This week I take a look at mash profiles in BeerSmith and how you can select the right one to match both your equipment and the beer style you are brewing.
Mash profiles are a powerful tool in BeerSmith brewing software. They encapsulate a series of mash steps in the all grain brewing process, and allow you to vary things like the water to grain ratio, mash temperatures, and methods used in the mash. Mash profiles work in conjunction with your equipment profile, as well as the grain bill in your recipe to adjust the volumes used in the mash to match a particular system and batch. I’ve previously written about adjusting mash profiles here, but today I’m going to cover mash profiles at a higher level to help you choose which one is best for your system and brewing style.
To select a mash profile, simply open your recipe and scroll down a bit on the Design tab until you see the Mash Profile field which is below the ingredients and style guide comparison. Click on the mash profile name and pick from the pre-loaded mash profiles available. This sets your mash profile and will calculate out the water and temperatures needed at each step. If you want to see all the steps and be able to adjust temperatures or water/grain ratios for each step go to the Mash tab in any open recipe. Alternately just click on the “Brew Steps” button at the top and it will show you steps for brewing your recipe including the mash steps.
Spoiler Alert: The “Single Infusion, No Mash Out” with light, medium or full body will work for most brewers, unless you are using a BIAB or “all-in-one” style of brewing system in which case the BIAB profile matching the appropriate body of beer will work best.
To BIAB or not to BIAB?
The first top level question to ask is are you using a Brew-in-a-bag (BIAB) or no-sparge type of brewing system? The major defining characteristic of a BIAB system is that it uses the full volume of water up front in the mash, and has no separate sparge step. Instead the grain is typically lifted or separated from the wort using a grain bag, stainless filter, or sometimes even a second vessel as is the case 2 vessel systems like the Blichmann BrewEasy. I wrote about using BIAB systems with BeerSmith here, but most of the very popular stainless all in one systems are BIAB now including the Blichmann BrewEasy, Robobrew, Brewzilla, Anvil Foundry, Grainfather, Clawhammer, Brewers Edge Mash and Boil, as well as the classic BIAB system which consists of just a large boiling pot and a grain bag.
If using a BIAB system, then you want to pick a BIAB mash profile as that will tell BeerSmith that you want to the entire batch’s water up front and not do a sparge step. BeerSmith comes preloaded with a number of BIAB mash profiles that do this. Just select the correct one to match your beer style. Note that most of the BIAB profiles with more than one step include a second “temperature” step to tell you to raise the temperature of the system for mash out or another mash step.
Light, Medium or Full Body?
The next basic decision is what body you are targeting for the beer. Almost all of the mash profiles preloaded in BeerSmith have a light, medium and full body option. Selecting one simply sets the mash temperature lower or higher, which drives enzymes that determine the fermentability of the wort. Lower mash temperatures are associated with higher fermetnability and a lower body in the finished beer. High mash temperatures lead to less fermentability and a fuller bodied beer. Finally there is a Pilsner or Lager style mash which hits both high and low temperatures to reduce the body even further. Selecting the correct mash profile for the style of beer you are making can lead to better results.
Mash Out or No Mash Out
A “mash out” is an extra step at the end of the mash that raises the temperature of the mash to reduce enzyme activity and reduce viscosity during the sparge step, or draining step for BIAB systems. Many years ago it was believed that the mash step halted enzyme activity before sparging, so it was seen as an important step. Now we understand that reducing enzyme activity is not critical, but some brewers still do a mash out as it does reduce viscosity when sparging and may slightly improve your efficiency during the sparge.
A mash-out can also help when working with sticky adjuncts like wheat or oatmeal as the reduced viscosity can help avoid a stuck sparge. However, many brewers now skip the mash-out step on full barley mashes as it does not have any substantial effect on the finished beer, but merely adds time to the brew day. I personally only use a mash-out profile when working with adjuncts like wheat now.
Batch Sparge or Not?
