Hazelwood’s Brewday Part 2

[Hazelwood Brewery]

Hi Hazelwood, enjoy following this thread :)

Question as an AG newbie. Have seen a few people refer to a 'mash out' temp higher than the starting mash temp. Are you increasing the temp towards the end of the mash? If so, what's the benefit?

Ta,
Dan

Hi Dan. There are various enzymes and processes going on in the mash - some to break down gums, some to break down proteins, some to extract the sugar from the grain, etc. These processes favour their own range of temperatures so the brewer can choose to mash at one or more temperature(s) to obtain characteristics they are looking for. For example a thinner drier beer, sweeter and more full bodied beer, etc.

Once you’ve mashed the grain though you want those characteristics to be locked in and this is where the mash out comes in. The temperature of the mash out “denatures” (destroys) the enzymes that would otherwise continue to change the characteristics of the beer.

 

[dlowe1992]

Hi Dan. There are various enzymes and processes going on in the mash - some to break down gums, some to break down proteins, some to extract the sugar from the grain, etc. These processes favour their own range of temperatures so the brewer can choose to mash at one or more temperature(s) to obtain characteristics they are looking for. For example a thinner drier beer, sweeter and more full bodied beer, etc.

Once you’ve mashed the grain though you want those characteristics to be locked in and this is where the mash out comes in. The temperature of the mash out “denatures” (destroys) the enzymes that would otherwise continue to change the characteristics of the beer.

Thanks, appreciate the reply :)

Would I be right in saying a higher mash temp (at the risk of sweeping generalisation) would produce a sweeter more full bodied beer and vice versa?

So, the mash out is a raising of temp to effectively as you say 'lock in' the conditions you've created?
Achieved by increasing the temp of the mash in the mashing vessel?

 

[dlowe1992]

It is a step where you increase the temp to ideally above 75c but below 80, in order to denature the enzymes and sort of halt the conversion process.
Even though all the starch may have converted to sugar, a warm non-denatured wort will continue to break down longer chain sugar to shorter ones, so you sort of stop it at the "sugar profile" you want.

Useful if you have your brewday set up in a way like me, where I usually clean my mashtun and sparge bucket etc and have a 30-60 min pause between transferring wort to kettle and starting the boil.

Hi Erik,

Thanks, makes a lot of sense :)
How are you increasing temp? Should be relatively easy for me as I'm stove-top brewing at the moment.
Assume this is done post-sparging..

 

[Erik The Anglophile]

I combine my sparge and mashout.
So I draw off the first wort, add sparge water at about 85-90c wich gives the grain+water mix a temp of about 80c +/- a few degrees. Then stir it like it owes you money and let it sit about 15min.

 

[dlowe1992]

I combine my sparge and mashout.
So I draw off the first wort, add sparge water at about 85-90c wich gives the grain+water mix a temp of about 80c +/- a few degrees. Then stir it like it owes you money and let it sit about 15min.

Great, that makes sense.
Thanks for the advice, will be implementing next time!

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

Thanks, appreciate the reply :)

Would I be right in saying a higher mash temp (at the risk of sweeping generalisation) would produce a sweeter more full bodied beer and vice versa?

So, the mash out is a raising of temp to effectively as you say 'lock in' the conditions you've created?
Achieved by increasing the temp of the mash in the mashing vessel?

Yes, a higher mash temperature will give the sweeter and more full bodied beer - but only to a point after which you denature the enzymes.

That’s right, mash-out denatures the enzymes that might otherwise continue to do their thing, achieved by raising the temperature of the mash. You can do this by directly heating the mash if you have a heating element or you can remove some of the wort from the mash and heat it in a pan on the hob, pour it back in.

 

[NIGHTSKY BREWING]

Hi Hazelwood, enjoy following this thread :)

Question as an AG newbie. Have seen a few people refer to a 'mash out' temp higher than the starting mash temp. Are you increasing the temp towards the end of the mash? If so, what's the benefit?

Ta,
Dan

I,m sure Hazelwood will come back to you....but a mash out at around 76/77 deg is designed to do two things...
1. To Denature enzymes.
2. To warm up the wort ( thick sugars) to help you with running off the wort.

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

I forgot to update this thread. I brewed that ESB and have just shy of 23 litres in the fermentation cabinet. I ended up with a couple of litres more than usual because I want to bottle condition a few bottles. OG is 1058 so I’m expecting a beer with an ABV between 5.5% and 5.8%.

 

[Wynne]

Also an update on my shed cooling. The replacement pump was actually too big to sit in the water bath among the cooling coils so I couldn’t use it. I did find another pump and took a punt on it. It has worked a treat and is tiny. The body of the pump is not far off the size of a medium sized egg but can pump water to a head of 5m. It needs a 12v 1A supply so I’ve given it a 5A supply, of course.

