Step Mash profile

Can someone help me build a step mash for the follow instructions? This is my first step mash and I am struggling to build the profile.  I have a 14 pound grain bill.


Dough in at 99 °F (37 °C) with about 2 gallons (~7.5 L) of water. This amounts to a 2:1 liquor to grist ratio. Allow for a 30-minute rest to thoroughly hydrate the grist, then bring the grain bed gradually to the mash-out temperature of 145 °F (63 °C) using a hot-water infusion and direct heat. While ramping up, employ a 20-minute protein and beta-glucan rest at 122 °F (50°C). Give the grain bed a 60-minute rest at 145 °F (63 °C) to allow for thorough starch conversion, then recirculate the first runnings until they are clear and sparge while maintaining a stable grain bed temperature. 

deleted after re-reading the question

What is your equipment set-up?  Can you direct heat your mash tun or are you mashing in a cooler/mash tun or BIAB?  A lot of the set up for step mashing depends heavily on your specific equipment.

Mash out temp is usually about 168F; 145 is the sugar conversion temperature. Mash out is usually not needed.

To get a 2:1 water:grain ratio you'll need 28 quarts (7 gallons) for dough-in. Eight quarts for 14 pounds of grain is going to be a very thick mash, but it can be done.

According to Beersmith, you'll need a total of 8.03 gallons of water. Mash-in with 8 quarts of water at 107.8F to hit 99F. Add 12 quarts at 142.6F to raise the temp to 122. Add 12 quarts at 188.6F to hit 145. Use direct heat to maintain your temps during the rests - the dough-in step will be way too thick to use direct heat; just let it sit. If you want a mash out, you can use direct heat to get there, but you're going to start boiling the wort as soon as you can get the bag drained - or as it drains - so why bother?

These numbers assume the grain is at 72F, 1.03 gallons of grain absorption, 0.75 gallons of boil-off, no sparge, and 0.51 loss to trub in the fermenter. Mash profile is BIAB Light Body.

Dan

Oginme said:

What is your equipment set-up?  Can you direct heat your mash tun or are you mashing in a cooler/mash tun or BIAB?  A lot of the set up for step mashing depends heavily on your specific equipment.

Click to expand...

Sorry....should have been more specific.  I have a 10 gallon igloo cooler as a mash tun and HLT.  15 gallon pot for boiling. 

Making those jumps without direct heating is kind of tough and I suspect that the original mash profile was made with that in mind.  A quick run through would give a multi-step infusion similar to the following:

Infusion for acid rest on 14 lbs of grain:  3.17 gal @105F (this is a pretty thick start)  target temp: 99F
Infusion rise to protein rest: 1.32 gal @190F  target temp: 122F
Infusion rise to saccharification :  2.25 gal @199F  target temp: 145F

Your actual volumes and temps may be different depending upon your dead space volume, losses to chiller and trub, weight of mash tun, and grain temperature.  This will leave you no volume of water to sparge or mash out.  Your initial strike ratio at less than 1 qt/lb will make a really thick oatmeal consistency which will be difficult to stir.  After the infusion for the protein rest it should get a little easier.  When you get to the saccharification rest, you are essentially doing a full volume mash which will tend to leave a thinner, more fermentable wort (in my experience).  Since you are doing your starch conversion at a low temperature, that is kind of the original objective anyway.  I'm not sure of the recipe or the actual requirement/need for the acid and protein rests.  Most of the commercial malts sold are already so well modified that this may be easily reduced to a single infusion at 145F.

From here, if you really want to go through with this, I would open up your mash profiles and select one of the multi-infusion mashes.  Modify it with the steps above and then re-balance the water with your actual requirements.  You can see what excess water you have by tracking total water required vs what you have added for the infusions.