I am planning to brew one in the next week or two and wanted to hear your reviews/opinions on mash schedules. I’m undecided on a mash schedule, single infusion, step mash or decoction mash. I’ve seen quite a few mash variations and would like to know how your particular mash schedule has affected the flavor and mouthfeel of your weizen recipe.
I do a single decoction and add at the end of the mash. Don’t care if it raises the temp or not so I guess it’s a single infusion as well. I’ve had better results with decoctions as opposed to not doing one.
I do a step mash that includes 60min at 145F and 15min at 158F. The first step gives me a fermentable wort, the second gives me enough body. I haven’t used a ferulic acid rest and still seem to get plenty of clove.
How come this got moved from the AG section anyway?
Oh yeah. For the mash schedule on the one I’m doing this weekend, I’m gonna play with the “Markus Hermann Weihenstephan reverse step mash”. Something (haven’t done the math yet) along the line of…
Mash half at 145-149F to completion
Add remaining mash to cool to 95F (86-104F)
Pull 1/3 into small pot, pressure cook pseudo-decoct
I really have no idea. I read about it at (among several other places) Kai’s wiki…
Maltase is an enzyme that has its optimum between 30 and 40 C and can split a single glucose molecule from the non-reducing end of a glucose chain (similar to β-amylase which splits a glucose pair from the non-reducing end of glucose chains). It’s affinity to the substrate increases as the degree of polymerization decreases and it is highest for maltose (degree of polymerization is 2) [Kessler, 2006]. But it is generally of little interest in mashing as at its working temperature there is not much maltose present in the wort (which assumes that the mash is doughed in at or below 40 C). If activity of this enzyme is desired to increase the glucose level of the wort the mash needs to be held for saccharification at 63-65C and after having been cooled to 40 C fresh malt is added which also adds new maltase enzymes. After a rest of 30-45 min the mash is heated again to convert the starch that has been added with the new malt. This mash schedule has been introduced by Markus Hermann from the Weihenstephan brewing school to produce high glucose worts for ester rich Weissbiers [Hermann, 2005]
…but I can’t find that particular reference he footnotes.
As I understand it, 86-104F is the temp range at which the maltase enzyme is active (denatured above 115F). Maltase breaks down maltose into glucose. Maltose gets produced in the mash at sacc temps (145-155F or so) so when maltase is active there’s no maltose and by the time there is maltose, the maltase has been denatured. This mash schedule is a way around that.
Well, according to the “Brewing a Wheat Beer with Intensive Banana Aroma” by Michael Eder in the May/June 2010 Zymurgy, “The greater the difference between the glucose and maltose in the wort, the more ethyl- and isoamyl acetate will be produced by the yeast”. Basically, it’s accentuating the banana in favor of the clove.
I brewed two hefeweizens this past summer. For both, I employed a hockhurz double decoction mash with the traditional rests at 145 and 160. They were outstanding hefeweizens, but, to be honest, I’m not sure if that was a result of the mash schedule.
I am considering the Hockhurz DDM. I would really like to try this against a single infusion mashed wort in side by side blind tasting just for curiosity’s sake.
I want to get the 4-vinyl guiacol or clove like phenol. An acid rest at 111F helps to produce ferulic acid which helps promote 4VG upon fermentation.
F. Nitzsche
Investigations into Optimizing Wheat Beer QualityBrauwelt, Vol32, 8 Aug 1991
•The taste and smell threshold is 0.8 mg of 4VG/L
•4VG levels over 2 mg/L bring a strong/severe character to the beer
•The fact that the levels of ferulicacid can fluctuate widely in malt can effect the levels of 4VG in beer
•As a rule, wheat malt has less ferulicthan barley malt
•The highest levels of 4VG occur after the final limit of attenuation is reached
•More 4VG is present when the final limit of attenuation is reached in 4 days as opposed to 2 days
•The levels of 4VG don’t decrease significantly with the age of the beer, although other staling by-products may cover up the taste of 4VG
Here’s an intersting paper on German Wheat Beers.
Pitching rate and ferm temp are critical for producing that classic German profile in this beer:
Dr. Narziss
16thTechnological Seminar at Weihenstephan1983
Fermentation
•Pitching Rate 12-18 million cells/ml
•Starting Temperature 12-15 C (lower starting temps more common when starting tank is used to settle cold truband then transfer to fermenterbefore start of fermentation where free rise occurs)
•Max temperature 18-22 C
•Main fermentation is 2-4 days
•Maximum Cell count is 60-80 millionBottle Conditioning
•Lager yeast is less likely to autolyzeand settles better
•If top-fermenting yeast is used, shelf life should be limited to 4-6 weeksFermenterShape
•Cylindrical tanks produce only 2/3 the esters of shallow open fermenters
•Horizontal tanks perform like open fermenters
That’s where we differ. I know it has to be there, but I don’t particularly care for the clove - or at least, too much clove. I prefer the banana to be more prominent although I’m not looking for a banana bomb either.
On my brewing agenda (at some point) is to do the 4-VG rest with 3068. I’d like to compare it with not doing the 4-VG rest and using Hefeweizen IV (of course, the beers would be brewed identically in every other respect).
And eventually, I would love to compare decocted and non-decocted. At first, I’d like to compare identical grain bills. Then, if I detect a difference, I would like to try to approximate the nature of the difference with specialty malts.
Ron, Last year I took first place with a hefe at the Turkey Shoot we judged. I made two carboys, one with WLP 300 and the other with the WLP 380. The 300 kicked out lots of banana and the 380 had lots of clove. I blended them together till I got a nice balance.
This year I’m thinking of pitching both yeast into the same fermentation and see if I get similar results.