Mashing 101

[Axel]

Greetings,
My English is really bad. I am a newbie in homebrewing, and I have several brewing questions to be solved. One of them is about mashing. I have brewed 3 batches so far using a 10 gal Rubbermaid cooler as the mash tun. My mashing method, which I have figured out by overlapping various sources of knowledge, has been as follows:
1) heating a previously calculated amount of strike water at a given temp ,
2) pouring it on the mash tun
3) pouring the grist and stir thoroughly, (check temp around 65ºC)
4) waiting 60 minutes or until starch is converted into sugar
5) vorlauf,
6) collecting that first amount of wort
7) pouring sparge water and stir again (check temp around 74ºC)
8) waiting for 15 minutes
9) vorlauf
10) collecting that second amount of wort
11) Send both amounts of wort to boil

So far I have been able to brew some drinkable beer. However, it is still far from being outstanding. I am wondering one of my mistakes is to drain that first amount of wort. My common sense is telling me now that I shouldn't do that because it will take away most of the sugars and enzymes needed for next stage of mashing. Should I leave it on the mash tun and add the sparge water, check the temp and wait ? Any comments and pieces of advice are very welcome.
Thanks in advance and best regards.
Axel

 

[Hello]

Well your English is totally fine.

Your mash temp is kind of low depending upon style. It will vary between styles. A lighter body beer will have the mash temp you're using. It would be helpful to know if you use that for all beers you've brewed and what beers you've brewed.

When you mash, you do drain your first runnings into the boil kettle. Then you sparge just like you wrote. Are you hitting your boil volumes? What about your specific gravity?

It sounds like you're doing right but now it would be good to fine tune temps and volumes. What is it about the beer you've brewed that doesn't seem awesome? Do they taste thin?

 

[RM-MN]

Greetings,
My English is really bad. I am a newbie in homebrewing, and I have several brewing questions to be solved. One of them is about mashing. I have brewed 3 batches so far using a 10 gal Rubbermaid cooler as the mash tun. My mashing method, which I have figured out by overlapping various sources of knowledge, has been as follows:
1) heating a previously calculated amount of strike water at a given temp ,
2) pouring it on the mash tun
3) pouring the grist and stir thoroughly, (check temp around 65ºC)
4) waiting 60 minutes or until starch is converted into sugar
5) vorlauf,
6) collecting that first amount of wort
7) pouring sparge water and stir again (check temp around 74ºC)
8) waiting for 15 minutes
9) vorlauf
10) collecting that second amount of wort
11) Send both amounts of wort to boil

So far I have been able to brew some drinkable beer. However, it is still far from being outstanding. I am wondering one of my mistakes is to drain that first amount of wort. My common sense is telling me now that I shouldn't do that because it will take away most of the sugars and enzymes needed for next stage of mashing. Should I leave it on the mash tun and add the sparge water, check the temp and wait ? Any comments and pieces of advice are very welcome.
Thanks in advance and best regards.
Axel

Your common sense if fooling you on this. When your mash period is over there shouldn't be any starch left for the enzymes to convert. Sparging is simply rinsing out the sugars that are already converted but wouldn't come out in the first draining because the wort was saturated. You don't even need to leave your sparge water sit for the 15 minutes. Dump it in, stir well, stir some more, drain.

 

[Pappers_]

Hi and welcome.

I think your mash procedure looks fine. Mashing temps can range from 149F to 158F, so your 65C is on the low end as mentioned above.

Mashing is only a part of making beer and if you are dissatified with your results, you might look at your boil and fermentation. For many homebrewers, fermentation practices are where they see improvements. Pitching enough healthy and viable yeast and controlling fermentation temperatures.

 

[kombat]

I agree, the mash procedure looks fine. I like a dry, light-bodied beer so I mash most of mine right around 65°C/148°F.

As Pappers said, I found the most dramatic improvements to my beer when I really focused on the details of my fermentation. Little things like rehydrating dry yeast instead of just sprinkling it in, or making an appropriately-sized starter when using liquid yeast, aerating thoroughly and properly, and most importantly, diligently measuring and controlling fermentation temperature for those critical first 3-5 days.

 

[IslandLizard]

Can you post one of the recipes you brewed and provide details such as OG, FG, yeast used, fermentation temperature and time spent in fermentor? It may help in finding why it isn't as good as you hoped.

As mentioned already, temp control during fermentation and general yeast handling makes all the difference between just OK and stellar beer.

 

[AnOldUR]

Your common sense if fooling you on this.

Adding your remaining water after conversion as a kind of large mash-out infusion is a type of no-sparge mashing. You can get a better quality wort, but will take a hit on efficiency.

Omit step 8. It serves no purpose.

As for step 11. Start heating the first runnings as soon as possible. If your lauter is gravity fed into your kettle. Put it on your burner after the first runnings are collected. Drain the second running into a bucket and combine when done.

 

[chickypad]

Can you post one of the recipes you brewed and provide details such as OG, FG, yeast used, fermentation temperature and time spent in fermentor? It may help in finding why it isn't as good as you hoped.

As mentioned already, temp control during fermentation and general yeast handling makes all the difference between just OK and stellar beer.

^This. Also can you give more details regarding what you aren't satisfied with, and what you would like to improve about your beers? Like the others I don't think your mash process is the culprit.

 

[Homercidal]

English is great.
Mashing Process is fine.
Your sparge process is called Batch Sparging and it's what I do. It looks good.

I really think you need to check some other things, like fermentation temps, yeast pitching, sanitation, etc.

It *could* be your water is not that good. Some places will have a severe imbalance of certain minerals in the water, or your city might treat the water with chlorine or chloramine. You NEED to find out, or you need to treat your water with a small amount of Campden Tablet to get rid of those things.

There could be piece of equipment that is not suitable for beermaking, but the odds of that are not real good.