Laundering practices

Ward Chillington

Ward Chillington

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So I stubbed my toe on this article the other day and as a self taught brewer I'm always interested in how the rest of the world does their brewing so I took the time to read it and realized that while I do most of these practices, I don't do them all. I recognize we all have different rigs and different processes so yeah, I expect differences but what are they and by how much?

https://byo.com/article/lautering-101/

How about you? I don't mashout for one...but then..am I not already doing that when I sparge or does mashout create some sort of defacto rest I never considered?

Of course I Vorlauf...who wants cloudy beer when you can start clear..er....ok hazy IPA'ers...have at me!

Spargeing? Sure..unless there's a reason not to like a really high gravity batch is what you are after.

So...how about you?
 
I BIAB,
No mash out, no vorlauf, but I do a bit of a sparge. Just to get some extra sugar from the grains, and to top up the water that's taken up by the grains.
 
I don't mash out, but do raise the temperature by using hotter sparge water.
I don't vorlauf, but do catch appropriately 1/4 cup of grains that come out of my MLT at the beginning of my sparge.
I don't recirculate and I fly sparge.
Wort come out very clear unless it's a high adjunct beer and even then it's not muddy.
I'd really say it's more system specific as to what you do or can get away with.
For me, simplicity is best and easiest. Because or that it's also very repeatable.
Cheers
Brian
 
I don't mashout, my understanding it that it kills the enzymes that convert starch to sugar, but that will happen 10 minutes later in the boil.

I BIAB, with a herms recirc, so voulaf happens continuously?

Again, i don't sparge since I recirc continuously.
 
Thanks for sharing that article Ward!

Once I got my Brewzilla and was struggling with efficiency, one of the practices I started was to do a mashout. The reasoning behind it was that with the higher temperature more sugars would tend to be rinsed from the grains as the wort would become slightly less viscous. The reason I was trying to improve my efficiency was that I was having grain/water capacity issues brewing 6% brews, and I did not want to compromise batch size.

Did this work in practice? I believe that it did help at least slightly, but there were other measures that I took, so I don't have any proof of that.

You know I love my NEIPA's, but I still vorlauf/recirculate when brewing one. The haze in NEIPA is a byproduct of achieving the desired flavor and mouthfeel. Haze is not, and never was the goal.

I do sparge as well.
I have always sparged, with my original BIAB process, when I used a cooler for mashing, and even with my 3 vessel 10 gallon system.
With the Brewzilla it is required due to capacity limit. They call them all in one systems, I guess you could sparge with cold water, but I use a separate pot, and a sous vide stick to prepare my sparge water.
 
The only reason for a mash-out is to stop conversion at a specific point. Only really matters to the pros. As a homebrewer if I extract another point or two of gravity by not mashing out, I consider it a win.

I batch sparge with water that is hot, but not at mashout temps. Basically I start heating the sparge water about halfway though the mash and use it at whatever temperature it's at when I need it. I also vourlauf with a pump for 10+ minutes before draining the mash and sparge. Like most brewers, I like clear beer.
 
I'm a BIAB'er and have taken to 2.5 to 3 gal batches I sparge sometimes and sometimes I don't. I've gotten clear beer without it. As for vorlauf, I don't even know what that meanso_O. Unless I'm trying for clear beer, I don't really care if it is see thru clear. As long as it tastes good it's beer.
 
Zambezi Special said:
I thought you were talking about how to make black money white ;)
Or how you use your brewing rig to wash your clothes :p
Click to expand...

There's a Breaking Bad joke somewhere in there...that's where I learned about creative money laundering!

Great feed back all and thanks for the shares....so you mash outers....what's the drill? How much hot liquor and what do you to the mash when adding it? I assume you subtract that from somewhere..the sparge? The strike water?
 
Ward Chillington said:
There's a Breaking Bad joke somewhere in there...that's where I learned about creative money laundering!

Great feed back all and thanks for the shares....so you mash outers....what's the drill? How much hot liquor and what do you to the mash when adding it? I assume you subtract that from somewhere..the sparge? The strike water?
Click to expand...
Depends on your system.
Could be an infusion, or just a bump up in the Herms.
 
Ward Chillington said:
There's a Breaking Bad joke somewhere in there...that's where I learned about creative money laundering!

Great feed back all and thanks for the shares....so you mash outers....what's the drill? How much hot liquor and what do you to the mash when adding it? I assume you subtract that from somewhere..the sparge? The strike water?
Click to expand...
I have a 1500 watt rims tube to raise the temp, in addition to the 2500watt element in the HLT(herms coil). can get from 150°F to about 170°F in about 5-10 minutes.
 
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WOW! SO many of you guys don't mash out!

I recirc, mash out, etc etc.

Although that I agree that you don't HAVE to mash out, for consistency purposes I would definitely do it. The flavour profile you're looking for is locked in much better by mashing out.

I know, I know, grains are so good today that many 'old school' methods aren't necessary anymore, like a 60min mash, however, I don't like to reinvent to wheel and like to do things the old school standard way. When I make a beer I've made before I know exactly what I'm going to get every time. I would definitely recommend mashing out
 
Dirty Dingo Brewing CO. said:
WOW! SO many of you guys don't mash out!

I recirc, mash out, etc etc.

Although that I agree that you don't HAVE to mash out, for consistency purposes I would definitely do it. The flavour profile you're looking for is locked in much better by mashing out.

I know, I know, grains are so good today that many 'old school' methods aren't necessary anymore, like a 60min mash, however, I don't like to reinvent to wheel and like to do things the old school standard way. When I make a beer I've made before I know exactly what I'm going to get every time. I would definitely recommend mashing out
Click to expand...

But don't we biabbers sort of mash out anyway? Bag with grains gets removed and wort gets heated and runs through the 72 oC pretty quickly.
Or am I seeing this wrong?
 
Yeah, that's kinda true. Mashout only happens between 76-80 imo, and has to be for a few mins. I do 10.
 
Dirty Dingo Brewing CO. said:
Yeah, that's kinda true. Mashout only happens between 76-80 imo, and has to be for a few mins. I do 10.
Click to expand...
Yeah if I feel like it it's homebrewing remember and locking in the level of saccarafication or "flavour profile " is gunna happen once the enzymes are denatured not long after hitting the GO button for boil.
Remember most of the starches have been converted 30 mins in mashing out doesn't give me any better conversion personally.

I think to mash out or not to Falls into that grey zone of brewing tradition.
Some brews I do some I don't can I taste the difference or is my beer any better or worse hmmmm I can't tell...
 
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