Brew Day - Stout and a Decoction Mash

I've decided for today's brew, I'll be making an Oatmeal Stout.  The focus of today's post will be on a specific type of mash called the "Decoction" mash. This post is about becoming familiar with the mash processes other than an infusion mash for knowledge sake, not necessarily for the utility (I assume I'll end up with a lower mash efficiency than normal, as my system is best made for infusion and batch sparging).

Usually home brewers will utilize the basic single step infusion mash.  The infusion mash is only really possible today because of two things: fully modified grains and accurate temperature control and measurement.  Prior to the availability of fully modified grains and accurate temperature monitoring, a decoction mash was used to reach acid and protein rests. Then a saccharification/mash out step, an infusion step and sparge was possible without actually needing a proper thermometer.

If using a lot of adjunct grains (wheat, rye, oats, etc) it's a good call to use a protein rest. A protein rest has been used for under-modified grains to break down proteins into amino acids that are usable by yeast. My recipe for this brew does not need a decoction mash or protein rest, but since it's the old school way of mashing, we're going to give it a try.

The other reason for using a decoction mash is temperature control.  Through a bit of trial and error, the brewer can determine how much boiling of a decoction is needed to get a mash up to the correct temperature .  This means with close attention to detail, the brewer can consistently brew without the need of a thermometer (although I will be using one - it would take a few tries to get this right without one).  As long as the brewer uses the same ratio of volumes of liquid in mash and decoction boil, with the same amounts of grain and same equipment, the final product should always be the same. [EDIT: I should be more clear here, working without a thermometer would require a multi-step decoction, and we'd need to figure out boil volumes to get our grains to each step]


I'll be doing the simplest decoction mash today - a single step decoction. We'll be doing a protein rest, a single decoction with a saccharification and boil, 30 minute mash and a fly sparge.  In the future, I'll be doing a heavily adjuncted (possibly a gluten-free) beer, that will utilize multiple decoctions.

Terms:
Adjunct: Sources of fermentable sugars other than barley. Usually grains that are not fully modified.  Common commercial adjuncts are wheat, rice and corn, others are millet, quinoa, buckwheat, oats and rye.   Usually require mashing with barley for proper saccharification.
Decoction: Running's from the MLT that will be heated and added back to the mash
Rest: Period of time keeping the grains and/or decoction at a specified temperature
Saccharification: The process of breaking complex carbohydrates into monosaccarides (fermentable sugars)
Protein Rest:  Holding grains at about 122F to break down proteins into usable amino acids.

All Grain Oatmeal Stout
9.5# Organic Crisps Pale Ale Malt
1# Organic Great Western Wheat Malt*
1# Organic Rolled Oats
.5# Organic Briess Caramel 120 Malt
.5# Organic Briess Chocolate Malt
.5# Organic Weyermann Carafa II Malt
.5 oz. Organic Belgian Admiral Pellet Hops @ 60min
.5 oz Organic Belgian Cascade Pellet Hops @ 20 min
.5 oz Organic Kent Golding Pellet Hops @ 5 min

*Wheat isn't really common in stouts (maybe in a Russian Imperial Stout).  I added this because I had a pound sitting around, and it kind of goes with the decoction mash.

Project Values:
Volume: 5 Gal
OG: 1.070
FG: 1.018
ABV%: 6.8
IBU: 27.4

The Single Step Decoction Mash:
The quick and dirty steps of a single step decoction mash for the grain bill:

