Boiling wort to reach mash out.

Ever BIAB'd?

 

You know that traditional German styles like Pils and Helles were decoction mashed back in the day? The boiling of the thin part will not have much color addition, especially if you are only getting the temp up so you can add back, the thick part maybe more. I have made some very nice Pilsners and Helles with double decoctions. The malt you start with has an influence on the finished product, Pils malt vs Munich malt.

Maillard reactions are real and happen in the boil.

 

I would say you're not an idiot, but need the right tool. I'd find a calculator that accounts for mash temp losses (due to both the thermal mass of the tun and due to heat loss during the mash itself) . BrewCipher does this. I imagine there must be others that do too. Once you dial it in, you don't have to worry about overshooting. Physics won't let you.

 

Nothing wrong with a 'thin' thinning of the mash whilst raising the temperature in step.

Lower initial temps ==> more better for beta.
Higher temps ==> more better for alpha.

Initial thickness: 1.25 QT / #
Thickness...post step-addition: 1.5 Q / #

What's not to like?

 

I BIAB about 1/2 my brewdays & that's what I mean. The beers are fine, even after 2+ years without recirculation.

 

I find that my efficiency is better when I keep my mash thickness under 1.25 quarts. It's not a huge difference, but it's not a big effort to boil a little of the wort

 

not to hijack the thread, but is there a significant advantage to doing mash-outs? I've only ever done single-infusion and never really felt the need to do a mash-out.

 

It's not necessary, but it will denature the enzymes, so your mash won't continue to convert throughout the sparge. More importantly (for me), the temperature increase lowers the viscosity of the mash and makes it easier for the sugar to get free of the grainbed.

 

I've biab'd about 1/3 of my brew days and you are right they are fine. I've won BJCP medals with my biab brews. But it has also been my experience that they are cloudier than a 3v system brew that has been properly vorlaufed. Sure time / cold storage makes them all crystal clear if your process and water chemistry is sound, but my 3v brews are always clearer to begin with. I've also brewed with a RIMS system and that produces the clearest wort I've ever seen going into the boil kettle. So recirculating the mash through the grain bed certainly does help to clarify it. Vorlaufing for 5 minutes won't be as effective as a full blown RIMS brew, but I must disagree with your claim that it's BS.

 

I've always read that volaufing keeps beer longer and that was the main reason for recirculating. We had this clarity discussion that last time I was complaining about the vorlauf. I don't buy it. You said yourself you can cold crash to crystal clearness.

 

I'm certainly not claiming vorlaufing makes your beer "keep longer" just that it helps improve clarity. Sure you can cold crash to crystal clearness, but it takes quite a long time. Sometimes waiting that long reduces the window of the beers peak consuming period to a minimum, which doesn't work for me.