Whats The Coldest You Have Ever Mashed At?

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SJW

As you must brew, so you must drink
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I have been looking around some web sites (US sites) for some Vienna recipes and noticed that a couple of them said to mash & 61 Deg C. While I am a big fan of trying something different I have never mashed that cool before. As i am a dark beer person/stout I have mashed at 72 deg C before, with results as expected but never the other end of the scale.
So whats the coolest you have mashed and how was it?


STEPHEN
 
SJW said:
So whats the coolest you have mashed and how was it?
[post="54971"][/post]​

I have mashed at 64 for a pils. Gives a very dry beer which needs to be balanced with a cara malt to give some body.

Cheers
Pedro
 
I've mashed at 64 SJ and was happy with the results. If it is a drier style you after, give it a go! In my experience it is worth upping your mash time though. 90 minutes worked for me, although if you are just using JW Pils malt, even at the cooler temps you should be able to get away with a quicker mash if you are really keen on a speedy brew day.

61 degrees sounds a little scary though :huh:

Shawn.
 
HI SJW,

Not sure if your question is relevent for step mashing but I assisted a bloke who did a step mash which went from 55C-65C-78C. I have a couple of bottles at home but yet to try.

Will report back as I will prob crack them open this weekend.
 
55C would have been more of a protein rest than a conversion stage surely.
 
55C would have been more of a protein rest than a conversion stage surely


True.

maybe i've got to work on my terms but so far the step process as a whole i've called mashing. Or should it only be referred to mashing when at 65C for example?
 
My Black Horse recipe which is just pale malt with a large black malt addition, is mashed at 62c - The result is lovely....
 
Just to add some more to this thread

There is a fair bit of professional literature that talks about mashing at 62C, BUT they follow it up with a rest at 70C. If you mash purely at 62C, there will be very little alpha amylase active as the preferred temperature range for alpha amylase is 65 to 70 C (give or take a degree, dependend on the reference book).

Cheers
Pedro
 
GB,

So what does that do to the beer?
 
Ross

It provides more efficient conversion of the starch chains to sugars. There is a very long and involved post on HBD from Steve Alexander in the last month or so that provides a lot of details about how the enzymes work (don't read this just before bed).

The whole thing comes down to how the alpha and beta amylases work on the starch chains and the temperatures best suited for each. Mashing alone at 62 is not going to get the best conversion of the starches to sugars.


Cheers
Pedro
 
Pedro,

Can you give me a link as I'd like a read...

Are you saying I'll just get lower conversion, or some other detriment to the final beer - tastes great to me....

cheers Ross
 
Hi
Did a triple decoction once, started at 52C, first decoction took it up to arund 60C, the second decotion took it up to 68C, and the third around 75C.
Flood sparge and it was a bloody long day.
Beer was good but.
Cheers
Ray
 
Ross said:
Pedro,

Can you give me a link as I'd like a read...

Are you saying I'll just get lower conversion, or some other detriment to the final beer - tastes great to me....

cheers Ross
[post="55377"][/post]​

Ross

I think you will get lower conversion and probably not get the dryness you are after. The enzymes do denature over time, so you can't just keep the mash at 62C for a day and get complete conversion.

Please put your geek hat on :blink: - here is the article. He doesn't answer the original question asked after 3 posts on the topic though.

Cheers
Pedro
 
Pedro

OK now that I've read the article, will you please explain to me the practical outcome of the analysis.

For a highly fermentable pale ale or german lager what is a good mash regime?

I know Steve summarised his analysis, but even that left me scratching my head.

Cheers
MAH
 
C'mon MAH, it was quite clear really. He was trying to confuse shit out of everyone and he succeeded :p

I think for homebrew it can be summarised
Dry , highly fermentable 64C
More body, dextrins, mouthfeel, less fermentable 69C

I think 62C is too low as the alpha amylase doesn't get a chance to work effectively - it will at that temperature but a very low level. If you are going to mash at 62C, then you need to follow up with a step into the alpha amylase range of 65 to 70.

Without getting too far off topic, with modern malts there is not a need to do 3 or 4 steps anymore and single infusion is fine for most, if not all beers <flame suit donned> :eek: .

Cheers
Pedro
 

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