1. Heat 6.75 Gallons of water to 127F
• We calculate this number off of our grain bill and take into account our mash tun.  This number will be higher than an infusion mash. We have a total of 13.00# of grain and 6.75 gallons of mash water.  This equals about 1.93 Gallons per pound (you could estimate to 2 Gal per #) 
2. Mix grains and all water in MLT
3. Allow for temperature to adjust
4. Temperature should be around 122F
5. Allow to rest for 20 minutes
6. Drain 3 Gallons of MLT liquid (called decoction)
• This number will change with your system and the amount of grains/mash water used.  Normally you want to drain 30%-40% of the MLT liquid.  Essentially we need to pull the correct amount of water, that when boiled and added back into our MLT (which should still be around 120F from the protein rest) will adjust to our mash strike temperature (defined by style, here I'm looking for the mid 150's).  This might take some trial and error over a few batches to get your volumes perfect.  For our first brew, we'll just have to pay attention, take notes, and adjust our end mash temperature by adding either hot or cold water.
7. Slowly bring decoction to 158F
8. Rest for 15 minutes (Saccharification)
9. Bring decoction to a boil for 15 minutes, stirring.  Add water if decoction becomes too thick
10.  Re-introduce some decoction to the MLT
11. Temperature should adjust to standard mash temperature
12. Repeat until you hit your strike temperature 
• If you run out of decoction prior to hitting your strike temp, then we need to add more hot water.  Remember how much you need to add to get to the strike temperature so that we can adjust for next time.  We'd rather not add water if possible, as the thicker the actual mash is, the better extraction we will get.  
13. Allow to mash for 30 minutes  (Saccharification)
14. Begin heating water for sparge 
15. We'll be using much less sparge water as we're essentially using our decoction as a a first batch sparge. 
16. Fly sparge  with 2 Gallons water at 168+F.  
17. Collect 6 gallons total of sparge running's (including any leftover decoction)
18. Everything after that is standard - Boil/Hop, Cool, Aerate, Pitch, Seal, Ferment and Bottle.

Final Values:
Calculated -
Volume: 6 Gal
OG: 1.060
IBU: 25.3
Color: 30.3

Estimated -
FG: 1.015
ABV: 5.6%


Results:
So, using the volumes above, things are looking pretty good.  I knew my original gravity would be low.  But, using the boiled decoction volume of 3 gallons, I hit a strike temperature of 155F and it held for 30 minutes.  Pretty good.  I believe the low efficiency was due mostly to my equipment; I did a fly sparge and my equipment is really made for a double batch.  If I was using a round cooler, the fly sparge would have worked out better.  If I could have lowered my overall decoction volumes and saved more volume for a batch sparge, things would probably have ended up closer to my projected values. Or, I could have ran a batch sparge and attempt to boil off more water (this is probably what I should have done to reach my desired numbers).  Each of those methods would add some aspect to the flavor/body of the final product. The main thing here is that the end product will still end up as a good tasty beer.  All in all I ended up with about an extra gallon, but was off by about 1% on my ABV.

Small Scale Kitchen Brewing - Pale Ale

One of the main issues I hear from people looking to jump into brewing is that it requires a lot of space, time, money and equipment.  While this can be true, it doesn't have to be.  Most people who brew start on very basic setups, and many of those never move on to more complex systems.  More often than not, great beer is the result.

I want to make something clear here.  There are two main reasons for the outcome of one's homebrew;  the brewer and the quality of ingredients.  I will not name any names, but there is a very popular plastic system one can purchase at many retail locations, but I'd steer clear of this "guy".  I've seen it both first hand and heard it from others, a lot of ingredient kits out there have old, poor ingredients.  Don't assume anything that is a "kit" is bad though.  Just beware pre-hopped extracts, and buy from actual homebrew shops.  If there isn't one in your town (stay local, if for nothing else than freshness), go to a reputable online supply company (see side bar).

So, I have decided I am going to make a 3 gallon extract brew.   You can do a 1 gallon, less than that I don't know if you'd actually end up with much.  This brew is going to be the most basic I can think of, so it may not turn out the most tasty.  It shouldn't be bad, and it may be great, I just haven't tried such a 'simple' beer before [Edit After Brewing: I actually think this brew will be great. I underestimated the process.  This will be a good batch]

Size comparison, a 7 Gallon carboy on the left, a 3 on the right

Terms That Need Explaining:
Normally I'd jot down some terms here, but since this is the most basic, we're going to not worry about  most of them. All you need to know:

Wort - Pre-fermented beer.  Made up of fermentable sugars,  Today, it'll be a combo of extract and water
Pitch\Pitching: The act of pouring yeast cultures into cool wort.

Jameson's All Extract California Pale Ale

Estimated Total Brew Time: 2 Hours
Final OG: 1.050

Total Brew Time:
I started at 10:45 am, and was 100% done and cleaned up by 12:30.  So 1:45 minutes total.  Much of which was just waiting during the cooling period.

