Mash stirring and HSA.

[Schnitzengiggle]

I will be a new AG brewer come this Sunday (weather permitting) and my question is:

How much stirring of the mash is too much?

Can over stirring of the mash contribute to HSA?

If the stirring is too vigorous (if possible) can this also be attribited to HSA?

I have read some conflicting info on this subject and need some clarification.

 

[Denny]

I believe that HSA is possible, but extremely rare. I have never known it to be casued by normal mash stirring.

 

[Schnitzengiggle]

Since I am new to this what is "normal mash stirring"?

5, 10, 15, minutes?

Vigorous, or just good stirring to mix everything?

 

[Denny]

I stir 5 min. or so after every water addition. I stir vigorously, but carefully. I try not to have bubbles in my mash, but I don't worry if I do. My best advice, short of actually being able to show you, is to stir as much as you need to, no harder than you need to, and then enjoy the beer you're making!

And Mr. Language Person asks...."isn't that spelled Occam?"

 

[Snafu]

I give mine a good mix about every 15 mins. I keep it short to prevent any temp loss. Nor do I get carried away with how hard I do it, hot wort on the leg = Bad JuJu.

 

[Denny]

Have you ever tried not stirring every 15 min.? I used to do the same. Being the lazy type, I tried not stirring and found it made absolutely no difference to me.

 

[Snafu]

Oh yeah, I've gotten caught up in doing something for the next step and didn't touch the mash for 45 mins, I still ended up at 80% eff. I think as long as you hit your temps right on, give it a good dough-in, and a really good stir right before you sparge and you'll do fine. That being said, i'll still stir mine about every 15 mins, I guess its more a habit at this point.

 

[Schnitzengiggle]

I stir 5 min. or so after every water addition. I stir vigorously, but carefully. I try not to have bubbles in my mash, but I don't worry if I do. My best advice, short of actually being able to show you, is to stir as much as you need to, no harder than you need to, and then enjoy the beer you're making!

And Mr. Language Person asks...."isn't that spelled Occam?"

From Wikipedia: Occam's razor or Ockham's razor, attributed to 14th-century English logician and Franciscan friar, William of Ockham is the principle that "entities should not be multiplied unnecessarily" or, popularly applied, "when you have two competing theories that make exactly the same predictions, the simpler one is the better."

I prefer to spell it after the dude it was named after, I don't understand why or how they added another "C" and removed the "K". I just like to give credit where credit is due, to each their own.

 

[Denny]

Thank ya for the info, sir! I've always seen it spelled with 2 "c"s and wasn't aware of the derivation. I appreciate being edumacated!

 

[PseudoChef]

Have you ever tried not stirring every 15 min.? I used to do the same. Being the lazy type, I tried not stirring an?d found it made absolutely no difference to me.

Don't you mean pragmatic?

 

[Denny]

Don't you mean pragmatic?

OOOOHHHH, yeah, that's it!

 

[weirdboy]

Barring using something like an electric hand mixer to stir your mash, you are not every going to experience any HSA problems no matter how much or how vigorously you stir your mash.

 

[brewtroll]

so what is HSA please?

 

[Bobby_M]

You'll want to stir for the first 5 minutes anyway just to take in that first all grain malt aroma. It's orgasmic.

 

[Newbeerguy]

You'll want to stir for the first 5 minutes anyway just to take in that first all grain malt aroma. It's orgasmic.

+1 on that

 

[Yuri_Rage]

HSA = boogeyman

Stir the mash. It's gonna be fine. Unless you're splashing the entire mash from a height of six+ feet into a separate lauter tun (and who does that?!), there's nothing to worry about.

 

[dantodd]

so what is HSA please?

Hot Side Aeration. Don't try specifically to aerate hot wort and you'll never have to worry about it. I think it was Basic Brewing that did a podcast on this once with an actual study with varying degrees of wort aeration and it took a lot of intentional aeration to cause any noticeable off flavor.

 

[MarsColonist]

Brtewstrong also did a podcast on this:http://www.thebrewingnetwork.com/membersarchive/bs_hsa1-26-09.mp3 .... basically, there are way bigger fish to fry than dealing with HSA

 

[dantodd]

Very cool. I love Jamil's show. I've been out of brewing for a couple years and I'm just catching up with the BN shows. Listening to the Session from last year with the wine yeast and oak guy, lots of interesting information.