Batch sparging is a method primarily used by home brewers to simplify the sparge step. Many brewers do not have a continuous sparge system with a sparge arm that slowly and evenly adds sparge water to the mash tun, so instead they prepare “batches” of heated water they add to the mash tun all at once and then let it drain before adding the next batch. Each batch is calculated so it does not overflow the mash tun. The “ideal” batch sparge has the water additions calculated so each batch is “even” and outputs roughly the same amount of wort. In reality this usually means a small addition to the already mostly full mash tun on the first step and larger additions to fill the mash tun on subsequent steps and then fully draining the mash tun at the end.
BeerSmith can do these calculations for you which is why most of the conventional mash profiles preloaded with the software have a batch sparge option, and selecting this option will add the estimated sparge water needed for each of your batches to the brewing instructions.
Single Infusion, Double Infusion, RIMS-HERMS, Temperature Mash?
For conventional, non-BIAB systems we have several ways of starting the mash. On most brewing systems we start the mash with a single infusion step which means that the grains are added to a volume of pre-heated water. The temperature of the water is calculated such that adding the grains will come very close to the temperature we want for our first mash step. So for a home brewer, they heat a given volume of water to a given temperature then add the grains and that starts the mash. Many pro systems are also started this way.
Another option is a “temperature mash” where the system allows direct heat to be applied to the entire volume of mash and water to achieve a given temperature. In this type of system the water and grain are added up front and then heat is applied to the mash tun until the desired mash temperature is reached. Since direct heat is available they can do this for subsequent steps as well.
Then we have variations for subsequent steps. Many homebrew systems do not have direct heat on the mash tun which might be a simple bucket or cooler, so home brewers may do a second infusion step, called a double infusion, if they need to raise the mash temperature for a second step. Fancier homebrew systems as well as many pro systems using the RIMS and HERMS setup do allow heating of the wort, so they use an infusion for the first step but a direct heat temperature step to perform later steps.
The reality is that most non-BIAB home brewers pick a simple Single Infusion mash profile with no mash out, which is probably a good choice if you are starting out. If you have a fancier RIMS/HERMS or Pro system with direct heat, then the Single Infusion mash profile with no mash out will still work for you, though you can use a RIMS-HERMS or temperature mash profile or even modify one of those profiles if you are targeting multiple steps in your mash.
Decoction Mash Profiles?
Decoction mashing is an advanced brewing technique where you start with a infusion step, but then “decoct” to reach later mash steps. This involves pulling a portion of the mash including the grains off and boiling it in a separate vessel, then adding the boiling hot mash mixture back to the original mash to raise its temperature. This method was historically used by many German and European brewers for multi-step mashes and is still in use by some brewers today. It has fallen out of mainstream usem however, due to the substantial time and resources it takes to implement it.
In BeerSmith you can simply select a decoction mash profile and it will start your mash with an infusion step adding your grain to hot water, but in subsequent steps it will show the amount of mash mixture to “decoct” which means you separate this portion and bring it to a boil before returning it to the mash. If you have the extra equipment to do this on a German style it can be fun, but it is also messy and time consuming at the homebrew level.
Equipment Specific Mash Profiles
Some manufacturers have provided their own mash profiles to go with their equipment. These are available as “add-ons” in BeerSmith either from the File->Addons menu or by going to your Profiles->Mash view and selecting the “Add-ons” button there. Currently Robobrew, PicoBrew and BREWHA have profiles listed. Simply download the ones that apply to your equipment and then use them in your recipe.
Custom Mash Profiles
You can create new profiles yourself or copy and edit existing ones by going to Profiles->Mash view or if you want to adjust for just one recipe you can do so from the Mash tab in any recipe. To change the temperature for a step or the water/grain ratio for a step just edit that particular mash step. You can add additional mash or infusion steps to a given profile as well. This article covers the basics for editing mash profiles, though its possible to create just about any profile you like.
I hope you enjoyed this week’s article on mash profiles. Thanks for joining me on the BeerSmith Home Brewing Blog. If you want to take the guesswork out of brewing, please try my BeerSmith recipe software from BeerSmith.com. Be sure to sign up for my newsletter or my podcast (also on itunes and youtube) for more great tips on homebrewing.