Mandatory Equipment:
Stock pot ( I'll be using 1.5 Gallon stock pot)
Extra pots for side boiling (If using a stock pot smaller than your batch size)
Spoon
Stove
3 Gallon fermenter** (they exist! or you could use 1 Gallon jug for a 1 Gallon batch)
Blow Off Tubing/Airlock and Stopper (#7 for a standard 3 Gallon Glass Carboy)
Strainer
Siphon cane and hose (cane for bottling)
Sanitizer (Iodophor, San Star)
Funnel (you could siphon)

On the left: Liquid Extract, Hops and Grain
Center: Strainer, Liquid Yeast Culture, Fermenter with Airlock
Right: 1.5 Gallon Stock Pot 

Bottling equipment***

Optional Equipment:
Hydrometer
Flask
Small Grain Bag or Strainer (If using optional grains)

*We need to be able to boil our wort.  If we have 3 Gallons to boil, it's tough in 3 Gallon pot.  But!  We could theoretically boil 2 Gallons of wort, and add 1 Gallon of sanitized water prior to pitching!  Downside here is we might get a lower hop utilization. This could be offset by adding more hops.
**So the real kicker here is the fermenter.  You can use a bucket if it is food grade, you have an airtight lid, and you can somehow attach an airlock or blow off tube (whole drilled in the lid).  But a 3 Gallon glass fermenter runs about $25 online, plus shipping.  They are a bit heavy to ship ($10 at least) so check your local homebrew store.  They may be willing to get you one if they don't have it in stock.
***Will be covered later.  You could theoretically re-use old plast soda bottles with screw on caps(I wouldn't recommend it).

Ingredients for a 3 Gallon Batch:

Ingredients, top down, Malt (grain), Yeast
Hops, and Extract (bag)

4.4# Briess Organic Maltoferm Liquid Malt Extract
1/2 oz Organic California Pellet Ivanhoe @ 20 minute boil
1/2 oz Organic American Pilgrim Pellet Hops @ 20 minute boil
1 oz Kent Golding Whole Hops @ 5 minute boil
White Labs California Ale (I find liquid to be the easiest, activate 1+ hrs prior to brew).

Optional Grains
1/4# CaraMunich Malt


Scaled for a 1 Gallon Batch
1 1/3# Briess Organic Maltoferm Liquid Malt Extract
.2 oz Organic California Ivanhoe Pellet Hops @ 20 minute boil
.4 oz Kent Golding Whole Hops @ 5 minute boil
White Labs California Ale Ale - This will be total overkill for this size batch.  You could pitch dry yeast, preferably re-hydrated, and even better with a starter.

Here's where it is better to design a brew for a volume vs. scale it down, we may end up with some not so easy to measure amounts.


Projected Values from BeerSmith
Original Gravity: 1.055
IBU: 39.8
Color: 5.0 SRM
ABV: 5.6

If Using Grain (Optional):

Original Gravity: 1.056
IBU: 39.8
Color: 7.5 SRM
ABV: 5.6

Procedure:
1. Begin heating a total of 3 Gallons of water, If using grains, move to step 1a.

Left I'm boiling water to sanitize it.  
This will be added to the main wort (right) once both are cooler 

• I'll be using a 1.5 Gallon stock pot.  I'll start with 1.5 Gallon for wort, and boil two more Gallons on the side in other, smaller pots (3 total).  These will only have water in them, no wort.   
• Use less if you only have a 3 Gallon or smaller pot.  Give yourself enough room for a rolling boil.  And be aware that while boiling, wort has the tenancy to foam up, so give yourself a little extra room.  BeerSmith claims 2.82 Gallons is the perfect amount for a 3 Gallon brew pot, assuming we are going to add about 1/2 gallon after boil.

1a. If Using Grains (Optional)

• Put your grains in your small grain bag (Note, I did not have a gran bag, I used a small strainer to soak the grains, careful if using this method.  Don't let those grains escape.  See picture)
• Place your bag of grains in your water 
• Begin heating your water, keep your grain bag off the bottom of the pot as much as possible. Use medium-low heat or else your'll burn the bag and the grains on the bottom..
• Heat the water to about 160°F
• Remove grain bag
• Continue heating to boil

Optional: I'm steeping my grains in a strainer.
 Try to get as much grain soaked without it escaping

2. Once boil begins, add 4.4# Briess Organic Maltoferm Liquid Malt Extract (or whatever extract you have) and stir

Adding the MaltoFerm Extract

• Add it slowly!  And stir constantly.  You probably want to turn off your stove, as the extract will easily burn on the bottom of the pan.  In the future we could use this caramelizing action to our f[l]avor..

