Mashing an imperial porter at 149?

[linusstick]

I'm brewing an imperial smoked Porter today and using a recipe I got from a book. I know I can mash at whatever temp I want and my thoughts would be on the higher end to give it a full body, but the recipe is suggesting a mash at 149. I think I'm going to go with that temp to see what it turns out like but just curious the reasoning behind such a low mash temp for a 1.088 beer. I'm just doing a small 1.5 gallon batch so if it's not great I'm not worried about it. Any thoughts?

 

[xpops]

i'm not sure why they would suggest such a low mash for such a big heavy beer. i imagine that even with a high attenuating yeast like 80% will only bring it down to 1.018 or so. i guess the question is what is the difference in a beer that would have residual unfermentable sugars from a high mash, vs leftover fermentable sugars from a really low mash temp?? if such a small volume, how about doing a side by side and compare the two?

 

[xCSx]

it will definitely not be balanced... try 154+

 

[mabrungard]

That is a fairly big beer and the advice to mash at the modest temp of 149F is sound. With all that malt, it could easily become overwhelming and have too full a mouthfeel if a less fermentable wort were produced. I'm betting that the recipe's author has already found that out. Mashing at a higher temperature is not likely to make that beer better.

 

[markstache]

I'm betting that the recipe's author has already found that out. Mashing at a higher temperature is not likely to make that beer better.

I agree with Martin. Trust the author. One hopes that recipes published in books have gone through a few iterations with tweaking. Perhaps the lower temp is there to offset a higher percentage of crystal malt or a low attenuating yeast. It's impossible for us to know that given your brief description, but we can bet the author has a better handle on these things.