Mash time or SG?

[pedrovic]

Hi, what is more important, make an hour of mash or hit the SG? For example, if I reach the pre-boil SG in 50 min, would it be time to boil? I make that same question for boiling and OG. Thanks

 

[Golddiggie]

For the mash, it's more about completing the conversion than time. If you're trying to shave minutes from the process, start testing the mash to see IF conversion has completed or not (all starch converted to sugars).

 

[tracer bullet]

Agreed. I keep iodine on hand just to be sure I've hit conversion.

Have to admit I don't use it any more, after about 20+ times of always converting I just know I've done it. But my mashes are always at least an hour, up to 1.5 hours, because I brew in the morning. Shortly after I get up I mash in to pre-heated water, and that mash time is getting my kid up and off to school, me having breakfast and coffee, and so on. If I was dialing that back I'd be checking again.

 

[dmtaylor]

After a lot of experimentation early on, for the past 16 years I've been mashing almost every batch for just 40-45 minutes, because it results in sufficiently high efficiency and ATTENUATION for me in my process. My efficiency currently averages 89%, and attenuation for any yeast is "normal". YMMV.

For boil time, you can play around, taking it down to 30-45 minutes, to see if that matters much to you. I still usually boil 60-75 minutes, but again, you do you.

Cheers.

 

[odie]

even if you stop when you hit your SG...the mash is gonna keep on going until it's done or you kill it with too much heat. It's still gonna be mashing while you're sparging too...

 

[bracconiere]

good time to invest in a refractometer to take samples during the mash....i'd say like find the end point of fermentation, waiting 5-10 minutes between samples for it to stop going up is good...i use a second step at 162f, and that's how i know my long lviing alpha amylase has lived to it's fullest, and enriched my mash the best...(could be some more starch geling going on but i credit to alpha for converting it at that temp)

 

[marc1]

Hi, what is more important, make an hour of mash or hit the SG? For example, if I reach the pre-boil SG in 50 min, would it be time to boil? I make that same question for boiling and OG. Thanks

I would say it's better to understand your process better to plan your SG so it will match what you get.

 

[Holden Caulfield]

make an hour of mash or hit the SG?

This is like asking is it hotter in the summer than it is in the city. Both are important, but for different reasons and not mutually exclusive so choice between them should not, and doesn't have to be made.

Mash Time (60 mins, single infusion is just one option for a mash schedule):

• Too short and you risk not converting the starches completely, resulting in poor efficiency and not enough sugars to hit your OG and intended volume. In addition, you may not create the fermentability profile of your intended beer resulting in a sweeter beer than you targeted
• Too long and you may create a wort that is much more fermentable than you intended, drying it out and resulting in a thin beer

Hit the SG:

• You can always change your boil time and rate to achieve a starting gravity, but, while the rate will not hugely impact your beer (unless you really put the spurs to it), boil time will have a significant impact on your hopping target. For example if you cut 10 minutes from your early addition hops, you will significantly impact the level of bitterness - you will end up less bitter
• Furthermore, if you don't obtain enough sugars from your mash to hit you SG and volume target you can always concentrate your wort, or vice versa, your hops will be concentrated or diluted and you will have more or less wort than you intended.

The bottom line - you should learn to measure you preboil gravity and adjust your wort points (add dme or remove wort). If you remove wort points you should just add the volume of water back. I find it is easier to remove than add, so a best practice is to just use a slightly lower efficiency expectation to ensure you go over rather than under most of the time.