How long mash grains

There are a few reasons why someone might mash beer longer than an hour or two. Here are the results of mashing beer at too high of a temperature: The beer will have a sugary flavor since less of the starch fermenting in the mash can successfully convert to alcohol.

The beer will be full-bodied since the higher temperatures lead to more protein and cellular breakdown during the fermentation process. Mashing Beer is an Art Form It often takes homebrewing amateurs several attempts to get a feel for how long a mash should be performed.

About The Author. Dorian Beer lover and home brewer. My mission is twofold. Firstly to provide you with knowledge of beer and its parcularities. Secondly, to help you brew better beers. After this exBEERiment, I have no plans to change my normal mashing routine, though I do think it would be good to redo this on lighter and darker beers. While 10 people may limit generalizability, I would contend it was at least a relatively representative sample and that the results would like remain in a similar range given increased participants.

My hunch, which is admittedly just a fucking hunch , is that some of differences perceived by participants can be attributed to the expectation of difference between the 2 sample beers rather than actual differences.

As a result of the apparent lack of significant differences, I would definitely recommend others who are looking to shorten up their brew day a bit consider cutting their mash time in half, despite my own decision to continue mashing for an hour. All designs are available in various colors and sizes on Amazon!

If you enjoy this stuff and feel compelled to support Brulosophy. Great work, Marshall, and very interesting results.

I enjoyed your article and experiment, however I would consider over 2 Brix difference in the beers to be pretty significant. The additional 30 minute mash time obviously converted more starches. You could calculate your mash efficiency from the short rest then increase your grain bill to compensate. My concern would be starch haze from all of the unconverted grain. Hey man, thanks! That is significant, but these beers were.

Yep, sorry apparently I suffer from the inability to read captions correctly. Or perhaps I should stop day drinking. Well done. I did the same thing too, assuming at first that the side by side photos were the two batches side by side for comparison. Just a thought. Awesome work! Perhaps do an experiment involving two identical samples to see what the effects of the perceived difference might be to people anticipating an experiment? Great article!

Curious what would happen in more conventional, thicker mash with a sparge. Interesting question, for sure! Do you think Maillard reactions had anything to do with the long mash beer having slightly better flavor? Roger starts an interesting thought. Was your post boil volume identical? A slightly harder boil could give more toast and caramel — maltyness. The mash length question has been toiled with very much over the years.

To see this done with 7 or 10 BBL would really be interesting! Beta-glucans are also known to lead to haze in beer if not properly degraded. In a fully-modified malt, the level of beta-glucans should not be a problem, but if you experience lautering problems or haze with your favorite malt, try a minute rest in the acid rest temperature range.

These days, many brewing scientists do not think that much protein degradation occurs during mashing and this is part of the reason that it is left to the maltster. There are two specific types of enzymes that were thought to be active in this range — proteinase and peptidase enzymes, collectively known as the proteolytic enzymes. Proteinase is an enzyme that works on longer-chained proteins turning them into medium length chains.

Peptidase enzymes chop up the moderate to short chains and break them down to their component form. Conveniently, these two enzyme groups have slightly different optimal temperature ranges, so you can hypothetically favor one or the other. Brewers do not want a lot of longer chain proteins in their wort. A high level of big proteins can lead to haze and instability.

A 15—30 minute hold in the proteinase range was thought to diminish haze, but not negatively impact foam or body. One important point to note is that the low temperature rests have been found to be more effective with thick mashes.

Therefore you may want to mash-in when utilizing these low temperature rests between 0. You can then thin the mash with boiling water when raising the temperature to the saccharification rest s.

Whether or not meaningful amounts of protein degradation are occurring in this range, a rest here does affect the quality of your wort. For example, the time and stirring that goes on in a step mash may promote better extraction efficiencies — especially for homebrewers not used to stirring their mashes or those who typically get marginal extraction rates. The only required rest in any mash program is a rest in the starch conversion, or saccharification, range.

When mashing fully-modified malts, a single rest in this range is a very popular option. Starch conversion is performed by two separate enzymes, which attack starch chains in different manners.

The two enzymes are collectively referred to as the diastatic enzymes. Remember that enzyme action is not an all-or-nothing thing and allow for the fact that any boundary to any temperature range in brewing is somewhat arbitrary.

One noteworthy aspect to this is that starch molecules can be very long. If you want beta-amylase as your primary starch converter, then your mash will need a long rest in its optimal range. Alpha-amylase is the second enzyme that is used for starch conversion. Alpha-amylase attacks starch molecules at random points along their chains. It is bulky enough that it is not able to attack the starch molecules around branching points. A rest in the high end of the alpha range will result in a less fermentable wort, resulting in a sweeter, more full-bodied beer.

This is particularly true for beers brewed with low-enzyme malts, such as British pale ale malts. Alpha-amylase is usually used in conjunction with beta-amylase to produce moderate to full-bodied beers.

Typical resting time is 60 minutes, but with many malts, conversion occurs much more quickly than this. For a moderate to full-bodied beer, you can begin running off the wort as soon as an iodine test shows a negative result no color change, indicating that the test is not detecting appreciable amounts of starch. Alpha-amylase is less active and less stable in worts with low levels of calcium ions. You can thin your mash as much as you want, and it doesn't make a whole lot of difference, if any.

I agree completely with Dave. I've mashed from 1 qt. But I have found mash time to make a difference. I never go for less than 60 min. One thing that's often overlooked when commercial brewers talk about shorter mash times is their lautering time. It can take an hour or more to sparge and lauter a commercial batch and all that time you're still at mash temp. So, what would seem to be a min. Life begins at Thanks for the responses!

I was hoping some people had experimented with mash times. Sparge temperature and conversion while draining the mash tun were also part of the conversation. As Bluesman mention one way to experiment with it would be to measure your mash OG at different time.

When your gravity does not go up anymore you are converted. Also your mash speed depends on Mashing temp.