...

 

[farmbrewernw]

+1 on not mashing out