I was looking at some of Kai’s notes on german pilsner, and came across one of his mash schedules for german pils. It involves a two step mash, with 1.3qt/lb water at 145F for about 45minutes, then an infusion to bring mash thickness up to 2.00qt/lb and 160F for another 45 minutes. followed by batch sparge of 4.00 gal.
I have not done this before, and curious about how this might impact the fermentability / body of the beer…i would normally target 1.010 or lower for my pils with single infusion around 149-150F.
recipe is 95.4% pils, 2.3% carafoam, 2.3% melanoidin.
I have done a step mash 130-146-158 for my last two german lagers after reading Gordon Strong’s book. It is still early but I am happy with how both beers (Kellerbier and a Helles) have turned out.
So fair to expect the lower FG around 1.010 or so? I’m usually targeting my water with a little more sulfate and chloride, but thought I would give it a try and see how it turns out.
I am in the 133, 144,155 boat. I used to do 2 infusions to get there, (10 minutes, 10minutes, 30 minutes) now I have the ability to ramp the temperature, and go from 133 to 155 in 20 minutes and hold for 30.
I do an all pilsner malt bill, and I usually finish 1.012 to 1.009.
My anectdotal observations are that I get better head and mouthfeel in a low attenuating beer by going this rout compared to a single infustion mash at 152.
FWIW, I just racked my first German Pils to kegs yesterday. I used Kai’s GP water profile, with 75% RO water so as to hit the numbers. The grist was 96.7% Bestmalz pilsner malt, 3.3% melanoidin. I did a 90-minute single infusion mash at 149 - 148F at 1.71 qts water per lb. grain, crushed till scared, yeast nutrient, 3 min straight o2 wort aeration, a healthy pitch of 2.5 packets (rehydrated) of Saflager 34/70 per 5.5 gal of wort, cool fermented, and went from OG 1.051 to 1.009 after a month in temp-controlled primary fermenters.
It tasted great at racking, and with the few mentioned supporting BMPs, the highly modified malt did fine with a single infusion mash, at least to get the desired attenuation.
I mash in a picnic cooler and do 10-gal batches and so far have mostly avoided step mashes. I do that to keep from getting screwed up, since I can control a single step quite easily, and calculated additions (infusion water volume + temp) in the past for multiple infusions, as calculated in ProMash, didn’t come close enough to hitting the targeted mash temps the first try.
I had to train myself to add ~5° to a second infusion vs what beersmith says. I write my temps and rest times on a dry erase board and just go off of that. Might be something in my profile setup, but everything else is fine so I’ll leave it alone.
Brewday, under the Mash profile on the Mash tab, look to see if you checked “Adjust Temp for Equipment” = when I un-clicked this - I now hit my strike and infustion temperatures dead on.
I appreciate the tip and it’s a good one, but checked or unchecked the second infusion temp given comes up low for me, so I just know to bump it up a few degrees. Initial strike is dead on though. It’s probably a combination of losing a couple of degrees during the longer rest and my initial profile setup - I carried the profile over to my iPad a couple of years ago and haven’t been in the original program since. I’m sure I set it up wrong somewhere in there. I’ll get around to it one of these days…
But I put up with the quirk because I love the results I’m getting with this mash schedule.
I have done that mash schedule quite a few times. I guess no one will be surprised to hear me say that I couldn’t tell any difference from a single infusion at 148 for 90 min.
You would say that, Denny. I’m beginning to wonder just how tuned that palate really is
If anything, I really like a Hochkurz step infusion schedule (143-145 for 20-30 min, 158-160 for 30-60 min) because it’s easy, it boosts my efficiency, gives me good dependable attenuation, and helps with the quality of the finished beer (I think) over a single infusion.
