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Benefits of a mash out

cmbrougham

Grandmaster Brewer
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For the beer I'm going to brew this weekend, the clonish recipe I found suggests doing a mash out. I'm considering doing this, as it's going to be my first attempt at a multi-step mash, anyhow. However, the author of the recipe was able to directly apply heat to his mash tun, whereas mine is plastic cooler. My only option to raise the mash temp is boiling water infusions. The problem is that I would need to dilute the mash to almost a 2:1 ratio in order to bring the mash temp up to the prescribed 176dF.

So... what are my options? I'm sure I'd have room in my MLT for the extra mash out water, but that seems like a really thin mash. If I were simply to sparge with ~185dF water (the high temp is to account for temp loss on the way from the HLT to the MLT), am I roughly achieving the same result as a mash out?
 
Without the capability of adding heat, your only options are to add more water or remove part of the mash and bring to a boil (as in decoction) and add it back to the mash.  Assuming that you prefer the option of adding more water, try making your initial infusion a little tighter by using 1qt/lb; you can then easily achieve a mash out with an infusion and stay around 1.5 qts/lb.
 
Colin,
 The water to grain ratio is really not a factor during the mash out - it is only important on the steps where you are actually converting sugars (i.e. all of the earlier steps).

 The main purpose of the mash-out is to halt conversion and to raise the temperature of the mash for a better lauter flow.  There is no problem with a 2:1 ratio on the mash-out step.

Cheers!
Brad
 
Cool! That helps very much, gentlemen. Seeing how this is a wheat beer--my first AG wheat beer, at that--I can see how thinning the mash pre-sparge would actually be beneficial. Of heard horror stories of immovable mashes when brewing with wheat. I'll rework the mash schedule a bit to allow for a little better grain:water ratio. I might post it here, too, for you more informed brewers to review  8)  Many thanks!
 
OK, here's the amended mash profile, including a mash out:

Oberon Clone Mash
Grain Weight: 14.50 lb Mash PH: 5.4 PH
Grain Temperature: 60.0 F Sparge Temperature: 185.0 F

Name Description Step Temp Step Time
Mash In Add 14.50 qt of water at 154.6 F 140.0 F 30 min
Step Add 5.75 qt of water at 211.7 F 158.0 F 30 min
Mash Out Add 11.50 qt of water at 211.8 F 176.0 F 10 min

This is for a 7.75 gallon batch... I'm actually brewing a 5 gallon version, so it would be scaled down by about 1/3. What do you think?
 
Colin,
 Looks OK to me as long as the mash tun is large enough to hold all of the water during the mash out.

Brad
 
Soooo, the brew session went fairly well. Had a bit of an issue with my MLT when the manifold detached itself from the outlet baffle, so a lot of grain and sediment got sucked into the boiler. At any rate, it's fermenting well today.

One question regarding the mash out, however: do you find that it takes longer to set the grain bed when doing an mash out with an infusion? My water:grain ratio was about 2.2:1, and it seemed like I had grain and husks floating all over the place, instead of settling on the bottom as I'm accustomed to. Any thoughts?
 
Colin,
 This may be a matter of preference, but I like to keep the grain bed slightly afloat because it significantly reduces the chance of a stuck mash.  

 I find when brewing a wheat or other sticky beer that if I let the grain bed settle too much it can get stuck.

 Even if a few husks are floating around, you will still form a good grain bed below the water level for the lauter.

Cheers!
Brad
 
Thanks Brad... that makes a lot of sense, when you put it that way :D Seeing how I have a few wheat brews coming up, I can see how this would definitely be of benefit.
 
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