mash

This week I take a look at some of the key process factors when lautering and sparging your all grain beer. Last week in part one, I discussed equipment design and how a filter bed forms around grain husks and creates channels that the wort flows through. I explained why a poorly designed lauter tun […]

This week I take a closer look at the mashing process and what is actually going on when we mash malted barley and then sparge it to produce wort during the brewing process. The Purpose of Mashing Mashing is, in its most simple form, a process that breaks longer carbohydrate molecule chains into simpler sugars […]

Beer Design Case Study: A Robust Porter

by Brad Smith on August 4, 2022 · 2 comments

This week I though I would share a case study in beer recipe design to explore how I approach beer recipe design and some of the critical decisions made along the way. I will be designing a robust porter, which is one of my favorite beer styles. Defining the Robust Porter Before I start on […]

This week I take a look at the rapid rise of all-in-one BIAB style brewing systems for all grain brewing. These affordable, compact systems have quickly become the favorite of beginner and experienced brewers alike. All-in-One Brewing Systems Only a few years ago, most serious homebrewers had full-size three tier brewing systems for their all […]

This week I show you how to do an iodine test to see if your mash has completed and the starches in the mash have been fully converted to sugars. The Iodine Test for Mash Completion How does an all grain brewer know when the mash is complete? It turns out there is a very […]

This week I present the mash temperature calculations in BeerSmith and how you can adjust your equipment profile and mash profile to hit your mash temperature the first time. Mash Steps and Profiles To understand the mash profile system in BeerSmith, lets start with the mash profiles themselves. You can edit and create mash profiles […]

This week I take a look at malt enzymes vs malt color and how enzymes affect conversion of the malt during the beer brewing process. Malt Enzymes and Mashing In all grain brewing, enzymes are very important during the mash as they are needed to convert the longer starch chains in the malt into shorter […]

Enzymes in Beer: Alpha and Beta Amylase

by Brad Smith on October 2, 2021 · 0 comments

This week I take a look at the differences between alpha and beta amylase which act during the mash to convert longer starch chains to simple sugars in beer. Alpha vs Beta Amylase Enzymes are naturally produced in malted barley during the malting process. Chief among these are alpha amylase and beta amylase. They are […]

Jamil Zainasheff, founder of Heretic Brewing joins me this week for a beer brewing question and answer session. I apologize for the audio quality – we had some echo coming through from Jamil’s audio feed. Subscribe on iTunes to Audio version or Video version or Spotify or Google Play Download the MP3 File– Right Click […]

The Brewday Timer in BeerSmith Web

by Brad Smith on June 30, 2021 · 0 comments

A short tutorial on the use of the brewday timer for the BeerSmith Web Version. This is also available on the desktop and mobile versions. Related Videos: Design Tab | Yeast Starter Tab | Water Profile Tab | Mash Tab | Session Tab | Recipe Adjustment Tools | Find/Scale Recipes | Pro Recipe Tips | […]

An overview of the mash tab in the beer recipe builder for BeerSmith Web as well as a short introduction on how to calculate and make mash pH adjustments. Related Videos: Design Tab | Yeast Starter Tab | Water Profile Tab | Timer Tab | Session Tab | Recipe Adjustment Tools | Find/Scale Recipes | […]

John Blichmann joins me this week to discuss ways to simplify your brew day with “common sense brewing”, beer brewing and intelligent use of your equipment. Subscribe on iTunes to Audio version or Video version or Spotify or Google Play Download the MP3 File– Right Click and Save As to download this mp3 file. Your […]

This week I take a look at how you can use BeerSmith brewing software to adjust the brewhouse efficiency for your individual equipment setup. Understanding Brewhouse Efficiency Brewhouse efficiency is simply a measure of how efficient your all grain brewing system is at converting pounds (or kilograms) of grains into Original Gravity (OG) points going […]

This week I take a look at major enzymes in the mash and how you can leverage these using various mash temperature strategies for beer brewing. Chemistry of the Mash The mash process in beer brewing is done primarily to break down longer starch changes present in barley grains into simpler sugars like glucose and […]

Robert Keifer joins us from Divine Sciences Brewing this week to discuss gluten free beer brewing recipe design. Subscribe on iTunes to Audio version or Video version or on Google Play Download the MP3 File– Right Click and Save As to download this mp3 file [audio:http://traffic.libsyn.com/beersmith/BSHB-198-Gluten.mp3] Topics in This Week’s Episode (57:20) This week I […]