Austin home brew had a sale on a blonde ale, and I wanted to try a mini mash. The grain bill is 2 - 3/4 lbs 2 row malt, and 1/2 lbs crystal 10L. It says to mash in 2 gallons at 155 F for 45 minutes. But shouldn't I mash in 1 quart / lbs of grain? So 3.25 - 4 quarts of water? Just checking as I've read from BA'ers that seem to have low opinions of kit directions.
Their instructions are fine, but if you want, thicken it up a bit and mash longer and maybe lower (152*F)
I usually mash in 1.5-1.75 quarts per pound and for at least an hour. I'd go with around 5-6 quarts or so, which is 1.25-1.5 gallons, for that amount of grain. I dont see anything wrong with mashing in the 2 gallons they recommend though. Here's a mash calculator for future reference... http://www.brewersfriend.com/mash/
Mash ratio doesn't matter much. 2 gallons for that grist is fine, although a bit much compared to standard. About 1.5 gallons would suffice. 45 minutes mash time is plenty in my experience -- full hour is a waste of time. See here for a summation of all my real-life experience over the past 17 years -- you might find it useful: http://i1022.photobucket.com/albums/af341/dmtaylo1/extract-beginnerrulesofthumb2.png
Unless the brewer wants a more attenuable wort. Though in the case of a mini-mash, it would have less impact on the overall wort (including the extract(s)).
Keep in mind, there were no adjuncts in the OP's recipe...the only thing needing conversion was the 2 row...a forced fermentation test for both (45 and 60 min mash) worts would be the only way to know for sure. Might be a good experiment.
Kai Troester and Greg Doss have both done the experiments already. Doss' data, for example, shows a difference of almost 4% (i.e. a factor of almost 1.04) in apparent attenuation between 45 minute and 60 minute mashes. This was with Pilsner malt, at a 151F mash temp.
What about percent attenuation/data for a very extended mash? I remember you mentioned that in a thread not too long ago but you only had one data point from another experiment (its an option in BrewCipher).
BrewCipher's model uses data combined/normalized from both Doss and Troester data for the following mash lengths: 280 90 75 60 45 30 15
I'm not sure 4% is significant in a Blonde Ale mini-mash where ~1/2 the fermentables are coming from extract (as already mentioned)...many other more important variables the OP should probably be worrying about more.
I don't disagree. But I felt that a blanket statement that 60 minute mashes are a waste of time required a bit of discussion.
I appreciate the info everyone. So if I wanted a blonde ale with a bit more body and mouth feel, I should mash for the 45 minutes, and a bit warmer say 155-158. But if I wanted a lighter bodied blonde I could mash longer say 60-75 minutes, at a cooler temp of about 152-155. Oh, and happy 4th of July weekend
