Im new on this and I want to do a dark lager the mash steps on the recipe description are “saccharification at step temperature 152.1 F for 75 min.”
someone can tell me what it means[saccharification] and how its the process? :o
Saccharification is the conversion of starches in the grains to sugars. The mash is held at 152.1 F for 75 minutes in order for this conversion to take place.
Sacchrification is the quick way of saying ‘soak the bag of grains in the hot water for XX minutes’.
I had the exact same question a few weeks ago. Took a fair amount of googling the determine what it was exactly.
Good answers above. Here’s another: saccharification, | Craft Beer & Brewing
The basics of saccharification:
Starch is really just a very long chain complex sugar. There are enzymes in malt that have the ability to unravel and break the long chains of starches and convert them to sugars which the yeast can then ferment. These enzymes are much more active at certain warm temperatures than cold temperatures. Therefore, after we crush the malt we add hot water and allow enough time for the enzymes to break down most of the starches into smaller sugars. This takes anywhere from 15-90 minutes. So 60 minutes is a pretty standard amount of time after “enough” breakdown has occurred to allow fermentation. A longer time of 75 minutes will create even more sugars.
Personally I find that 45 minutes is “enough” for me, and wouldn’t usually go much longer than 60 minutes unless I want to end up with a very dry finished beer like a saison.
That is saccharification in a nutshell. The word basically means “to become sugar”.
Not to push the technical side too much, but the two enzymes at work here have different temperature sweet spots. They also act on starches differently, so some advocate starting at a lower temperature of 144F for a portion of the mash period and then increasing the temperature to around 158-162F for the next portion. Optionally some do a mash out to stop the enzyme activity @ around 168-170F.
Cheers!
You are correct of course. That said, these are advanced topics, which advanced homebrewers should understand but even them some advanced homebrewers don’t use much if at all.
Cheers. 8)
Lately I’ve been brewing a beer with that may schedule, then doing the same one as a single infusion. Damned if I can tell a difference.
I found a compromise of a single ~152*F step is a lot less hassle for me than having to go thru the temp steps I used to go thru. If I had a programmable heating system I’d probably use steps but having to manually mess with the mash temp is 2x the hassle for a .1x improvement in the beer IMO. Likewise, I rarely do a mash out.
Totally agree. The only reason I keep trying it is because it’s so easy with the Grainfather.
When I look at the malt data, I decide what mash schedule to use.
Yep, that’s the logical way to do it. But does that mean that none of the malt I have benefits from a step mash? And then there are the people who do it religiously and claim the see a difference.
I’ve been thing of thing something with the wide variety of Malts I have. At least some Chavallier vs a NA malt with very high DP.
Crap, now I have to do it.
FWIW, I do a fair amount of Single infusion, lager mashing at 148-152F. I also frequently mash Low gravity English Bitters at 156-158F. So, I hear you and do not disagree. I just wanted the OP to understand the idea behind step mashing, not advocating it as needed. Cheers!
I notice a difference in head retention and clarity.
Not me. Maybe the malts we’re using?
could be, who knows.
As another data point: I don’t have a problem with foam stability or clarity using single infusion. I normally use Rahr Standard 2-row.
That’s one of the ones I use, too.
I hate to say it but i agree with Denny.
I started with step mashing but these days i just single infuse.
Using good flavorful malt is more important then step process.