Mashing Out Question

Australia & New Zealand Homebrewing Forum

Help Support Australia & New Zealand Homebrewing Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

losp

Well-Known Member
Joined
20/6/09
Messages
260
Reaction score
7
Location
Melbourne
Hi All,
i have a question about mash out temps.
I single infusion and batch sparge.

My current process is as follows:
1) mash for an hour at desired temperature
2) recirculate runnings a few times or till it gets close to clear
3) drain to boiler
4) add strike water (2nd half of batch water) at 76 or so degrees, stir a tad and let it sit for 10-15 minutes
5) recirculated runnings again
6) drain

My worry is that i havent raised the temperature of the first part of the batch sparge that gets drained.
Have i missed something here?
 
That's pretty much what I do. Never quite seen the point in a mashout.
 
To me there are two reasons why I would Mashout, if I ever included it in a brewing session.

1 - If I were inclined to be as methodical and precise about the temperature that my grains were converting at. By adding Mashout, you are halting any conversion that might be occurring during the process of running off. Again, this would depend on how large your mash volume is and would probably only make a large difference if you had a high volume of liquid in you tun. Still, if you are after lots of residual sugars and the mash temp decreases during the first runnings, some of the unconverted starches could be converted at lower temps than you wanted.

2 - If the grist I am using is inclined to be harder to run-off, I might do a mashout to increase the Liquid:Grain and to raise the temp to allow an easier run-off.


Even given the above, I tend to run my sessions in the same way you have described.....When I do use it, it's mainly for point 2.
 
Hi All,
i have a question about mash out temps.
I single infusion and batch sparge.

My current process is as follows:
1) mash for an hour at desired temperature
2) recirculate runnings a few times or till it gets close to clear
3) drain to boiler
4) add strike water (2nd half of batch water) at 76 or so degrees, stir a tad and let it sit for 10-15 minutes
5) recirculated runnings again
6) drain

My worry is that i havent raised the temperature of the first part of the batch sparge that gets drained.
Have i missed something here?
My understanding is that to mash out is to add hotter water to the mash before recirculating and sparging to raise the overall temp of the mash to approx 76 degrees to cease all starch conversion.
I have tried the method you describe (ie I drained and then sparged hotter to mash out, but I had this water hotter to balance at 76 when combined with the 65-66ish mash).
I've also tried adding mash out water to the first infusion to balance at 76, then drained and batch sparged.

In my limited practical experience of this I didn't notice a quantifiable difference in conversion or body or anything else in the resulting beers. The other thing to consider is, how long is it before you're heating this wort to boil in your kettle? I have two electric elements in mine so I start heating as soon as the first infusion covers the first element and I'm guessing it wouldn't be too long before it's reached 76 degrees and the conversion is stopped.

If you're specifically brewing to numbers, perhaps to fit a style for a comp, etc then I would probably add a mash out volume to your initial infusion at the end of the mash but before you drain as this seems easier to quantify and control. However, I know that just brewing for myself at home I would not be able to taste a beer and say "That wasn't mashed out hot enough!"
And I'm rambling...Did I actually answer your question?

Cheers!
Jono.
 
Beat me to it and much more succinct MaestroMatt!
 
Just a couple of points to add to the above.
Strike water is the name given to the water (liquor) you use to hit your Mash In temperature; you are in point 4 talking about Sparge Water, just makes life easier if we are all using the same terminology.
There are two benefits to mashing out, first as mentioned is to end all enzyme activity. The second is to increase the fluidity of the wort.
The hotter a sugary solution is the more easily it flows, the catch being that over 80oC you could start to extract a lot of tannins. So the upper temperature for mash out is or should be up near 80oC, if you heat your sparge water to 80 and if you use some boiling water to up the temperature of your mash you should find it easier to get a good clean drain down.
Mark
 
Also, my understanding is up to about 76 deg C enzymes speed up and finish their job quicker then become deactive. Like Mark said the catch is if you wanted to halt enzyme activity instantly, I dont know why u would, you need to hit about 80 deg C, and there you run the risk of extracting tannins.
Myself I mash out or do a final step at 75 deg C to give the amalase a final crack at cleaning up any starch and to increase the fluidity of the wort. My mashout is done a few minutes later when the boil starts.

Steve
 
Thanks for the replies all.
it sounds like i am on the right track but it would be better to do the mash out before first runnings.
I think however that i am going to struggle with this.
say for example i need 28L pre boil.

Usually, I split it up into 2 lots of 14 (i am neglecting loss to grain and dead-space) i would usually run off 14 litres, and then run off the second 14L (adjusting the temperature to get it to 75/76).
Doing the mash out before sparging, I imagine its going to get quite difficult to bring up the temperature with only 7L?
 
From memory when I had my old 3v system I had to drain the mash then my first batch sparge was like a mashout as there is only so much you can keep adding to a 50 litre keg during a brew before you run out of room, unless its a heated mash tun.

Steve
 
Back
Top