Hi all, I have read that a protein rest is not all that beneficial (and can be detrimental) depending on what malts are used. For fully modified grains (the majority of whats available) a (edited for typo) -protein-rest is not needed and in fact could be detrimental (thin beer with little body) if a protein rest is employed.... What do you think? Ref: http://howtobrew.com/book/section-3/how-the-mash-works/the-protein-rest-and-modification
The first part of your statement is true... You usually do not need a protein rest with highly modified malts. But you shouldn't skip the saccharification ("sugar") rest, because that's the rest that makes fermentables out of the starches.
Oops..I meant protein! Typo...I'll edit....sorry about that! The sugar rest is definitely not optional!
By the way, is the author correct when he says that nearly all grains we homebrewers use are in fact 'fully-modified'?
I'd say they're technically overmodified in most cases, if you look at Noonan's criteria in his book from 1995. Not necessarily a bad thing but some very old recipes might need small tweaks to keep them identical to the original. Overall, modern malting is good because the maltster does a lot of the work that brewers used to have to do in the mash (e.g. protein rests).
I agree. Saving me 1/2 hr or so is much appreciated. Thanks maltsters! (I really just wanted to type 'maltsters'...)
You go on ahead and tell Weihenstephaner that they're doing it wrong. I'll gladly keep buying their $3 beers after trying to get in the ballpark after brewing 6 wheat beers and attempting 3 decoctions.
If you're talking wheat beers, that's a whole different story. Wheat malt will definitely benefit from a protein rest (though I've made a few decent examples without one). Same for rye. Not sure the decoction is really necessary, though it does appear to make for a richer dunkelweizen or weizenbock, IMO.
I know from experience that protein rests destroy body and head retention, which is pretty much the opposite of what they're supposed to do. I shall never ever do a protein rest again. Waste of time and it's detrimental.
You probably know this, but it depends on the malt you're starting with. With undermodified malts, a protein rest cuts large proteins into smaller proteins/polypeptides/peptides/amino acids. The smaller proteins do help body and foam. With highly modified malts, that has already been done, and further breakdown via a protein rest favors products that are too small to help body and foam, resulting in a thin beer. So the enzymes active during protein rests do exactly what they are supposed to do, but it's only beneficial (for body and foam) with undermodified malts, which are getting harder to find.
Yeah, I know. Many years ago, I purposely tried to find malts sold as "undermodified". I couldn't find any. I haven't looked lately but I imagine they're still very difficult or impossible to get. As such, my previous comment stands.
Almost every recipe on Weyermann's recipe web site has a protein rest...I don't do it...but I do find this interesting... http://www.weyermann.de/eng/hr.asp?go=rz&umenue=yes&idmenue=42&sprache=2
I was at Weyermann and did the tour and tasting back in Nov. I don't recall any head issues. The beers were OK, but didn't knock my socks off. Probably my second to bottom brewery in town. The tour was pretty cool.
The only less modified malt that I am aware of is Rahr Old World Pilsner. I spoke to the BSG folks at the 2015 NHC about this malt. I asked if they provided this malt to homebrew stores and the BSG guy had an expression of surprise when I posed this question. His response was that I should ask my LHBS to contact their supplier and ask that question. https://bsgcraftbrewing.com/rahr-old-world-pilsner Cheers!
