Welcome to BeerSmith! > Using Profiles and Styles

A mash profile represents the steps needed for mashing grains during all-grain or partial mash brewing. BeerSmith comes pre-loaded with the most popular mash profiles which you can use in any recipe simply by choosing them. BeerSmith includes commonly used infusion mash profiles, decoction mash profiles, batch sparge profiles and even brew-in-a-bag (BIAB) profiles.

Choose a mash profile within any all-grain or partial mash recipe's design tab to use it. You can adjust mash details for a single recipe using the recipe's mash tab. It is rare that you will need to create your own mash profile, but you can do so from this mash profile view as outlined below.

Understanding Mash Profiles: The mash profiles most frequently used by homebrewers are those listed as "Single Infusion" mash profiles. These are single step infusion mashes where a measure of hot water is mixed with grains and left for an hour or so to convert the starches in the grains. Double and Triple infusions are used infrequently - and only needed for beers with a high proportion of non-barley base grains. Temperature mashing is used by those who have a mash tun that can be heated - and the burner is used to heat the mixture and maintain its temperature rather than a hot water addition. Decoction mashing is an advanced technique used primarily in certain continental styles. Brew in a Bag (BIAB) is a relatively new method that lets you mash and brew in a single brew pot (see online articles for BIAB below).

Most mash profiles have variants for light, medium and full body profiles. The light body profiles mash at a lower temperature resulting in higher enzyme activity and a cleaner lighter overall profile. Full body profiles mash at a higher temperature resulting in less enzymatic activity and more unfermentable sugars in the finished beer - providing a fuller body to the finished beer.

Mash profiles also have the option of "Mash Out" or "No Mash Out". A mash-out step is nothing more than an additional step at the end of the mash to raise the temperature of the overall mash to halt enzymatic activity and increase viscosity when lautering. Unless you are working with a very thick mash (i.e. a lot of Wheat), a mash out is generally not required.

New Feature: BeerSmith now has support for Brew-In-A-Bag (BIAB) profiles - a technique where the grains are mashed in the boil kettle lined with a grain bag. BIAB profiles generally have a lower grain absorption rate and also have no sparge step since they use the full boil volume in the mash step.

Online Articles: Infusion Mashing, Mash Steps for All Grain, Partial Mashing, Decoction Mashing, Infusion Mashing and Decoction, Batch Sparging Guide, Brew in a Bag Techniques, Brew in a Bag Podcast

Using the Mash Profile View

o	Select the Mash Profile view from the profile menu or ribbon

o	From here you can add, edit or delete new mash profiles using the large buttons on the ribbon

Creating a New Mash Profile

o	Select the Mash Profile view from the profile menu or ribbon

o	Click on the Add Mash button on the ribbon

o	Give your profile a unique but descriptive name

o	Set your starting grain and tun temperature as well as sparge temperature. In most cases the default are sufficient.

o	Set the grain weight basis - this is a sample grain weight used only for building the mash profile. Once the mash profile is actually used in a recipe this number will be adjusted to match the actual grain weight from the recipe. For most recipes 10 lbs or 4.5 kg is a reasonable starting point.

o	The boiling temperature (212F or 100C) is used only in decoction calculations. If you are creating a new decoction profile, this temperature may need to be adjusted higher as the mash water mixture typically boils a bit above the boiling point of water.

o	The Mash pH is used to record the recommended mash pH for this profile.

o	Add steps to the mash profile by clicking Add Mash Step. You can also edit/delete or reorder steps using the buttons shown

o	The mash dialog also will show a graphical representation of the mash profile

o	Batch sparge options are shown for batch sparging. For optimal results, I recommend setting "Use Equal Batches" when batch sparging.

The BIAB/Full boil option will override the water calculations for mashing and set the initial mash steps and subsequent steps so a full boil volume will result from the mash (no sparge water). This is primarily used in Brew-In-A-Bag or No-Sparge mash techniques. The boil volume basis helps you determine approximate values for a given boil volume - it too will be scaled to the actual boil volume when you apply this profile to a recipe.