BYO Pumpkin Pie.. Mash steps and BIAB

[GearDaddys]

Fellas..

So I'm hanging in my garage enjoying a beautiful brew day on the east coast of the United States today.. I've got 7-8 BIAB brews under my belt now, and have gotten my process/numbers ironed out really well using beersmith.

Today, I'm brewing my first pumpkin ale.. Recipe from BYO magazine last month. Everything I"ve made so far has had a single mash step.. This sucker has 4 different temp changes during a 85 minute total mash?? Eeeks.. I'm 1/2 way through now with the mash, but I'm wondering if I'm wasting my time with all these steps considering I'm doing BIAB.. The recipe was definitely not written with BIAB'ers in mind, and I've had to adapt some steps to work within my process..

Anyway, just wondering what you all do when you run into this issue??

Thanks as always, and BREW ON!



GD

 

[pricelessbrewing]

Paging Gavin to the front desk please, Gavin Come in.

I never bother with step mashes, but Gavin does them for pretty much every brew. He either pulls some of the mash, brings it to a boil, then combines back into the rest of the mash. This is called a decoction. Or you can infuse the mash with boiling water. Or you could pull some or the wort (no grains) and heat that up, then combine back with the rest of the mash.

 

[GearDaddys]

Priceless..

Thanks for your response.. I went straight from extract brewing to BIAB, and honestly my knowledge of traditional all grain 3 vessel brewing is REALLY limited, so when a recipe seems to be overly complicated for BIAB, I'm not sure if its that way because of the requirements in 3 vessel brewing, or if I should follow the directions.. If that makes any sense..

Yesterdays brew turned out pretty well. I pulled up the grain bag and heated the mash for each of the 4 mash steps.. (PITA).. Interestingly though, I was expecting to do REALLY well with my pre boil gravity because of the long mash.. I came up with 1.037 vs 1.040.. That really surprised me. Maybe BYO uses efficiency numbers that were different that what I assumed them to be (70 percent).. Made up for it easily with a few ounces of DME and all was well.

Can I ask you a followup question.. If you are doing BIAB, and have a recipe with multiple mash steps.. Which temp would you go with? The highest one? Take an average?

Cheers!

GD

 

[JohnnyBrewGood]

I never bother with step mashes, but Gavin does them for pretty much every brew. He either pulls some of the mash, brings it to a boil, then combines back into the rest of the mash. This is called a decoction. Or you can infuse the mash with boiling water. Or you could pull some or the wort (no grains) and heat that up, then combine back with the rest of the mash.

All of which sounds like a huge PITA

 

[pricelessbrewing]

Priceless..

Thanks for your response.. I went straight from extract brewing to BIAB, and honestly my knowledge of traditional all grain 3 vessel brewing is REALLY limited, so when a recipe seems to be overly complicated for BIAB, I'm not sure if its that way because of the requirements in 3 vessel brewing, or if I should follow the directions.. If that makes any sense..

Yesterdays brew turned out pretty well. I pulled up the grain bag and heated the mash for each of the 4 mash steps.. (PITA).. Interestingly though, I was expecting to do REALLY well with my pre boil gravity because of the long mash.. I came up with 1.037 vs 1.040.. That really surprised me. Maybe BYO uses efficiency numbers that were different that what I assumed them to be (70 percent).. Made up for it easily with a few ounces of DME and all was well.

Can I ask you a followup question.. If you are doing BIAB, and have a recipe with multiple mash steps.. Which temp would you go with? The highest one? Take an average?

Cheers!

GD

I would ignore the included step mash instructions and pay attention to the estimated FG, then find out what mash temp gives me that FG using something like beersmith.

 

[Gavin C]

I never bother with step mashes, but Gavin does them for pretty much every brew. He either pulls some of the mash, brings it to a boil, then combines back into the rest of the mash. This is called a decoction. Or you can infuse the mash with boiling water. Or you could pull some or the wort (no grains) and heat that up, then combine back with the rest of the mash.

I find them fun to do. Been making a lot of lagers lately and step mashes are often used in these styles.

Here's a thread on step mashing and BIAB that may give you some pointers.

 

[RM-MN]

I find them fun to do. Been making a lot of lagers lately and step mashes are often used in these styles.

Here's a thread on step mashing and BIAB that may give you some pointers.

Are the step mashes done for a particular advantage to the beer as in flavor or clarity or are they mostly done because its a tradition carried over from when malts were of poorer quality and needed all the help they could get?

 

[Gavin C]

Are the step mashes done for a particular advantage to the beer as in flavor or clarity or are they mostly done because its a tradition carried over from when malts were of poorer quality and needed all the help they could get?

With modern well modified malts there is an excellent argument to be made against using a step-mash in that they are simply redundant.



The purported benefits to using one primarily relate to developing a more complex mouthfeel.



I am nowhere near experienced enough to say if they are truly useful or merely a redundant hold-over from times when malts needed the extra intervention from the brewer. These steps as you rightly state, were primarily employed to maximize their return on investment and get the best flavors from their grains.



I do enjoy the process and experimenting with and learning these methods. I enjoy the resulting beers but I have no good reasoned argument to support or refute the use of a step-mash.



As with other types of mash profiles/durations, it's nice to see for oneself what can be done in our home breweries and taste the results.

 

[GearDaddys]

This is an interesting discussion..

For those of you with previous all grain/traditional 3 vessel experience, are the mash steps more important with 3 vessel systems? Any idea why? As I said earlier, I've never done 3 vessel, and know very little about it.. IOW, if you were a 3 Vessel guy, would you be more inclined to pay attention to mash steps in any particular recipe?

 

[wilserbrewer]

Step mashing could be done 3V or BIAB, I wouldn't say it's more or less beneficial to either method.

I have never tried it, far to lazy

But still enjoy the discussion and am curious that I might be missing out on a great thing.

As Gavin admits, he is exploring step mashing for enjoyment and research with no proven personal history.

 

[Gavin C]

This is an interesting discussion..

For those of you with previous all grain/traditional 3 vessel experience, are the mash steps more important with 3 vessel systems? Any idea why? As I said earlier, I've never done 3 vessel, and know very little about it.. IOW, if you were a 3 Vessel guy, would you be more inclined to pay attention to mash steps in any particular recipe?

It should have no bearing whatsoever on what type of setup and manifold you use. The step mash always takes place in the mash-tun regardless of the setup. There are some things to consider though.

The easiest method I think is infusion mashing which of course requires a second pot to serve as a HLT. This infusion step-mashing is arguably easier with a no-sparge approach owing to the inevitable thin mash which will result from step infusions. A non-issue for me as I do not typically sparge.

Decoction mashing also requires a second pot.

Directly heating the mash requires a metal mash-tun which of course all single vessel brewers will have. A thinner mash may negate the risk of scorching the mash. Again, thinner mashes being the norm for most BIABers.

My setup for step mashing