mash

John Mallett, the Director of Operations at Bell’s Brewing joins me to talk about his new book “Malt: A Practical Guide from Field to Brewhouse” This is the final book in the four part Brewing Element series from Brewer’s Publications. John discusses varieties of malt, the malting process and how various malts are used in […]

Efficiency is an important number to understand for all grain beer brewing. Your system efficiency determines the original gravity of the beer as well as how much grain is required to develop a given recipe. Understanding the difference between mash and brewhouse efficiency is also important – as it also drives the grains required. Efficiency […]

The authors of the upcoming book Experimental Homebrewing Denny Conn and Drew Beechum join me to discuss some of their home brew experiments as well as their upcoming book. Drew and Denny provide some unusual and unique ideas to spice up your home brewed beer! Subscribe on iTunes to Audio version or Video version Download […]

Five More Tips for All Grain Beer Brewing

by Brad Smith on March 19, 2014 · 1 comment

Last week I presented my first five tips for all grain beer brewing. This week I add five more tips to help you make your all grain beer even better. 1. Know What You Are Brewing, and Keep it Simple I put this tip first since this is the one that most brewers ignore. You […]

This week my guest is Ron Pattinson, who is an expert on historical beer brewing. Ron joins us to discuss Vintage English beers and covers a wide variety of topics including English historical styles, classic ingredients and beer brewing techniques. Ron is the author of a new book “The Home Brewer’s Guide to Vintage Beer. […]

This week we talk about how to make the switch into all grain beer brewing. My guest is Chris Graham, Chief Operating Officer of MoreBeer and also a Brewer’s Association board member and American Homebrew Association Governing Council member. Download the MP3 File – Right Click and “Save As” to download this mp3 file [audio:http://traffic.libsyn.com/beersmith/BSHB-63-All-Grain-Graham.mp3] […]

This week my guest is Bob Hall. Bob shares with us some great tips for managing your brewing water and mash pH. Bob teaches biology and ecology at the University of Wyoming and has been homebrewing for 23 years. Download the MP3 File – Right Click and “Save As” to download this mp3 file [audio:http://traffic.libsyn.com/beersmith/BSHB-61-Hall-Water.mp3] […]

This week my guest is John Palmer. John joins us to discuss brewing water and pH control for mashing in beer brewing. He explains why understanding your brewing water and controlling your mash pH is very important as well as describes how to calculate residual alkalinity for your local water source. Download the MP3 File […]

Multi vs Single Step Mashing for Home Brewing

by Brad Smith on February 8, 2013 · 6 comments

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Multi-step mashes used to be the standard for making beer, but increasingly home brewers and pro brewers have moved to brewing exclusively with a single step mash. The single step mash has many advantages including time, cost savings, simplicity and consistency. The Single Step Infusion Mash Most newcomers to all grain and partial mash brewing […]

Great beer balances bitterness, color, flavor and body. As an all-grain brewer, you need understand how to control the body of your home brewed beer using mash temperature. By altering your mash schedule to match the style of beer you are brewing you can achieve precise control over the body of your beer…

This week my guest is Gordon Strong, three time Ninkasi award winner (best in the US) and a Grandmaster Beer Judge. We discuss advanced homebrewing techniques – specifically for all grain brewers who have the basics of beer brewing down but want to do more. Download the MP3 File – Right Click and “Save As” […]

Three Stage System

Recirculating mash systems such as RIMS (Recirculating Infusion Mash System) and HERMS (Heat Exchanged Recirculating Mash Systems) are advanced beer brewing systems that use a pump and heating element to maintain a stable mash temperature during brewing. RIMS and HERMS are the two most popular, though many other systems exist. So this week, we take […]

This week I interview Dr Charles Bamforth, the Anheuser-Busch endowed Professor of Brewing Science a the University of California at Davis. We talk about the entire all grain mashing process for beer brewing from start to finish. Charlie explains how mashing actually works, how changes in the process affect the finished beer, and the role […]

Diastatic Power and Mashing your Beer

by Brad Smith on January 4, 2010 · 52 comments

This week we cover the technical topic of the diastatic power for mashing your all grain beer. While rarely covered, this topic is an important one, especially for home brewers making beers with high percentages of non-barley or specialty grains. This is an important topic for partial mash brewers as well, since they are often […]

Mashing for All Grain Beer Brewing

by Brad Smith on July 16, 2009 · 14 comments

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Mashing can be a mystical process for first time all-grain or partial mash beer brewers. At its heart, the mashing process uses hot water and natural enzymes to convert complex sugars from malt into simpler sugars that can be readily fermented. We covered the basics of infusion mashing in an earlier article. At its essence, […]