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Protein Rest

AN-G BOMB

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I am a new all grain brewer, and I want to make a beer that has a 10-20 min Protein Rest.  My question is how do you figure the water ratio since I have to still do the Sacch' rest too? Again I am new to all grain but have been brewing extract kits for 7+ years.
 
First is to develop a new mash profile with the rests at the temperatures you want to hit in your mash profile.  Don't worry about the specifics right now on water volumes.  Enter your recipe using the equipment profile you want to use and your new mash profile.  Now go to the mash tab of the recipe and edit the mash profile by clicking on the 'check mark' icon next to the mash profile.

I would suggest that a minimum water to grain ratio you want to hit for proper mobility and effectiveness of the enzymes is about 1.25 qts/lb of grain (2.6 l/kg), so I would add that as your first infusion at the protein rest temperature.  This can be adjusted downward without too much issue if you later find out that you don't have enough room for the next infusion volume.

Now, edit the saccharification rest and use the 'volume to add' section to add more water in until you get to a point where the infusion water temperature does not exceed boiling.  Your choice if you want to put more water in than is necessary to avoid having to bring your infusion water all the way to boiling.  Once you finish with your additions, you can exit out and check the program for any issues with your equipment volumes on the mash page.  If you have exceeded your max volume, you will see a red mark next to the 'mash tun volume needed' calculation on the mash tab.  Also check to make sure that you do not have a negative sparge volume, which will indicate that you have too much infusion water going into the mash for that recipe.

You can go back and edit the volumes as needed to try to get the water volumes to fit into your equipment or to reduce or increase the infusion volumes as needed to bring them to a place that is comfortable for you to brew.  I would recommend that you keep your infusion volume for the saccharification rest below 200?F (93?C) as the program does not account for temperature loss during the mash step and you may want to heat the water above the recommended temperature to account for this loss.

That said, since you are new to all-grain brewing I would highly recommend that you change the recipe to a single infusion mash.  Unless you are using malts that are specifically under modified, you will find that it is really not needed.  Progress in breeding low protein malts and more consistent germination in the malt house has reduced the need for this step in almost all cases.  It will also be less frustrating as you are also trying to tune in your process in BeerSmith to get the water volumes, mash losses, and thermal properties to match you actual results for the first time.
 
Wow you know your stuff..  Thanks for all your input. 
I am still figuring out the beer smith software too, ugh maybe I will have to slow down and do it one thing at a time..  LOL
thanks again.
 
For a first time all grain brewer I would suggest keeping everything as simple as possible for the first brewday or two. You will have your hands full as it is learning to manage strike volumes and temps, lautering and sparging, etc. You might want to do a single infusion mash to start with.
 
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