General question about brewing lingo

[jaytoons]

Hey guys ive done a few batches of simple brew kits but I wanted to get into some recipes other guys in the forums have made. I'm looking at this one in particular:

http://aussiehomebrewer.com/recipe/502-drsmurtos-golden-ale/

The only problem is i don't fully understanding the boiling process. eg '@ 15, @45' Im assuming most are 60 minute boils and youre adding the hops in at certain times. Also what 'mashing' means.

Thanks in advance. Any links or readings from the internet will help also.

 

[yum beer]

"Mashing' is the process of holding an amount of cracked grain in a quantity of water at certain temps for certain periods of time to extract sugars and flavour, the result is called 'wort'(unfermented beer). eg. mash 3kg of ale malt in 20 litres of 62c water for 60 minutes.

You drain the wort from your grain and boil the liquid with your hops.

Boiling process works like a countdown. Boiling your wort normally runs between 60 minutes and 120minutes.
Times given are minutes left to boil to add your hops.
45-60 minute additions boil for 45-60 minutes and contribute mostly bitterness.
15-45- minute additions boil for 15-45 minutes and add mostly flavour
0-15 minute additions add mostly aroma.

If you have a 60 minute boil with hops @ 60, @20 and @5 then:
you start the boil and your timer, add your @60 addition when wort start to boil, 40 minutes later(20 minutes left) you add your @20 then 15 minutes later(5 minutes to go) add your @5.
With 0 minutes left(after 60 minute boil) turn your heat source off(flameout) then proceed to whirlpool/cool.....more things to learn!
This is why a countdown timer as oppossed to a stopwatch is the preffered timing method.

 

[jaytoons]

appreciate the reply. thanks mate

 

[stm]

Technically, mashing is the conversion of the starches in the malt to fermentable sugars (eg, maltose) using the enzymes which are also in the malt (not simply an extraction of sugars, which is what you do, say, in steeping crystal malts). The enzymes operate at specific temperatures so temp control is important for a mash of your base malts such as ale malt, pilsner malt, vienna and munich, but not so much for a steep of your specialty grains such as crystal. The end result of the mash is "sweet liquor."

Yum's explanation of the boil is great.

Read the stickies at the top of this sub-forum and also in All Grain and in Partials.

 

[damoninja]

Great to see you've decided to take the leap, it's really quite simple to get started and it's lots of fun!