Step mashing

[FirebladeAdam]

I have a big orange drinks cooler mash tun. I've used it very successfully for lots of AG mashes, but step mashing is hard as it involves hot water additions to get up to various temperatures.
So I wonder... Is it possible to start hotter and step down to different temperatures using cold water during the mash? Or does that somehow scupper extraction?
Thanks in advance

 

[cushyno]

That will kill the enzymes needed for the cooler steps.

The way to do step mash with a cooler mash tun is to do several decoctions. After your set time you remove a portion of the liquor and heat to boiling, then add that back to the mash tun and stir. It might take several of these to get to the right temperature.

If you begin with a thick mash it gradually makes it thicker and I find gives the beer more body. Thinner mash (i.e. more water in your mash to begin with) will mean having more water to heat up at each step so it'll take longer.

You could just add more boiling water to your mash, but you'd potentially be upsetting the pH, making it less acidic than you want, therefore the rest of the mash may end up in a less than optimal pH range and cause issues.

 

[phettebs]

I've done a few stepped mashes with both decoction and infusion. In the end, I didn't notice enough difference to justify the effort.

 

[FirebladeAdam]

I recently followed a recipe for the first time in ages... And it called for step mashing. I normally do most things at 66C and have great results, but this was so difficult to do with my kit, and when I tried the beer at the end I thought 'its no better or worse than my 66C beers...'
Tomorrow I'm doing the same beer with just a single infusion mash at 66C. But I did think that it would be easier to cool the mash to the next temperature rather than heat it to the next temperature. So that's the question really!

 

[RichardM]

Soon someone will replying saying that stepped mashing is a waste of time and not needed with today's modified malts, but I have a Braumeister so stepped mashing is easy, so I do it sometimes.

 

[Hanglow]

You can get a much better grip of fermentability and things like head formation/retention if you add step mashing to your brewing. Modern modified malts just means that a protein rest in not needed as much. However doughing in at just at the highest limit of a protein rest (about 55c or so) would probably further aid head retention as long as you don't wait there long. It would also have the benefit of not forming any dough balls as it is below geletanisation temperature of malted barley

I almost always do a step mash now and I use a cool box. Beersmith 2 I have found is very accurate for step mashing with infusion mashing.

If you are worried about pH, set your mash pH then adjust any water additions to that pH or use very low alkalinity water and you will be fine.

I'd start with a simple 2 step mash - targeting beta amylase and then alpha amylase - say 63c-64c for 45 mins then 72c-73c for 30 mins and see how you get on. Then add more steps if you want to, such as a dough in, lower beta amylase rest, mashout etc

 

[FirebladeAdam]

That's pretty much what I do.
But can I start at 73C then cool it down to 65C? It would be so much easier than going up in temperature.

 

[cushyno]

@Hanglow I'm interested to hear how you raise your mash temperature in a coolbox. Is it through decoction, or do you recirculate and have a RIMS coil in the coolbox?

 

[crescent city Mike]

https://crescentcitybrewtalk.com/step-mashing/
Step mashing isn't always necessary but it is a way to improve your brewing. There really is more to it than the nay-sayers admit. There are a lot of enzymes in malt and they do different things. Step mashing allows the brewer to provide optimal (or nearly so) conditions for the enzymes to really do their job in the mash.

My site has several articles about mashing that many will find helpful and interesting.

 

[chthon]

Step mashing:

• When you brew with rye and oats, a step at 45° and at 55° will help dissolve the gums and the extra proteins in them
• Better fermentability: for my brews I use 59°, 65° and 72°. Everybody talks about low attenuation with T-58. With this kind of mash I got 83% attenuation from it.

Decoction: for the fun of it :-p. I have used it, in a tripel, in a bock and in a weizen, but I also made them with simpler mash schemes and they tasted as good. But doing a decoction is possibly a good exercise to learn that several spectres of brewing (oxygen, tannin extraction from hulls in the boiling wort) are not nearly as influential as people seem to think.

 

[nickjdavis]

That's pretty much what I do.
But can I start at 73C then cool it down to 65C? It would be so much easier than going up in temperature.

see post 2

you cannot go down in temp as the initial higher temp will deactivate the enzymes that are supposed to work at the lower temps....cooling the mash down will not "reactivate" them.

 

[FirebladeAdam]

That's exactly what I needed thank you!

 

[FirebladeAdam]

@Hanglow I'm interested to hear how you raise your mash temperature in a coolbox. Is it through decoction, or do you recirculate and have a RIMS coil in the coolbox?

I use hot water additions. Works fine and is accurate with practice! Bit labour intensive though

 

[Hanglow]

Yes hot water additions for me too

 

[Braufather]

see post 2

you cannot go down in temp as the initial higher temp will deactivate the enzymes that are supposed to work at the lower temps....cooling the mash down will not "reactivate" them.

what’s the time scale on that? The temp on my BM often overshoots on occasion, so an intended mash at say 63, could spend the first 10 mins at 68c?

It’s always concerned me, that.

 

[FirebladeAdam]

Braufather yes me too! I've often had a mash a couple of degrees higher before I've added a cooling addition.

 

[Braufather]

Braufather yes me too! I've often had a mash a couple of degrees higher before I've added a cooling addition.

at first I thought it was a misreading with the temp probe near the heating element but upon testing it’s that at the top too. Spiedal told me to change my crush setting which did help but not all suppliers have that flexibility.

 

[Galena]

The temp on my BM often overshoots on occasion, so an intended mash at say 63, could spend the first 10 mins at 68c?

I can understand it overshooting, it does on my Fullhorn, but surely you can check with a probe thermometer at the top whilst recirculating and then dough in at the right temperature? Then monitor with the top thermometer and turn the element off once it reaches the desired step temp? At least that's what I do

 

[Braufather]

I can understand it overshooting, it does on my Fullhorn, but surely you can check with a probe thermometer at the top whilst recirculating and then dough in at the right temperature? Then monitor with the top thermometer and turn the element off once it reaches the desired step temp? At least that's what I do

it’s after doe in that the problems start, when the pump reactivates, it automated too so I’ve stared coughing in at lower temps!

 

[nickjdavis]

it’s after doe in that the problems start, when the pump reactivates, it automated too so I’ve stared coughing in at lower temps!

Probably sensible if your temp swings are that variable in the early stages of the mash.

I typically dough in at around 59 degrees, let it rest a couple of minutes and then start ramping up the temp to the desired mash temp.