Poll how many step mash

[Brew Cat]

I enjoy the process and the smell of decoctions
if you don't enjoy mashing and looking for the fastest way to the boil then single infusion
brewers mash
cooks boil stuff

 

[Mont Y. Märzen]

I always picture beta and alpha as tools or machines, and starches and dextrins are loooong chains or in fact shrubs of carbohydrate molecules (and proteins and lipids and other things are also present but it's safe to set those aside). Beta amylase (and all the other enzymes besides alpha) are nibblers, like a hand pruner for your shrubberies, they snip just a tiny bit of highly fermentable sugars off the ends of the starches and dextrins, leaving slightly smaller shrubberies. Alpha amylase, on the other hand, is like a friggin chainsaw, which moves slowly at lower temperatures and very fast at higher temperatures. The beta pruners are also weaker and wear out quickly (in the 150s F), while the alpha is much tougher to destroy (not until about 168 F).

Ha! Excellent metaphor.

SO...... if you start your mash temperature low and work your way up... all the enzymes are working nicely but also slowly. If you only mash for about an hour or even 90 minutes total time in a region below like 148 F, there's still a lot of big shrubberies left by the end of it. Hypothetically, if you mashed for many many hours, like overnight, you might be right, maybe there would be not much left for the alpha if you raised up the temperature after many hours... IF there are even much beta enzymes left after a certain point, which is iffy and depends on mash temperature. But, you see, TIME has more effect than anything else. If you have hours or overnight to spend mashing, then yeah you're onto something. But if you don't feel like mashing all day long or for more than 90 minutes or so, then the alpha has to come into play to bust up those shrubberies.

Funny you mentioned overnight mashing. Indeed, the Apartment Brewer has tried this:

I can't hold temp overnight (maybe, I have some ancient souvide sticks that might work) so I've been investigating NEM—Non-Enzymatic Mashing which is done under cool temp control overnight and can be used to mega-umph a regular brew (you use the result as 'strike water' for another brew) or for making Low-ABV near-beer.

OR... just mash for about an hour at around 150-155 F and you're pretty much good to go. Or mash for 90 minutes if you really care about simplifying those sugars. But, mashing cooler than 150 F fails to sufficiently gelatinize the starches unless you decoct, and isn't great for the speed of the alpha which is always present but works much slower until about the 150s F.

Early on I found that 90 minute mashes always produced a better product and I always hit my numbers. 60 is fine if you just want beer in your belly though. My present slow-ramp method effectively is a 90 minute mash, just without the twiddling of thumbs getting to various temps.

Kai's link above also points out you don't absolutely *have* to gelatinize first. It helps considerably for time, yes, but plenty of conversion happens before you get there.

If you do that, you'll kill most or all of your beta amylase (and a dozen or more other minor enzymes)... which is fine for "malty" styles if by "malty" you mean dextrinous, bigger body, more head, higher FG, but not fine if you mean "malty flavored" which is a totally different beast.

Thankfully, just like the various 'steps' are really ranges and time and temperature (and pH) can be relied on rather than something to battle against, it turns out, the denaturing of enzymes isn't like jumping off a cliff either. Yes, the vast majority of β-amylase is gone in the upper 150s to lower 160s, some are still present, and some hang around even beyond that. (see my note above about bumping to those ranges and holding a bit to get your final gravity bump to 100% conversion)

Gluten-free brewers apparently have fits trying to nail this stuff because the grains they use don't play nicely with the enzymes. But that is only true if you fight the 'exactness' battle of thinking that everything is a precise temp or holding time. You can use the ranges to your advantage and stress less while having fun brewing.