Mash Times and Recipes

Brewing processes and methods. How to brew using extract, partial or all-grain. Tips and tricks.

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Radcliffe
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Joined: Mon Aug 26, 2002 10:50 am

Mash Times and Recipes

Post by Radcliffe »

1) As someone who is just moving on from kits I read all I can on brewing - and now I'm confused about how long the mash time should last. The brewing tutorial on this site recommends 30 minutes, www.howtobrew.com suggests 60 minutes, and Graham Wheeler in his book, 'Brew Your Own British Real Ale At Home' suggests 90 minutes. Then again, I've read a recipe for Oatmeal Stout which calls for an 8 hour long mash! Does anyone have any suggestions?
2) Why don't the recipes on this site include the 'method' - a description of how to brew that particular beer? The recipes just seem to be a list of ingredients? Is this because ALL recipes follow the method recommended in the brewing tutorial on this site?
3) The recipe for Blackberry Winter Stout contains no blackberries? Is this an omission? This is something I'd like to try, as I've tasted it before. How much blackberries should be added and at what stage - I'm assuming they should be steeped and added after the boil?

Sorry for the length of this posting!

Radcliffe
Team Beer
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Answer to question 1

Post by Team Beer »

Mash times vary depending on the type of beer you are brewing and the method you are using. Most ales use a single step mash infusion and most recipes call for a minimum of 60 minutes, however this is not a guarantee. Your best bet is to use the iodine test to check for starch conversion.
Freon12
Strong Ale
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Door #3

Post by Freon12 »

Fruit additions to beer is somewhat of a sticky subject. I would check out a book covering this before trying it, unless you have a specific recipe to try. I add fruit to the secondary, some boil, some blanch, some pasturize. I only make one drinkable fruit beer that uses a puree' due to the concern over bacteria in fresh fruit skins.
I think the stout should be good as a secondary type addition. You can use the tools on this site to see what effect the amount has on the beer. Maybe Stumpwater may post his stout as a guide? (With todays well modified malts a single step infusion mash will cover 95% of all the beers you will make in the begining.)
stumpwater
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behind door #2...

Post by stumpwater »

Some of the recipes do give brew notes and these are the ones I usually try out. I think that Azorean Brewer's recipes have some notes, (find them in a search engine under recipes). I have a recipe for a porter with notes on temperatures and durations of my mash. You will find it if you search for "Stumpwater's Midnight Porter". If you search the forum database for "fruit" under the <all> timeframe, you may receive some results and advice.
Good luck and ask if you need more help. I did and the people on this forum helped immensely.
By the way, I favour a 30 min. mash at 132 F (this is a protein rest), and then a single infusion of water to bring my mash temperature up to 152 F. These are my final temps, not my strike temps, which I set approx. 10 F higher. Different mash temps and times will impart different characteristics but these are the temps and times that I have found to work for me. Hey, who argues with results?
dartedplus
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Notes

Post by dartedplus »

I agree with whoever said something about looking for notes. I try to add notes to all of my recipes and I think the ones you find that have notes are from the people who are a little more serious. Keep in mind that more than likely alot of the recipes on this site were just made or inputted without ever making a beer, just to try it out and see what it was like. The thing is that we cant tell if this was a real beer or one someone just concocted without really having any knowledge of what they were doing. So look for the notes, I have even tried to go back and add comments to many of my recipes to give the added benefit of what happened later to maybe emphasize a good point or correct a bad point for someone who might want to try a recipe that I have made. And again, if you have questions, just ask, we are all more than willing to give our 2 cents worth, and sometimes more. Ed
Azorean Brewer
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Here are my mash times and recipes

Post by Azorean Brewer »

Hi Rad,

Stump, thanks for the plug to my recipes, I try and make it as easy as possible to duplicate a recipe if I think it came out good. Ed, you are right people who are serious will go the extra mile to write up instructions. I write work station instructions for manufacturing processes, so I do it all the time :-)

First off, I am going to add my two cents in, I am no expert, I just know what I like, but don
Radcliffe
Posts: 2
Joined: Mon Aug 26, 2002 10:50 am

Thanks Very Much!

Post by Radcliffe »

Thanks very much to all those who took time out to answer my questions - it's been really helpful and much appreciated. I must admit it never occured to me that there would be recipes on this site which are posted by people who don't know what they're doing - guess I'm too naive at times!
Fruit additions to beer is a sticky subject... very good (I think)! :-)
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