3. Once extract is dissolved, return the wort  to a full rolling boil (we now have wort!).
4.  Add our fist addition of hops, 1/2 oz of California Ivanhoe Pellet Hops and Pilgrim Pellet Hops
5. After 15 minutes of boiling add 1 oz Kent Goldings Whole Hops.
6. Boil 5 more minutes.

Fermenter after adding iodine (sanitizer)

• From here out, 100% of everything must be sterilized. Hands, tubing, spoons, fermenters, anything!!!!  Make yourself a batch of sanitizing solution. Start by santizing your fermenter, then you can dump that solution into something else to use for remaining equipment.

7.  Begin to chill and use a sanitized strainer to remove hops and any particles.  Add the additional boiled volume.  If it does not fit, cool on the side, we can always mix everything together in the fermenter (this is how I am doing it, using a 1.5 Gallon pot).

• There's a lot of ways to do this.  The key is the faster, the better.  I've know people to just throw a lid on and walk away until morning, just asking for problems.  The easiest way to chill in this situation is to just get a bunch of ice, and place you stock pot (covered!) in an ice bath in your sink.  Plug your sink, add a some water and a good amount of ice.  Place your stock pot w/ cover in the bath.  Make sure no water makes it into your beer (see pic below).  If you need to add water, it needs to be sterilized by boiling first.

After iodine has settled.  

8. Once the wort is chilled to the mid 70's, we aerate the wort by stirring vigorously with a sterilized spoon.
9. Siphon or pour using a funnel into your sanitized fermenter
10. Pitch your activated yeast
11. Pop on your air-lock and store in a dark place.
12. Allow fermentation
13. Bottle****
14. Enjoy****

****Post coming soon

Swirl, nature is beautiful .. Sanitize your carboys

Fermetner and funnel

And the wort boils!

Ice Bath - Once we've finished boiling,
we need to cool ASAP, 

Stove utilization, added pots to lower the chance of boil over

Final Product and a Hydrometer taking a
Gravity Reading

Happy Carboy, Happy Yeast, Happy Me

Brewing Basics - Ingredients 101

So, yesterday I wrote post describing the mash portion of brewing.  I'm going to start to take some steps backwards over the next few days to describe some more basic aspects of brewing.  Today, we're going to concentrate on the four main ingredients that make up beer.

Just a couple of terms that show up that might need some explanation:

• Fermentables: Smaller chain of carbohydrates (sugars).  Can be metabolized by yeast
• Final Gravity: Specific gravity after fermentation has completed.  Number is used to calculate alcohol content when original gravity is known.  Shows the amount of starches and sugars not fermented.  Should never be able to reach 1.0
• Original Gravity: Specific Gravity measured right before pitching yeast.  This number tells us potential alcohol.  Used in conjunction with final gravity to figure out actual alcohol content.  
• Pitch\Pitching: The act of pouring yeast into wort.
• Specific Gravity: The 'weight' of water.  When compounds are dissolved in water, the specific gravity goes up.  Distilled water has a SG 1.0.  High SG means more fermentables and starches in solution.  Usually measured with a Hydrometer or Refractometer.
• Starch: Long chains of carbohydrates.  Cannot be metabolized by yeast.  
• Wort: Pre-fermented beer.  A sweet, sticky liquid of fermentable sugars made usually from barley, water and hops.  Once yeast is added, the wort starts to turn to beer.

Brewing - Malt, Water, Hops and Yeast
While other ingredients can be used, the main four ingredients in beer are Malt, Water, Hops and Yeast.


Malt:
Malt is the term we use when talking about the cereal grains used as the primary source of fermentable sugar.   When we talk about malt, we are almost always talking about malted barley. Malted barley contains two things that are really useful to us.  Starches and Diastatic enzymes.  We want to feed these starches to our yeast, but they are too large.  So, we activate the diastatic enzymes that naturally occur in malted barley (by heating).  I've gone deeper into these enzymes in my post Brew Basics - Mash

So, what makes the barley 'malted'?  Germination.  After barley is harvested, the malter moistens the barley to allow it to begin it's germination.

The level of germination is chosen by the malter.  Different types of malts can be malted to different levels.  The further along the malting process the grain is allowed to germinate, the more modified the starches become.  This is at the malters discretion - the further along the malting process (or the more modified) the barley is allowed to become, the more amino acids are available to be used later by yeast. The downside is that as the grain becomes modified, the total yield (kernel weight) drops.  The degree of modification is important when brewing all grain. Under-modified malt will require a protein rest during the beginning of the mash to help break down remaining proteins into usable amino acids.

