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Author Topic: Does A Longer Mash Give Maltier Beer?  (Read 6838 times)

Offline wobdee

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Re: Does A Longer Mash Give Maltier Beer?
« Reply #15 on: September 30, 2015, 01:23:14 pm »
Thanks guys, I guess there's a lot more to it than just making tea.

Offline charles1968

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Re: Does A Longer Mash Give Maltier Beer?
« Reply #16 on: October 02, 2015, 01:21:50 pm »
I tend to mash for about 8 hours and haven't noticed any increase in maltiness. I have noticed an increase in efficiency over 1 hour mashes, so there does seem to a bit more conversion after the hour is up. (See also Kai's graphs of attenuation & efficiency for different mash lengths up to 6 hours Effects_of_mash_parameters_on_attenuation_and_efficiency, but his small samples let the temp drop steeply and his enzymes weren't fully denatured). I suspect my extra efficiency might be coming from the more coarsely ground bits malt that sugars seep out of more slowly. My beers tend to finish 1010 and I suspect might finish a bit higher if I mashed just one hour.

"Malty" seems to mean different things to different people. Some people describe a beer with a high FG and plenty of residual dextrins as malty, though I would call it full bodied. Other people describe the caramel/raisin flavours from medium or dark crystal malt as malty. However, I tend to think of malty beers as those with lots of maillard reaction flavours, e.g. continental beers made with Munich malt or aromatic/melanoidin malt. As Denny said, flavour comes from your recipe, not the mash length.
« Last Edit: October 02, 2015, 01:29:39 pm by charles1968 »

evil_morty

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Re: Does A Longer Mash Give Maltier Beer?
« Reply #17 on: October 02, 2015, 01:38:28 pm »
I tend to mash for about 8 hours and haven't noticed any increase in maltiness. I have noticed an increase in efficiency over 1 hour mashes, so there does seem to a bit more conversion after the hour is up. (See also Kai's graphs of attenuation & efficiency for different mash lengths up to 6 hours Effects_of_mash_parameters_on_attenuation_and_efficiency, but his small samples let the temp drop steeply and his enzymes weren't fully denatured). I suspect my extra efficiency might be coming from the more coarsely ground bits malt that sugars seep out of more slowly. My beers tend to finish 1010 and I suspect might finish a bit higher if I mashed just one hour.

"Malty" seems to mean different things to different people. Some people describe a beer with a high FG and plenty of residual dextrins as malty, though I would call it full bodied. Other people describe the caramel/raisin flavours from medium or dark crystal malt as malty. However, I tend to think of malty beers as those with lots of maillard reaction flavours, e.g. continental beers made with Munich malt or aromatic/melanoidin malt. As Denny said, flavour comes from your recipe, not the mash length.

I overnight mash all the time.  Typically the mash starts at around 7-8PM and I drain the tun at 6AM the next day.  I have not noticed any problems.  My efficiency is very good but I'm not sure how much I can really attribute that to mash length.  I'm not sure if the beer is more fermentable but if it is I don't think it is a lot more.  I don't end up with much drier beer than anyone else as far as I can tell.  tannins haven't seemed to be a problem.  overall it works well with my schedule to do this which is the main reason I do it.

Offline charles1968

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Re: Does A Longer Mash Give Maltier Beer?
« Reply #18 on: October 02, 2015, 02:12:17 pm »
I'm not sure if the beer is more fermentable but if it is I don't think it is a lot more.  I don't end up with much drier beer than anyone else as far as I can tell.

I'd agree that any differences are small. When I started overnight mashing I used a high mash temp to compensate for what I thought might be a more fermentable wort, but I then ended up with very full-bodied lager. Now I dough in at standard temp.