Why mash-out?

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jonnymorris

jonnymorris

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John Palmer says the mash-out (raising the temperature of the mash) 'stops all of the enzyme action (preserving the fermentable sugar profile) and makes the grain bed and wort more fluid'.

I don't think I managed to raise the temp of my mash despite raising the temp of the sparge water to 78degC. I had no issues getting the wort out but am left wondering the impact of not 'preserving my fermentable sugar profile'. This doesn't mean a lot to me, any ideas?
 
jonnymorris said:
John Palmer says the mash-out (raising the temperature of the mash) 'stops all of the enzyme action (preserving the fermentable sugar profile) and makes the grain bed and wort more fluid'.
Click to expand...
Technically it does, although I have sparged with cold water (long Story) and had no problems with sparging.

Large Commercial breweries use lot of enzymes to achieve this fluidity (They digest the gummy glucans), but most small craft breweries don't bother.

Now I have the HERMS, I add it in if I can remember.

One thing that perhaps is important it that you raise the mash bed temp to 78C, which you may not achieve with 78C sparge water! . . . and again it is only relevant to fly sparging not batch.
 
Aleman said:
One thing that perhaps is important it that you raise the mash bed temp to 78C, which you may not achieve with 78C sparge water!
Click to expand...
Sorry, I raised the temp to 88degC in a bid to raise the mash to 78degC but didn't manage to keep the boiler at 88 and hence failed to raise the mash temp. That and I don't think it helped that the hot water sat on top of the foil for quite a while as I was sparging slowly.

What does 'preserving the fermantable sugar profile' actually mean?
 
You are going to stop all enzyme acivity in the boil. We achive that much better/quicker than comercial breweries, so the time from end of mash and raising the temp past 78C is going to be fairly quick. So in my humble opinion, I say stop worrying. :grin:
 
If I understand correctly, the wort extracted from the grains still has enzyme activity going on that needs to be stopped to maintain as much fermentable sugar in the wort as possible. Because the wort will be brought to the boil fairly quickly after being extracted this isn't an issue for the home brewer?

I'm not particularly worried with my last brew but would like to understand what's going on.
 
yeah i wouldnt worry about it tbh, getting the mash temp first is more important and i reckon for us guys its really only helpful if doing troublesome mashes eg high wheat beers etc where need extra fluidity- to get a decent temp i try to sparge with mostly boiling water-also helps with chlorines etc and i do it to try and dissolve any sugars better to hopefully get better efficency as warm water dissolves sugar better? but then u have to worry about not getting too hot ie over 76 (or something) as this will extract nasty tannins etc
 
jonnymorris said:
If I understand correctly, the wort extracted from the grains still has enzyme activity going on that needs to be stopped to maintain as much fermentable sugar in the wort as possible. Because the wort will be brought to the boil fairly quickly after being extracted this isn't an issue for the home brewer?

I'm not particularly worried with my last brew but would like to understand what's going on.
Click to expand...

T'other way around. The continued enzymic activity in the sweet wort will be continuing to convert unfermentable (larger) sugars into fermentable (smaller) sugars. Stopping the activity in the run-off wort gives less fermentable sugar and therefore, in theory, a sweeter or more full-bodied beer.
 
FWIW I fly sparge and have the liquor in the HLT heated to about 80ºC. Not sure if this affects the action in the mash tun, but as soon as I start the run off into the copper I fire up the propane burner to start heating the sweet wort. I mainly do this to get the wort boiling as soon as poss to save propane as it's so**ing expensive nowadays, but if there's added perks for improving the beer then I'm more than happy!!

Wassail!
Phil
 

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