Mash out?

[Jeepsn beer]

I've been digging in the books and haven't found much info on mash outs. My main question's are how do you guy's bring your mash-out temps up to 168ish from your mashing temp. of >155 without direct heat. For now I'm using the igloo mash tun. I haven't really used a mashout period in the past, I've gone straight to recirc and then sparged. I'm pretty sure this is why a few of my beers are ending up dryer than they were intended (from loss of mash temp during recirc). I heard that a mashout basically ends/stops the enzyme action so your wort characteristics are locked in. Is this correct? Or is it just to lower the viscosity of the mash?
I'm in the middle of a recirculating mash system build but have a few months still till it's done. It'll be nice to just bump the mash temp up directly.

 

[brewt00l]

A true mash-out is supposed to raise your grain bed temp to 170 and stop the conversion & make the wort easier to rinse out.

http://www.howtobrew.com/section3/chapter17.html

A couple likely reasons for your beers drying out could be too low temp for your sac rest or over attenuating your yeast. What temps are you holding for your sac rests?

 

[Jeepsn beer]

I like a fuller bodied beer so I am usually right at 154 to 155. What I'm looking for is an accurate way raise the mash temp to 169 degrees indirectly. Or is it as simple as keep adding boiling water till correct and hope for no tannin extraction?

 

[Jeepsn beer]

A true mash-out is supposed to raise your grain bed temp to 170 and stop the conversion & make the wort easier to rinse out.

http://www.howtobrew.com/section3/chapter17.html

A couple likely reasons for your beers drying out could be too low temp for your sac rest or over attenuating your yeast. What temps are you holding for your sac rests?

I just happen to have Palmers book, but missed this referance when trying to find it. Thats the addition formula I was hoping to find. Thanks.

 

[FSR402]

I use beersmith and do a mash-out. It has worked every time. :rockin:

 

[Funkenjaeger]

I use beersmith and do a mash-out. It has worked every time. :rockin:

Same here. No guess-and-check, you just heat up the right amount of water (usually I tweak the volume so I can just use boiling water, so I can hit the temp with no hassle) and just dump it in and stir.

 

[FSR402]

Same here. No guess-and-check, you just heat up the right amount of water (usually I tweak the volume so I can just use boiling water, so I can hit the temp with no hassle) and just dump it in and stir.

Yup same here. Go in with boiling and there is no missing that.

 

[Jeepsn beer]

I use Pro-mash does it have the same type of addition calc?

 

[sleepystevenson]

I use beersmith now too, but still use the calculator at the following link:

http://www.rackers.org/calcs.shtml

Use the Rest Calculator section, it has come out right on for me every time I have used it

 

[RichBrewer]

I heat my sparge water to nearly boiling and at mash out I use it to raise the temp to 168º. I keep adding until I hit my target The rest of the water goes into my hot liquor tank for fly sparging. This sounds too hot for the sparge but it really isn't. There is a lot of cooling as the water travels from the HLT to the MLT and it gets there at about 170º.

 

[ajf]

I like a fuller bodied beer so I am usually right at 154 to 155. What I'm looking for is an accurate way raise the mash temp to 169 degrees indirectly. Or is it as simple as keep adding boiling water till correct and hope for no tannin extraction?

I also ike a fuller bodied beer, and to that end, I mash with 1 qt water to 1 lb grain. With that mash thickness, I find that I can do a mash out with less than 1g near boiling water for any mash containing up to 13 lbs grain (this is just about the limit of my equipment). Although I find the Promash dough in calculator to be accurate, I find the mash out calculations to be a little bit off.
I start by adding about 1/2 - 3/4g mash out water, stir well, and wait for the temperature to stabilize. Then I add small amounts of hot water to hit the required temperature. Occasionally, I overshoot a bit, and need to add some cold water to reduce the temperature.

Hope this helps,

-a.

 

[Killinger]

I've My main question's are how do you guy's bring your mash-out temps up to 168ish from your mashing temp. of >155 without direct heat.

I'm no expert. I'm only on my second AG batch. In my first attempt, I added pints of boiling water until the temp raised. It took a ton of water and I ended up with much more wort than I could boil in my 40qt kettle.

FWIW...

I asked my LHBS guy the same question you're asking. He said to pull off a third of the wort, raise it to "steam" (I read that as 200 degrees), add it back to the mash tun, stir, settle, check temp, run off, sparge, etc. Repeat if necessary prior to beginning sparge.

I did this with my second batch and everything came out MUCH better.

 

[foxtrot]

I've done this also with my last two brews for mashing out and it works well. A little more work, but I've upped my efficiency by about 5% also. Here's a link explaining it some more: http://www.maltosefalcons.com/tech/decoctionmashout.php

 

[Jeepsn beer]

I brewed today and used the infusion method. I used boiling water and was able to hit mash out temp with about 2.5 qts. Last time I tried a mash out I used my sparge water and thats what prompted this thread. Using the sparge water at 170 degrees it took a large volume of my sparge water and still didn't make the mash out temp. Today went way better!! I think I'll try the decoction method from the Falcons website (link) on my next batch.
I brewed an American Hefe with 45% wheat today, so it was a good day to have a successful mash out. Thanks for the tips and links. Soo much to learn still!