Best way to mash

[Adamsale]

whats the best way to mash....I have brewsmith software and was going to make a partial mash and confused as to which mash is best...or easiest....why have so many ways...single with no batch out, some with batch sparge....etc etc..then theres steeping....
i just want a simple mash for grains and then add to kettle with some DME and hops and boil....
any simple ideas and amounts would be good...ie x amount of grain needs y amount of water at z temp for v minutes.

Thanks..

i have a 25l esky with copper pipe manifold ready and not used and a 15l kettle.....thanks again...I know that is a big one but i could also use a 5l one for small mashes.??

[Bum]

I read this thread only yesterday, Lots of great info. Might help you out?
viewtopic.php?f=13&t=7720

[Adamsale]

excellent article but how much grain and DME.???? what type of mash was that so i can enter into brewsmith......or just do it and get an SG reading and dilute to what i want.???

[warra48]

I also use BeerSmith.

In your case, this is what I would do.

1. In your recipe, select Partial Mash at the top in the middle.
2. Choose the type of beer you want to brew. Click choose, and you get a window with all the styles loaded into BeerSmith. Select what you want, and it will appear in your recipe, and give you a guide as to the colour range, SG range, and IBU range etc.
3. In mash profile, I'd choose Single Infusion, Batch Sparge, Medium Body. Don't bother with a mash out. In the mash profile drop down box, you can edit the steps, or build your own mash profile, based on Trough Lolly's excellent post. Then you can choose that.
So you would build in an infusion step, and a single sparge.
4. A 25 litre esky is what I use. You could do an All Grain in that, but you are limited by your kettle size of 15 litres. Realistically, you could only boil about 12 or 13 litres of wort in that, without risking a boil over. Given that, I suggest about 2.5 kg of grain is a good start. Add that as an ingredient in your recipe.
5. I'd mash with say 7.5 litres and mash for 60 minutes. Then give it a good stir, vorlauf, and drain that as best you can. You should get about 5 litres (the rest will be absorbed by the grain). Add about 8 more litres of 80ºC or so water, give it a good stir, vorlauf, and drain it. You should have about 12 to 13 litres of lovely sweet wort, ready to be boiled for 60 minutes.
6. If you want to work out your efficiency, measure the temperature of your drained wort, and the Specific Gravity. Use the BeerSmith hydro adjust tool to get you the correct temperature adjusted SG. By the way, I'd set your Brewhouse Efficiency in the recipe to say 70% for starters, until you learn what your system delivers for you.
7. Then add your DME to your recipe. When you select it from the window, tick Late Extract Boil for 10 minutes. Start with say 1 kg, and play with the amount until you get the predicted SG where you want it.
8.Then add hops to your recipe, and work the amounts until you have the IBU level you want.

Good luck. It might all sound a bit confusing now, but it really is all quite simple once you get your head around it.
The best way to learn how to brew is to watch another brewer do an All Grain brew, and rack his/her brains as you watch. Fill in your location in your profile, and you might locate another brewer near you. I've had two brewers in my area watch me do AG brews, and they've gone on to bigger and better things than I could show them.

[Adamsale]

thanks a million.......bit more clearer.....but why so many ways to mash.????

[warra48]

thanks a million.......bit more clearer.....but why so many ways to mash.????

Personal preference mostly, and it can be dictated by the equipment you use.

In the case of multiple infusions, it's to allow you do rests at certain temperatures before increasing it to the next rest. For example, say for a hefeweizen, many brewers will do a protein rest at 50 to 55ºC for 10 to 20 minutes before adding more water to raise the temperature to the next step at say 66ºC.

In the case of lagers, many brewers will do the same, but instead of adding more water to raise the temperature of the mash for the next rest, they'll do a single or multiple decoctions and add it back to the mash to raise the temperature. It is purported to add a better maltiness to the beer.

All of that is really theoretical. There's no reason you can't brew anything with a single infusion, drain it, and do a single batch sparge. Lots of brewers do just that.

The mashout and sparge are really just up to you. All you are doing is extracting the converted or dissolved sugars from the mash, and draining them as best you can. Doesn't really matter how you do it. Fly sparging is purported to increase the efficiency in extraction, but I'm not convinced. I double batch sparge with a mash out, and average around 90% extraction efficiency. Do what is easiest for you.