Understanding Mashing

[Buffalobrewer90]

Hello All,

I am very new to home brewing as I just brewed my second batch this weekend. The kit made it seem very straight forward but after reading more and taking some brewery tours in the past, there and some things that I dont understand.

In the kit they provided gains, 2 packets of different types of dried malts, hops and yeast. It had me steep the gains and mix in the malts.

I would like to start to develop my own recipe at some point so I would like to know if this process is similar to coming up with your own recipe and brewing it. I keep reading and hearing about mashing, so where exactly would this process take place? It seems that it is done instead of steeping.

Thanks for your help!

 

[brewcat]

Homebrewtalk has some information in the wiki.

Right now you are extract brewing. In extract the fermentable sugar is coming from the malts. The steeping grains are flavor additions. Think of mashing as basically combining those steps. It is so you at home are the one getting sugars from grains.

You can still design recipes doing extract brews. Read about different malts available. Read about different steeping grains. Read about hops. Read about yeast.

 

[brewprint]

Mashing is taking the crushed grain only. Not the Dry Malt Extract that you had along with the steeping grains.

To mash, you hold the grain at a certain temp roughly between 150-156 for most brews.

Mashing removes the sugars from the grain and then you start your boil. The Dry Malt Extract that you used has already been mashed and the water has evaporated from it.

 

[Ungoliant]

Another piece of the mash is that both sugars and the enzyme, Amylase, get extracted. During the mash, amylase helps break the extracted sugars down from Maltose to Sucrose for the yeast to eat and use to make alcohol.

Also, if you're going to do recipe development, BYO's website (Brew Your Own) is a great resource to conduct research on different styles.

What I do is read their style article to get an understanding for what percentages of different grains constitute the style, put something together, brew it, and adjust. It's a constant learning process, and you can do it with either extract or all-grain brewing.

 

[BlueHouseBrewhaus]

Get a brewing software program. It is invaluable for designing your own recipes, whether extract or AG mash. I use BeerSmith. I used it to design extract brews, partial mash and full all-grain brews as I made my way up the brewing ladder.

 

[bobeer]

Yes, mashing is done instead of steeping. In short, the idea is you use base malt to help convert the other kinds of grain, grain you'd normally steep with, into sugar. You're still steeping the grains but you're steeping much more grain since you're not using the extract powder/syrup. As others have said you use a range of temps to convert the starches into sugars. 148 degrees will give you a dry beer in the end and a higher mash of 155+ will give you a maltier beer. It really just depends what style of beer you're brewing for what mash temps you'll want to use. You have much more control of your finished beer with all grain brewing vs extract. Some grains, like flaked oats or flaked barley, have to be mashed in order to use them correctly.

A good way to get started into all grain brewing is to look into brew in a bag brewing (biab) It's a cheap and pretty easy way to get you on your feet. Then, once you're comfortable with biab, you'll realize how easy it is to go to a 3 vessel system if you want to. Many people just stay with biab but upgrade their setup to brew bigger batches. Good luck!!

 

[andy6026]

where exactly would this process take place?

In the graveyard, it's a smash!

 

[Nanuk-O-Dah-Nort]

In the graveyard, it's a smash!

only if you are brewing a monster mash?

 

[brewkinger]

Hello All,

I am very new to home brewing as I just brewed my second batch this weekend. The kit made it seem very straight forward but after reading more and taking some brewery tours in the past, there and some things that I dont understand.

I would like to start to develop my own recipe at some point so I would like to know if this process is similar to coming up with your own recipe and brewing it. I keep reading and hearing about mashing, so where exactly would this process take place? It seems that it is done instead of steeping.

Thanks for your help!

Since no one else has given this advice, I will advise how I (and many others) got our start understanding the mash process.
1) Get a copy of John Palmers "How to Brew" (the free online edition is ok, but several newer editions are slightly better).
Charlie Papazians "Joy of Homebrewing" is also an option.

2) Check out the All Grain subforum and there is a stickied thread that gives a very good description of the All Grain process.

3) After the above steps, search the forums for specific topics that I can assure you will address individual questions that will arise.

4) Report back to this thread with more questions.

Get a brewing software program. It is invaluable for designing your own recipes, whether extract or AG mash. I use BeerSmith. I used it to design extract brews, partial mash and full all-grain brews as I made my way up the brewing ladder.