After germination is completed, the malter next dries the malt in a kiln.  The temperature of the malt is slowly raised as the barley dries.  At this point the malt is ready for use.  Some malt will be kilned at higher temps and longer times to darken the color and caramelize sugars, some will be roasted. These are what are referred to as 'specialty malts' that are used in low total percentage of grain to impart body, color and flavor.

There are also two main types of malt, but I won't dive into the big differences here.  Just be aware that there is 2-row and 6-row varieties of barley and you should be aware of which you are using.  In general 2-row has a higher grain-to-convertible sugars ratio, while 6-row has more husk and is less likely to stick during a sparge. The other main (and important) difference is enzymatic power, but I'll leave that for another post

Malt needs to be crushed prior to use.  The level of crushing is important, we want the internal grain nice and crushed, but we need the husk of grain to be intact. If the grain isn't crushed enough, we won't get good conversion from starch to sugar.  Too much and we get stuck sparges. The husk helps keep water flowing through our grains. Try to get grains that are freshly crushed as they will begin to oxidize once crushed.

Beginner and intermediate (and sometimes advanced) brewers often use malt extract in place of malted grain.  This is a great way to get into brewing, and great beer can be made using extracts.  Essentially malt extract is malt that has been soaked to convert sugars and washed.  The result is a sweet, sticky syrup or dried powder.  When we make all grain brews, we are making this extract ourselves.  There is a huge selection of extracts out there, so most brew styles are possible.  Avoid pre-hopped extracts.  Also, using extract and small amounts of grain can create great beer by doing a partial mash.

Water:
Water makes up a good 92% of beer.  The quality of water used is important for brewing.  Mineral content is an important factor, and certain brews call for specific mineral contents.  This will be covered in a post on it's own in the future, but know it's important.  Use a charcoal filter when using a municipal water source as chlorine can impart a flavor on your beer.

Hops:
Hops haven't always been used in brewing beer.  Prior to hops many other herbs were used to add flavor characteristics (usually bittering) to beer.  But since they arrived on the scene, they pretty much have taken over the duties provided by other herbs.  Hops are an annual vine plant that produce small green leafy cones that are used in the production of beer.

What do hops do for beer, exactly?  Hops contain organic oils produced by the plants lupulin glands.  These are commonly reffered to as alpha and beta acids; adhumulone (alpha), cohumulon (alpha), lupulone(beta), colupulone (beta) and adlupulone (beta).

Each of these acids imparts some character on the beer when the hops are boiled in the wort.  Different hops will have different levels of each bittering compound, as well as other compounds that can have unique flavor profiles (such as the citrus aroma of cascade hops).  When purchasing hops, it's good to know the AAU % (Alpha-Acid Utilization) as well as the BAU% (Beta-Acid utilization).  This percentage gives us a barometer for figuring how much bitterness a hop will impart on our final product.  The length of time in the boil, and how vigorous the boil will affect the end product.

For hops that are used for bittering, an hour boil time is used, this will get our Alpha Acids.  I often do another addition that will last about 20 minutes.  These hops will add bittering through Alpha Acids, but will also impart some beta acids and floral aroma.  A final addition is usually done at the last five minutes for aroma.  Be aware of what the type of hop you are using is best used for.  Usually you can find a hop type described as bittering, aroma or both.  Use the appropriate type of hop for the appropriate use.

Hops come in a variety of forms.  Pellets, Plugs, Whole, and Oil (extract).  While it may seem that whole hops are the best, that is actually not the case.  More often than not, pellet or plug hops are going to be better.  They keep longer, and their oils don't become oxidized as quickly due to the lower surface-to-volume ratio.  Don't get me wrong, whole hops are great.  They are best used closer to harvest season if being used for bittering hops.  Older whole hops work great for aroma as the oxidation of the acids actually help mellow out the flavor in short boil times.  Avoid hop oils at all costs.  These oils only add harsh bittering effects that are unnatural to the palate. Also, hops add much more to beer than just those bittering oils.

So hops add flavor, that's it, right?  Wrong.  Hops also help stabilize the finished product.  Hops have mild antibiotic properties and stunts the growth of bacteria.  Hops act as a preservative that helps keep nasty wild organisms at bay, yet have no negative effect on brewers yeast.  This is where IPA's are said to get their name- large amounts of high AAU hops were used in brews that were to be on board the trip from England to India.  Extra hops were added to increase the life of the brew.  Hence, India Pale Ales are very hoppy.

