Step Mashes

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Aleman

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LeicesterLad said:
Aleman can you provide more info on the stepped mash.
Well the firt piece of information I will supply is that there is no reason with any of the malts we can get nowadays to do a stepped mash . . . apart from flavour development. The traditional reason for stepped mashes was to allow the breweries to use poorly modified malts that would yield a very low level of extract if mashed in the traditional infusion technique

LeicesterLad said:
I get the different temps for different set times ie 35-45C for 30mins but cannot work out if you draw off the wort from the mash tun reheat and add back to the mash to get to your required temp or add more hot water to the mash to raise the temp....The only problem with this is im thinking if you start with 12 litres of water on say 5kg of grain then by the time your finished mashing at the different temps your gonna have a hell of a lot of water or it simply wont fit in the mash tun :wha: ????
There are several ways to accomplish a stepped mash, and the simplest is just to add additional boiling water to raise the temperature from one rest to the next. It is really of benefit going from say 62 (beta amylase rest) to 67 (alpha amylase rest) and 67 to 72 (mash out), you don't need a massive amount of additional water, and if you start with a thicker mash than you would normally do (say 2L/Kg) then going to 3L/Kg is not necessarily a problem. . . . However you do need a bigger mash tun to do this successfully . . . and this technique doesn't work to develop melanoidin flavours . . . It can be used successfully for the glucan rest or the Ferrulic acid rest though in a wheat beer or Oatmeal stout.

Moving on from infusion stepped mashes you come to the classic method of decoction. Where you take a portion of the main mash (always the thick portion, leave the liquor behind, that's where the enzymes are). and raise it using direct heat, pausing at each of the remaining temperature steps . . . before raising it to boiling and adding it back to the main mash to bring the main mash up to the next rest temperature. . . . It develops wonderful melanoidin flavours that really accentuate the malt. . . it is time consuming and can burn on the pan during the heating.

Direct heating of the mash is possible if your tun is designed right, so you turn on the heat stir to ensure scorching doesn't take place and turn off the heat when the rest temperature is obtained. It is very quick and easy to do, and effective . .not that good with electric mash tuns . . . although with a dilute mash of around 3-4l/Kg it is very effective, and I believe it's possible to do it with Brew In A Bag technique, but I've not tried it myself.

As an extension of this you come the the RIMS and HERMS world . .. where the mash liquor is continually recirculated via a pump, from the bottom of the mash tun through the pump into a 'heat unit' and back to a return manifold at the top of the tun. The heat unit is controlled by a PID temperature controller that applies exactly the right amount of 'heat' to the wort to raise the temperature to the next step in a safe manner without overshooting the set temperature . . . once properly 'tuned' these systems are really set and forget.
 
Sorry to butt in...... :oops:
When I first use my new HERMS am I better running it at 63c - 64c then raising it to 68c - 69c for the last 15 mins???
If I did this would it make a difference :hmm: :hmm:

BB
 
BarnsleyBrewer said:
Sorry to butt in...... :oops:
When I first use my new HERMS am I better running it at 63c - 64c then raising it to 68c - 69c for the last 15 mins???
If I did this would it make a difference :hmm: :hmm:

BB

A German mashing schedule uses a rest described below by fellow brewer Zwickel


Zwickel said:
Hoch-Kurz is a method to shorten the time by doing 2 rests only:

Hoch-Kurz-Verfahren:

Temperaturrest 62 °C for 30 min
Temperaturrest 70 °C for 30 min

I went the HERMS route as my beers were not reaching desired attenuation. This was due to mixing grist with water at around 75°C and was lowering attenuation as todays highly modified malts will begin conversion quite quickly. Pro brewer advised me to run my brewing water to the tun and wait for 5 min to allow for equalisation in temperature before adding the grist. This worked to a degree but still not what I was looking for. A highly fermentable wort, mashed low and a gristbill low in dextrinous malts would not achieve recognised attenuation levels for the yeast used. Again asked some pro brewers and sent a few emails............. mash in low and step up was the united reply. After building the HERMS heat exchanger I began doughing in for a pseudo protien rest at 52° and immediately set the temp on the HE controller for the saccharification rest temp. This worked well and I was finally able to dial attenuation in for a beer.

I sometimes include a Glyco-Protien rest 20 min at 72° which improves foam stability, usually only do this for comp beers.

Screwy
 

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