View attachment 68980
View attachment 68981

 

[Twostage]

I forgot to update this thread. I brewed that ESB and have just shy of 23 litres in the fermentation cabinet. I ended up with a couple of litres more than usual because I want to bottle condition a few bottles. OG is 1058 so I’m expecting a beer with an ABV between 5.5% and 5.8%.

View attachment 91485

I’m in the process of redoing my ‘brewery’ it had evolved and things were just spread everywhere. One of my thoughts was to have some kind of insulated brew cupboards as I have a load of 50mm insulation. Is yours insulated? What did you do for doors ? And do you have any temperature control (heating) ? Lots of questions lol.

 

[Clint]

I’m in the process of redoing my ‘brewery’ it had evolved and things were just spread everywhere. One of my thoughts was to have some kind of insulated brew cupboards as I have a load of 50mm insulation. Is yours insulated? What did you do for doors ? And do you have any temperature control (heating) ? Lots of questions lol.

On here that's nearly the same size rabbit hole as water treatment!
H will reveal all!

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

I use the same pumps, and indeed the same PSUs (but different eggs )
The pumps have (touch wood) lasted incredibly well.

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

I’m in the process of redoing my ‘brewery’ it had evolved and things were just spread everywhere. One of my thoughts was to have some kind of insulated brew cupboards as I have a load of 50mm insulation. Is yours insulated? What did you do for doors ? And do you have any temperature control (heating) ? Lots of questions lol.

Yes, insulated with 3” Kingspan (9” in the roof space).

I stuck 2” Kingspan on the inside of the door and lined it all round with ply. Here’s a post with a picture…

I’ve had another productive day today, I’ve been cracking on with getting my fermentation cabinet done. The structural stuff is done as you can see below. I’m not entirely happy with the ply shelf so I intend to replace this with batons running front-to-back like in your airing cupboard but that can wait for now.

View attachment 47882
Just the door to add. I have built it and now need to give it a few coats of boat varnish. The structure is ply and it’s filled with 2 inches of Kingspan insulation.

View attachment 47883View attachment 47884
View attachment 47885

Yes to temperature control, separate heating and cooling for the fermentation cabinet and the brewshed itself which is where the beer is stored and dispensed.

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

I’ve not been on the forum much the last few days because we’re busy socialising (also going out again in 5 minutes!). Anyway, today I’ve cleaned my beer lines and sampled three new beers; American pale, Saison, and Belgian Blonde.

The American Pale and Saison are a bit hazy because this is the first pour from the keg and I’m picking up a little sediment from the bottom of the keg. Amazingly the Belgian Blonde is clear from the first pour.

The American Pale will go on tap now because the old keg is empty. The Saison and Belgian will go on tap in about 10 days.

Next week I’ll be kegging my latest batch of English Pale and Best Bitter, and I’ll keg my new ESB.

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

I had planned to keg the three beers in my fermentation cabinet this last week but in the end I only kegged the pale ale and the ESB. I wasn’t able to keg the bitter because I didn’t have an empty keg - sorted that last night so I can now get the bitter kegged.

The ESB finished a bit lower than I’d expected at 1010 so is a slightly higher than planned 6.3%. I can’t say I’m upset by that, it is Christmas after all! As well as filling a keg I also managed to fill 7 bottles from this batch.

The ESB is not as dark as it looks in the picture but is a bit murky looking compared to most of my beers coming out of the fermenter.

 

[Twostage]

I’ve not been on the forum much the last few days because we’re busy socialising (also going out again in 5 minutes!). Anyway, today I’ve cleaned my beer lines and sampled three new beers; American pale, Saison, and Belgian Blonde.

The American Pale and Saison are a bit hazy because this is the first pour from the keg and I’m picking up a little sediment from the bottom of the keg. Amazingly the Belgian Blonde is clear from the first pour.
View attachment 91811
View attachment 91812
View attachment 91813

The American Pale will go on tap now because the old keg is empty. The Saison and Belgian will go on tap in about 10 days.

Next week I’ll be kegging my latest batch of English Pale and Best Bitter, and I’ll keg my new ESB.

The Belgian looks good.

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

The Belgian looks good.

I’ll pour a glass later for your viewing pleasure!

 

[Clint]

Such a tease...

 

[Twostage]

I can a see a beer pouring ASMR thread coming on...

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

I finally got that bitter kegged. It’s such a well-behaved and dependable beer. Clean tasting and clear right out of the fermenter.