In future posts I'll go over some more technical items regarding hops.  Just know that IBU is "international bittering units" and we can estimate this number, although it's probably not as accurate as breweries.  There is also the "HBU" scale which is "Homebrew Bittering Units", which we can accurately calculate to compare to other homebrewers.  To compare homebrew to brewery beer, we'll have to use an IBU estimation.

Yeast
Yeast is a wonderful little single cell organism.  It lives everywhere, floating in the air, on your skin and on surfaces all around you.  Yeast loves sugar.  When yeast metabolize sugars, the main by-products are alcohol and CO2.  So, we utilize these little buggers to take our sugary, hopped and hopefully sterilized wort and turn it into a fizzy alcoholic beverage.


Man has been breeding brewers yeast for a long time.  There are two types of yeast usually used in the brewing process (although some odd ball brews call for unique types):

1. Saccharomyces cerevisiae - Often referred to as "top fermenting" yeast, or ale yeast.  This is the most common yeast used with homebrewers as it ferments best at temperatures that don't require heating or refrigeration. If the beer is too cold, fermentation will be slow and will not complete.  Too hot and the yeast produces off flavors not desirable in most beer styles. Preferred temperature range is about 60-75 F, but depends on strain.  Used for ales and stouts.
2. Saccharomyces uvarum -  Called "bottom fermenting" yeast or lagering yeast. This yeast type is common with commercial breweries that make light colored brews, though dark lagers do exist. Creates a more mellow flavored brew.  Fermentation takes longer as preferred fermentation temperature is 35F-55F.  Too hot will result in undesirable flavors.  Too cold and fermentation will stop.    

Within each type of yeast, there are different strains.  Each strain will have it's own characteristics during fermentation and in the resulting brew.  Flavor, fermentability, and body are all effected by the strain of yeast used, as well as the enviroment during fermentation.  Some important charecteristics of yeast are:

1. Attenuation: Expressed as a percentage. The expected percentage of fermentable sugars that the yeast will metabolize.  Higher number results in a thinner, more alcoholic brew
2. Flocculation: Usually express as low, medium, high or very high.  This is how well the yeast cells clump together and drop out of solution.  If flocculation happens early, attenuation will be lower, resulting in a malty, sweeter beer. Usually a high flocculation is preferred, and has been selected for by brewers.  More flocculation means easier transfers and clearer beer.  Common exception would be a Heffwiezn where flocculation is low
3. Optimum Fermentation Temperature:  Expressed as a temperature range. The temperature range best suited for selected strain
4. Alcohol Tolerence: Expressed as low, medium or high.  Alcohol will kill off the yeast when the ABV% gets to a certain level.  High tolerance yeasts (like high gravity yeasts) can get up close to 20% ABV 

There are other characteristics to look at when choosing a yeast strain.  Things like Diacetyl and Pentanedione production levels are useful for matching styles.  Luckily, most yeast strains are named after the beers they are designed to brew.

Yeast is commonly available in two forms - dried and liquid cultures.  Historically dried varieties have been lower quality.  Dry forms usually require re-hydration with sterile water prior to pitching.  Also, dry forms usually require creating a starter the day prior to brewing.  Dry cultures are also known to contain a small percentage of wild yeast.  Liquid yeast cultures are 100% pure, active, ready to pitch and work great.  I suggest using liquid yeast cultures over dried, or culture your own.  I have heard that many of the issues with dried cultures have been mediated by the yeast producers.  Still, if you can afford it, go with White Labs or Wyeast liquid cultures.

Finally, somethings about making yeast happy.  If you give your yeast the right environment, everything will be all good.  The keys are

1. Pitch Temperature: If your wort temperature is too far from the yeast, you'll shock the yeast and it will not take off
2. Oxygen:  When boiling the wort, pretty much all oxygen gets boiled out.  Yeast needs oxygen to store energy during it's first cycles in the wort. So we need to introduce oxygen after cooling the wort.   Vigorous sharking can achieve this.  Once yeast consumes all the oxygen, we do not want to introduce any more as the fermentation process is anaerobic (does not require oxygen).  The lack of remaining oxygen will help keep wild yeast and bacteria from colonizing your brew
3. Available Amino Acids - Depending on the modification of the malt used, one may need to be  concerned getting the proper amino acids in the wort. 
4. Available Sugars - Yeast needs sugars to eat, and we need to be sure we've converted enough starches into fermentables.
5. Original Gravity: If the original gravity is too high or too low, your yeast will have problems.  This goes with fermentable sugars.  The needed OG range is defined by the yeast strain used.
6. Give them the upper hand:  Keep things sanitary throughout the brew process, especially once boiling is finished.  The less wild yeast and bacteria that make it into your wort (it's impossible for us to be perfect) the better off your yeast is.  It's a competition for space, oxygen and sugars from the get go.  Make sure you are using fresh, active yeast cultures.

