Membership questions? Log in issues? Email info@brewersassociation.org

Author Topic: Mash temperature and final gravity  (Read 3142 times)

Offline phunhog

  • Brewer
  • ****
  • Posts: 258
Re: Mash temperature and final gravity
« Reply #15 on: December 26, 2014, 09:04:23 pm »
Here's the reply I got from Mike.  The book he mentions is "Homebrewing: Beyond the Basics".

It's in my book, we also did a blind triangle tasting at the brewery when one of our beers finished at 1.020 instead of the usual 1.010 and nobody could pick it out. My theory is that long chain sugars from mashing high aren't perceived as being sweet (just taste some malto dextrin powder) or contributing body. On the other hand, residual simple sugars from an incomplete fermentation will taste cloyingly sweet.

Wow...that's pretty interesting. So what is the take away from this?  Should we be concerned about mash temps....or at least as much as we are?  What is more important is the fermentation process (oxygenation, temp control, healthy yeast, etc) so that a COMPLETE fermentation takes place? 

Offline klickitat jim

  • I must live here
  • **********
  • Posts: 8604
Re: Mash temperature and final gravity
« Reply #16 on: December 26, 2014, 09:25:54 pm »
Here's the reply I got from Mike.  The book he mentions is "Homebrewing: Beyond the Basics".

It's in my book, we also did a blind triangle tasting at the brewery when one of our beers finished at 1.020 instead of the usual 1.010 and nobody could pick it out. My theory is that long chain sugars from mashing high aren't perceived as being sweet (just taste some malto dextrin powder) or contributing body. On the other hand, residual simple sugars from an incomplete fermentation will taste cloyingly sweet.

Wow...that's pretty interesting. So what is the take away from this?  Should we be concerned about mash temps....or at least as much as we are?  What is more important is the fermentation process (oxygenation, temp control, healthy yeast, etc) so that a COMPLETE fermentation takes place?
My take on this is that mash temp precision is less important with modern malts than it was once upon a time. But old news dies slow. As to which is more important for attenuation, I think the most important thing is a proper sized pitch of healthy yeast of a strain that attenuates at the rate you desire, pitched into properly oxygenated wort that is kept at tge proper temp until it is all done.

rabeb25

  • Guest
Re: Mash temperature and final gravity
« Reply #17 on: December 28, 2014, 08:58:35 am »
Testing this with Denny ( I posted this on his wall) I mashed a blue moon clone in the mid 160's, and a pilsner in the mid 150s.

FG on the blue moon was 1.020

Fg on the pils was like 1.015


The blue moon tasted as it always does when it finishes at 1.014, and the pils had too much body, but was not sweet normally Fg for this beer was 1.011.

I kept the Blue moon, and gave away the pils.