Pilsner / Lager mash schedule

[antiphile]

Howdy Judge

It does seem to work out pretty well. However, my understanding is even at 64, there is still some conversion from alpha amylase, but because it's not in the "ideal" or "preferred " range, it isn't as complete as it would be several degrees higher,

Just thinking out loud, I'm wondering whether an iodine test would be a way to test this. I'm sure there are plenty here smarter than I that may be able to proffer an opinion.

 

[The Judge]

...and many smarter than me too. Just around here to learn

 

[verysupple]

Howdy Judge

It does seem to work out pretty well. However, my understanding is even at 64, there is still some conversion from alpha amylase, but because it's not in the "ideal" or "preferred " range, it isn't as complete as it would be several degrees higher,

Just thinking out loud, I'm wondering whether an iodine test would be a way to test this. I'm sure there are plenty here smarter than I that may be able to proffer an opinion.

It depends what you want to know. All the iodine test tells you is if there is starch present, nothing about what types of sugar are present. One thing you defintely don't want in your beer is starch, so it's a useful test. I'm not sure it'll tell you anything about how malty the beer will turn out.

Also, I've never believed that mashing at a higher temp gives a maltier flavour, heavier mouthfeel for sure, but not a maltier flavour. My explanation for this is that the main thing that makes a beer dry is the smaller fraction of longer chain sugars in the wort. In general, the larger a sugar molecule is the less sweet it is and less flavour it contributes. So if the difference between mashing at 64 C and 68 C is the amount of large sugar molecules, and the smaller ones (the sweet ones) get fermented out, then there's just more flavourless sugars left in the 68 C beer than the 64 C one. I think yeast plays a much larger role in the maltiness of a beer than the mash temp. If one yeast ferments less of the shorter chain sugars then you're left with more flavour. This is probably why low attenuating English strains tend to give you a malty beer. This might not be entirely correct, but it supports what my tongue tells me.