HERMS and time between mash temps

[SpaceManBrew]

I cannot seem to find a straight answer, maybe im not looking in the right place. Ive ran some test with my herms that I just constructed... with straight water in the mash tun running 3 gallons per minute I was able to change the temperature at approximately 2 degrees (F) a minute. My main question, if you are doing a multi step mash, and you are given times at a specific temp where do you count the in between time? i.e. Protein Rest at 135 (F) to Beta Rest at 145 (F) could take anywhere from 5 to 10 minutes (depending on grain bill, herms water temp, etc) Do you just ignore that 5/10 minutes and do your rest schedule normally? Also? How many of you tend to mash out with a multi step, would the extra 15 minutes of time/effort really be worth it?

 

[microbusbrewery]

2F per minute is pretty good. I just redesigned my HEX and I'm getting a a hair under 1.5F per minute.

So my disclaimer is I don't do many step mashes because based on what I've read and on some conversations with a pro brewer with several GABF medals in his trophy case, there usually isn't a need to do them. That said I recently did one on a lambic. I don't start counting the time until it reaches the target temp for the step. For example, dough in on the lambic was at 113F then I raised the temp to 122F for 15 min. I didn't start the 15 min timer until I reached 122F. The next step was at 149F for 45 minutes, so the 18-ish minutes it took to reach 149F went out the window and once I reached 149F I restarted the timer for 45 minutes. Does that help? I don't know if that's the way everybody does it but that's the way I've always done it.

 

[SpaceManBrew]

Yeah that helps. Thats what I was assuming, but I do not like to assume and try anything. The chemistry makes sense where it would work, I think the only way to see if there was a difference is to brew the same beer with the two different mash techniques... Something I am willing to try, someday. Do you personally still Mash Out when you do the step mash?

 

[microbusbrewery]

That would be a cool experiment. Maybe even throw in a third batch, same recipe but do it as a single infusion mash and see how different it is from the other two. I never seem to get around to doing those kinds of experiments myself.

Yep I pretty much do a mashout on everything unless a recipe specifically indicates no mashout. Part of the reason is it's my understanding it helps to ensure you get as much of the sugars as possible during the sparge. I fly sparge and my efficiency is usually right around 83 or 84%.