Mash Times

[Murray]

I infusion mash for 90 minutes. I will change the mash temperature from batch to batch depending on what sort of beer I am making. I have been reading that some people advise mashes of 30 minutes at high temperatures (~70C) for dextrinous worts and 40-45 minutes at lower temperatures (~64C) for more fermentable worts. Of course longer mashes improve fermentability but apparently darken the wort and add coarse flavours.

So, poll time. What do you find works best for you? Specify temperatures if you like.

JM, you wrote something about mashing overnight. What temperature do you use, and have you noticed the disadvantages written above?

 

[Doc]

The very first mash I ever did I only mashed for about 45-60 mins. The beer turned out ok, but low extract and efficiency because I didn't get full conversion.

I now always mash for 90 minutes as I always get full conversion in that time and it also works in well with the way I brew (get up early mash in, then go have breakfast etc).

However last weekend I did a 2.5 hour mash as I went out shopping and got held up. My MLT held the temp perfectly and I got even more efficiency (haven't calculated exactly but the final runnings were about 1.025).

Beers,
Doc

 

[Murray]

I buggered the poll, too. The final option should be greater than 120 minutes.

 

[joecast]

ive read in a couple of books about using iodine to check tfor starch. if the iodine changes color (goes black i think) that means starch is still present. says to mash until the iodine doesnt change color, that means no starch = full convesion. ok, so everyone probably knows all that already, but do you use the iodine, or just mash until you think youve gotten most of the sugars out of it?
joe

 

[johnno]

apologies for going of the subject Murray but this is related to mashing i beleive.
now that joecast mentions the iodine test I would be interested to know if many people have used or still use this test. I recckon if i get into AG i would probably use this at the start for however long it took to have the "feel" of knowing what stage its at. or do you just rely on hydro readings.


cheers

 

[Doc]

I still use tincture of iodine to do the starch conversion test unless I've mashed for 2.5 hours.
In fact it has always come back positive for conversion so I could easily omit it.

Doc

 

[Trough Lolly]

Is it true that you can use Iodophor to perform the starch test? I thought I read that somewhere and Iodophor is iodine based so you can take a sample and slip a drop of Iodophor into it....Or have I had too much Lager tonight !!

TL

 

[Murray]

apologies for going of the subject Murray but this is related to mashing i beleive.
now that joecast mentions the iodine test I would be interested to know if many people have used or still use this test. I recckon if i get into AG i would probably use this at the start for however long it took to have the "feel" of knowing what stage its at. or do you just rely on hydro readings.


cheers

No problems Jonno.

I've never used this test. It is something I might want to use in the future to fine tune the process, but at the moment I'm getting very acceptable yields. I don't have a 'feel' for it, I chose an arbitrary number based on research into what everyone else did and stuck with it.

 

[Justin]

Trough Lolly. Iodophor works, as you said it's iodine based, just use it straight from the bottle. I use tincture or iodine from the chemist, just cause I dont' have any iodophor. But I will be buying a couple of litres of iodophor very soon to split up between brew buddies. It's a really good sanitizer.

 

[PostModern]

I buggered the poll, too. The final option should be greater than 120 minutes.

Fixed that for you.

I'm a partial masher myself, so bad efficiency is just made up with extra extract
60 mins tho.

 

[big d]

my partials have all been 90 minutes so when i do my first ag in the new year i will keep to the same routine but will probably experiment around with times a bit.will probably depend on the size of mash i do.

 

[Jovial_Monk]

mash times should vary with the beer

skotch ale, hot mash for 30 mins
IPA, longer mash cuz you want high attenuation

guess i mash an hour or so

I also often mash overnight, don't notice the resultant beer is way dry, either

If using Galaxy malt, 20mins is probably enough





Jovial Monk

 

[big d]

overnight mashing?
you have me intrigued jm
i can understand the reasoning behind it but what about the extraction in the morning with a cold mash?
does the possibility of tannins come into play when adding hot sparge water to a cold mash?
i would guess not otherwise you would not do it but could you please explain some more about o/night mashing please.

cheers
big d B)

 

[Jovial_Monk]

Overnight mashing is a great timesaver, will be doing it with my doppelbock/bock double decoction monster brewday.

Really cover the mash tun very well, if you have a lot of airspace (tun only half full) cover the top of the mash with an inch of uncrushed pale (or use styrofoam wrapped in plastic sheeting)

Next morning, do a Viennese decoction: run out all the wort (use a higher water/grain ratio) bring that to the boil and pour back over the top of the grain. Voila! Mashout and the start of recirculation in one go, and the grain bed has not been disturbed (good when your tun is fullto the brim)

heat the spargewater the night before and cover your kettle/HLT with several blankets and it won't take long to reheat in the morning. With a nice early start you can be done by 9 or 10 am, so your brew is done in the coolest part of a hot day if you are brewing in summer

Theoretically, the beta amylase is chewing up higher sugars etc all the time overnight, but there are alpha and betal limit dextrines so it isn't going to end up as thin dry beer (which I hate, gimme dextrines!) and the enzymes may just denature eventually anyway. In any case, the beer resulting from an overnight mash are just as good as those mashed for an hour





Jovial Monk

 

[Murray]

Sounds good, JM, thanks.

 

[RegBadgery]

I've been told that iodophor is no good for a conversion test.

I usually do a test with iodine tincture - mash for 90-120 + mashout.

I've not tried an overnight mash but it sounds worth a try.

cheers
reg

 

[Doc]

Again I put the kiss of death on my methods.
Saying that I always had conversion after 90 minutes.
Well I'm brewing today (Cream Ale ala Kilkenny).
Anyway after 90 minutes I didn't have full conversion.
So todays mash was 140 mins then a really slow sparge (still going).

Beers,
Doc

 

[Murray]

Oops, sorry about that. :unsure:

 

[Jovial_Monk]

by using several blankets the last I overnight mashed the mashbed only went from 66.5C to 61.5C


Jovial Monk

 

[big d]

thanks for the reply jm
much appreciated