How I Brew

Normally, I try to dough in right to 125-128'F. Depending on the dry grain temp and how much of it there is, I usually get my HLT water temp going up to 140-150'F for heating, and I get my dough in water amount (based on the grain to water ratios for the mash already planned out...normally about 1.10qts per lb of grain) heating up in my boil kettle. Target around 132'F typically with normal 70-80'F days and 60-80'F dry grain temps (all of those factors, including how cool the mash tun is, and how much thermal intertia it has will affect this). Like I said, I get the dough in water up to about 132'F and that seems to average out to 125-128'F after transferring it into the cold mashtun and dumping the grain in. But even if it is off just a little, the HLT is ready to help heat during the recirculation with a target of 125-128'F (ahhh...love those temp controlled solenoid valves).

For the next couple parts, be certain you are refering to the Diagram, as many people have expressed confusion about how all the hoses are connected and how the liquid flows work. Transfer the initial water into the mash tun, and start recirculating into the HLT (which is at 140-150'F) with a target of 125-128'F for the mash and slowly pour in the grains. Stir while doing this to make sure there is good water saturation and no dry spots or clumps form.

Even though most people will tell you that a protien rest is not necessary with today's style of highly modified malts, I still do this anyway for just 10-15 minutes. Protien rests are normally good to help prevent chill haze and I think it helps to just get the grains all plumped and set your bed.

In this configuration, I am draining out of the bottom of the mash tun, into the pump, up to the HLT coils (either bypassed or heating), then up into the sparge arm, which returns the wort to the top of the grain bed.

I normally start the HLT heating up to ~165'F right away at the start of this step, so it is ready to try to do the next step temp up to the Saccharification rest, which is the main conversion of starches to sugars.

This is the main part of "mashing" with typical highly modified malts of today. Typical temperatures range from 150'F to 165'F. There is a lot of literature that it is worth your time to read to decide what temps work best for you. Please, if this at all interests you, spend some time at John Palmer's How to Brew page, as he goes through the chemistry of all this in detail.

Typically 153'F to 157'F produces a pretty good brew if you are unsure. The higher the temp, the more body you will have, but the less fermentable it will be (Apha amylase enzyme works best on large chain glucose strands from 154-162'F). Lower temps will produce thinner, more fermentable brew (Beta amylase enzyme works best on small chain glucose strands from 130-150'F). I'm still learning how to best fit body and fermentability into the same package. Obviously, dark porters and stouts need higher temps for the great body, but then you need a really good attenuation yeast to ferment out, and you will normally end up with a higher final gravity and a sweeter tasting beer (not always a good thing in bitters or dark porters). Lawn mower brews and light ales favor the thinner body, and normally may be higher in alcohol content because they can finish much lower and less sweet because they were mashed at a lower conversion temp (around the 150'F range). You still want to be careful and avoid too low of a body, or you end up with a watery/dry tasting beer. pH also plays a role here. Beta favors lower pH (around 5.0) while Alpha favors higher pH (around 5.7). Less starting water/grain ratios also favors Alpha amylase, and helps produce a more bodied beer. Higher temps finish quicker, and because large chains are being broken down, you may find that you can mash in less than 30 minutes. The higher the temp, the more you self limit the Beta amylase action, so longer times may not necessarily make it more fermentable (lower body). I'm still not sure what the effect is of doing two different mash temps at this phase does for you (if any).

In this configuration, I am draining out of the bottom of the mash tun, into the pump, up to the HLT coils (either bypassed or heating), then up into the sparge arm, which returns the wort to the top of the grain bed.

I typically hold the HLT heating water at around 10'F higher than my target mash rest temp here.

Typical average values are: a mash ratio of about 1.5 quarts of water per pound grain, pH of 5.3, temperature of 150-155°F and a time of about one hour. These are the values I would use on a first all grain mash if I didn't exactly know how it was all going to go (it is baseline enough to make everything work out fine).

This step (especially for thicker mashes) essentially stops all enzymatic action and eliminates that "sticky oatmeal" consistancy of the mash. It helps prevent stuck mashes and helps "wash" the sugars from the mash bed and is normally performed at temps in excess of 170'F. Typically only 15 minutes is needed for this step (and it can safely be skipped on many mashes, especially on thinner mashs > 1.5 qts/lb). Constantly recirculating the mash just like during the Sac Rest step before helps naturally filter out cloudy particles from the wort that you will drain off in the next step.

In this configuration, I begin to switch the hoses over just at the very end of the mash out step to gather the initial runnings. That means I gravity drain out of the mash tun into the boil kettle (one more reason the mash tun is up so high on the brew frame). I do this, because it allows me to hook the pump up to the HLT outlet and pump water out of the HLT into the top of the mash tun and "fly sparge" if I like (next step).

Normally, I hold the HLT at around 180'F for this step so I have plent of sparge water at the right temp.

Sparging is the practice of rinsing the sugars out of the grain bed. In most cases, your initial runnings are a very high concentration of sugars, and if you simply add water to the boil kettle, you are wasting some residual sugars left in your grain bed. There is nothing wrong with soing this if you like, it just hurts your efficiencies (you are leaving a lot of fermentable sugars in the grain bed if you don't batch or fly sparge). Rinsing hot water (typically in the 168'F to 172'F temp range) through the grain bed helps pull out more of these sugars and improves efficiencies.

I typically "batch" sparge, which means I pump in some amount of water to the top of the mash tun and recirculate through the grain bed. I may even stir the bed a little, but to keep the wort clear, if you do this, be certain to recirculate for a while to allow the grain bed to naturally filter out particles. I normally do 2 or 3 itterations of batch sparging with 10 minutes of recirculation. Fly sparging is just leaving the mash tun draining into the boil kettle, and gently sprinkling 175-180'F sparge water onto the top of the grain bed and allowing it to just naturally wash out the sugars with no recirculation. In this mode, you want to be sure to limit the drain rate to a bare trickle with the mash tun outlet ball valve. You want to keep the grain bed submerged in water and "floating" rather than allowing it to ever settle and cool or dry out. The only time the mash should settle and drain dry is at the end of the sparge. I've begun doing this more and more, in the interests of time and it seems to work fine. You can stop sparging once you get all the makeup water you need into the boil kettle for your target pre boil amounts. Some people log the initial runnings gravity as well as the gravity they stop sparging at, known as final runnings (you will see the runnings get lighter and lighter as you sparge). Personally, I don't worry about what the final runnings are, as I just try to target what I know I need for my initial boil volumes. I do try to take a composit gravity reading from the boil kettle before getting there, just to make sure I've hit close to my efficiency numbers for initial gravities. If I'm off, I would rather adjust the target preboil volume up or down a little rather than add dry malt or just live with wrong initial gravities.

In this configuration, for batch sparging, I'm typically running the same hose setup as during the saccharification rest for the recirculation mode (once I've pumped the intial sparge water out of the HLT into the mash tun), and then switch it over to gather the runnings into the boil kettle similar to the initial runnings.

Normally, I hold the HLT at around 180'F for this step, and I may top off the HLT and bring back up to temp, as I am typically using the HLT water for the sparge water.

While you are waiting for the various steps and mash times, you can do a lot of other stuff.

• Preclean fermentation vessels: Rinse fermentation vessel, then add 1 tablespoon of chlorine to 5 gallons of water and let sit for at least 1 hour (out of the sun).
• Preclean bottles and kegs: Clean out bottles with chlorine or use starsan to clean old kegs out, rinse and let dry up side down or on a drying rack.
• Play poker and get brauts going in a crock pot of stout!