So that's the basics when it comes to ingredients.  Stay tuned for more basic brewing, as well as more on ingredients!

Brewing Basics - The Mash 101

2/10/12 EDIT:  I went back and re-read my temperature portion of this post.  And to my dismay, I made the rookie mistake of getting higher vs. lower mash temperature backwards.  As clarification, higher temperature mashes result in a higher final gravity (FG).  This means the final product will be maltier, sweeter, and lower in alcohol than beers made with a lower mash temperature.  I was thinking higher temperature meant higher original gravity (OG), but that would be incorrect.  We assume we are attempting to get the same OG regardless of mash temperature.  This is why lower temperature mashes usually take longer than higher to get the same OG.   I apologize for any confusion.  

One of the most feared steps in the brewing process, The Mash, is also one of the most important.  Beginner brewers normally don't need worry about this step, as they will usually be starting with an extract based recipe. Once the brewer is comfortable with the basic steps of steeping, boiling, cooling, fermenting and bottling, it is not unlikely they will want to go one step further and brew from grains instead of extract.

Here today, I'm going to describe why we as brewers deal with the mash, what happens during the mashing steps and will also describe the process for the most basic of mashes - the  Single Infusion Mash, using a batch sparge.  In future posts, I'll dive deeper into the mash, different styles of mashing.

For the sake of simplicity, we are going to assume that the malt chosen is fully modified.  If the malt is under-modified or if the grain bill contains a large amount of adjuncts, a protein rest step would be needed.  Quickly, a protein rest requires heating your mash originally to 120F and sitting there for about 20 minutes to help break down some needed proteins. 

Why We Mash

An interesting question.  Mashing and sparging are time consuming parts of the brew process and you can brew great beer without using this step.  Also, screwing up on the mash and sparge can have big effects on your beer - too little or too much conversion for your beer style, or just causes head aches (I'm looking at you, stuck sparge). 

So, again, why?  Control.  As a brewer, we like to have as much control over every aspect of the brewing procedure, getting our ingredients closer to the source, and being able to chose how we use them.  There's tons of extracts out there, but through the mash we are making our own extract.  So we have the ability to change it's characteristics. I mentioned above one problem with mashing is if you don't convert the sugars to the mash profile for your brew.  While this can be seen as a bad thing, it's also a great tool - we have (theoretical) control over the conversion profile.  

Moving from beginner extract brewing into mashing can be daunting.  The equipment itself can be mind boggling.  For the beginning masher, I suggest looking at partial mash kits.  These do not get all their fermentables from extract, but some.  You'll use much less grain, so mashing in a large grain bag is very do-able.  Once you've gotten the process down, then you may start looking at all grain brewing.

EDIT/NOTE: I did not mean to imply you cannot do all-grain without a mash tun.  There will be posts here describing all-grain brews made using grain bags. 

So, What Exactly is Mashing?

Simply put, mashing is the act of soaking our grains at specific temperatures for specific amounts of time.  The temperature and time chosen are going to be determined by the profile of beer we are looking to make. There are 4 main variables that will effect the outcome of our mash:

1. Step Temperature
2. Mash Time
3. Mash Thickness
4. PH (I'll just mention it here, but I will not go into detail on this today, save for another post)

The Step Temp, AKA Mash Temp or Infusion Temp (these would all be the same in a single step infusion mash) is probably the most important followed by time then thickness.  

Barley contains a ton of glucose molecules called starches.  These starches hold the key to fermenting.  The starches are made up of long chains.  These starches are not fermentable, they are too big for our little yeast critters to eat (and produce alcohol and CO2).  Interestingly enough, barley contains two (well, we'll focus on the two most important for now) enzymes that do a little magic for us, given the right environment

Alpha-amylase:

This enzyme starts to become active when barley is heated into the upper 140Fs (but not really until the mid 150s).  What Alpha-amylase does is cleave\chop long chains of starches exactly in half.  It will deactivate in the 160s and upper 140s. Higher temperatures result in more use of the Alpha-amylase enzyme and result in a sweeter, maltier final product.

