Is this mash process okay?

[jtupper]

I am new to rims brewing but this is what I have been doing. FWIW I just finished a cream stout and hit 83% eff which is the best I have ever had so far. My rims tube is a 3500W 240 running on 120. Quick math is around 850W I think. Due to this fact and brewing this time of year the rims is better at holding temps rather than heating. My normal mash consist of me striking water to 140 and doughing in while I let the tube do it's thing up to my set mash temp. Last night it was 156. This sometimes takes the better of an hour or so. Then I start the timer for an hour at min and do an iodine test. Is this long 140-15? climb bad or good for the beer? My eff was around 75% before I got the rims all up and going. I have yet to tase a beer made this way so I don't know about the sweet/dry argument. But I was shooting for 6G @ 1.060 and ended up with 6G @ 1.068. Needless to say I was pretty pleased. Any thoughts on this process?

BTW I double batch sparge at 170 for 10min each set

 

[pjj2ba]

I would suspect that if you are mashing in at 140 and then raising it to 156 over the course of an hour, that most of the conversion will be done in that time frame. And extra hour beyond that is probably not necessary. If your iodine test is saying otherwise, then I would check your pH. 30 min. at 150 F is easily enough time to get full conversion if all the other conditions are correct.

Whether this is Ok depends on what you want and the style of beer. I would think that if it is taking 1 hr for the temp ramp, than this beer will have thinner body as there is lots of time for Beta amylase activity.

Sweetness is largely dependent on the grain bill. The mashing procedure has the largest impact on the body of the beer, not really the sweetness. Pretty much, if it tastes sweet to us, the yeast will eat it up as well. Larger dextrins that might be created, do not taste sweet, but do add fullness to the beer. Now if a yeast stops prematurely, there may be some sweetness in the beer.

 

[jtupper]

So then I should really look in to striking in a lot hotter and just focus on holding temp. Would stepping up my element gain more efficient heating or not enough to matter?

 

[erikhild59]

Question/ will starting the mash that low yield a very highly fermentable wort, and possibly very thin body without much malt sweetness?

 

[pjj2ba]

So then I should really look in to striking in a lot hotter and just focus on holding temp. Would stepping up my element gain more efficient heating or not enough to matter?

My system can ramp at about 1 degree per minutes (direct fired). I've learned how to work with this to tweak the times at various steps to get exactly what I want. I'm not sure what a lower limit for ramp speed would be, but yours seems a bit slow to take advantage of doing step mashes (other than doing a mash out). I would guestimate that the ramp rate should be at least 0.5 degrees per minute to take advantage of the different temperatures in a step mash. The lower the ramp rate, the shorter your hold times.

Question/ will starting the mash that low yield a very highly fermentable wort, and possibly very thin body without much malt sweetness?

As outlined in the OP, it likely will be thinner. Perhaps I should say lighter instead, as when people see thin, the connotation is not enough body. This however is very dependent on the beer style, and perhaps a lighter body is desired. To me malt flavor, sweetness and body are all separate items. It is true, that fuller bodied beers are often maltier. However, it is possible to brew light bodied beers with lots of malt character (ie Czech Pilsners). Sweetness is dependent on the grain bill (crystal malts) and to some extent the choice of yeast. With a few tricks, sweet, but lighter beers could be made, but that is a hard to do.