Beta-amylase:

This enzyme becomes active in the mid to upper 140's, and deactivates in the 150's.  I've read that even after it's denatured due to getting too hot (around 155F, I believe) it still does some work in the mash.  Anyway, this enzyme 'nibbles' on the ends of long starches and makes smaller, fermentable sugars. With a lower temperature mash, a longer mash period is usually used.  Lower temp mashes result in a lighter bodied final product. 

Mash Thickness:

The mash thickness, or the grain to water ratio is also a factor.  Usually you want a thicker mash, which will give a better mash efficiency. About 2.5 Gal of water per 10 Lbs of grain is a good  starting point, but can be adjusted for beer profile.

 Mash Period, Strike Temp, The Waiting Game:

So, now that we know all about what's happening in the mash, let's talk about actually doing it.  Here there are a couple of options - I use a Mash Lauder Tun (MLT) that I created, but you could use a grain bag (that's a bit tough for an all grain 5 Gal batch, but it will work for a partial mash EDIT: I Don't know where my mind was when writing this - yes, you can do all grain using grain bags, I've done it many times before.  Having an MLT is just easier and usually more efficient.).

We start by heating water to a calculated temperature.  My "Strike Temperature" is the temperature I hope to raise my grains to.  So, we need to heat up our mash water to a temp that, when added to the grains, will adjust to our defined temp.  Usually the temperature will drop about 15°F, but that depends on your setup (EDIT:Keep records! Although we can fix this by adding water later, if we know how much the temperature drops after mixing our grains and water, then we can adjust our starting mix-in temperature next time).  Once we have our water heated, we slowly mix the grains with the water, about 1/'3 at a time.  If you are using a grain bag, slowly fill it and dunk it in your pot.

After about 10 minutes, we need to check to see if we hit our strike temp.  If we did, great!  If not, depending how far off we are, we can add hot or cold water to adjust.  After that, we wait.  The length of time can be anywhere from 20-60 minutes, depending beer style (remember, temp and time will define what the body of the beer is).  We can do a starch conversion test if we have some iodine.  Grab some wort off the top of the mash (make sure there are no particles, they will throw off the test), mix it with iodine.  If the solution starts to change into a dark purple color, we need to mash longer as we have identified starches.

The Sparge:

The final part of the mash is the sparge.  During the mash, we created a bunch of sugars.  These sugars are sticky guys, so we need to rinse the grains off.  This can be done a few ways, and I will be describing how to batch sparge.  In the future I will describe fly sparging.

After we have converted our sugars, we will heat up our sparge water (volume defined  by recipe, but 3 Gal is pretty close).  First we drain all the liquid out of our mash.  We'll re-introduce the first few gallons back to the mash carefully, as to not upset the grain bed.  Continue doing this until the liquid is particle free.  Once particle free, drain ALL liquid from the tun and collect.  This is our first runnings and the base of our wort.

Next we'll pour our hot 160-180F water (spare water) into the mash tun.  Use about 1/2 of the sparge water.  Stir the grains to knock off any stuck sugars into solution.  Allow the grain to settle for about 10 minutes.  Open the valve and repeat the draining and collection process. Repeat the entire process again with the  remaining 1/2 of the hot liquid.

We'll want to drain fairly slowly (don't fully open the valve).  Draining too fast can create a stuck sparge - the grain bed begins to compress as water flows out, sometimes stopping the flow.  This happens more often when fly sparging.  We don't really want to upset the grain bed once we're flowing liquid through it.  If we're stuck, we can stir the grain bed, but that's a worst case scenario.  Mixing the grain bed will add some tannins, that will impart a flavor.  While this is desirable in some styles, usually we want to reduce this as much as possible.  Also, using hotter sparge water can help mediate sparge issues.  Hotter water tends to help loosen up the sugars. 

The entire sparge process should take no less than 20 minutes.  Longer sparges are fine.

By now, you should have collected some 5.5-6 Gal (for a 5 Gallon batch).  And that's it!  

Now, this is the most basic mash out there (well you could skip the sparge, but that would result in a low efficiency).  I'll be adding more posts about more complex mashing.