Multiple mashes with single load of grain

[Drag0nHowdy]

In Ron Pattinson's Book, "The Home Brewer's Guide to Vintage Beer", he interprets and shows the mash schedule in the original recipes. Any number call out multiple mashes. These also include volumes scaled to a 5 gallon batch and temperatures. I have thought about how you would do this. Maybe by infusion to raise the temperature (usual case but not always). What if the second mash has a lower temperature than the first? Drain the wort like a batch sparge, let the Mash Tun cool a bit and then add cooler water. And if a Sparge follows a Mash, my usual interpretation is either a batch or fly sparge with the warmer water. Would love to hear others comments on this.

 

[Kevin58]

I've been a fan of Ron for a long time. I go to that book often and I've seen the mash schedules but since those hark back to brewing before 1860 I have never used them. Modern malts are highly modified and do not need those extra temperature steps.

It is also important to remember that the processes that commercial breweries take are not always practical or necessary for homebrewers. A commercial brewer is looking to account for every penny spent to maximize profit.

As homebrewers all we have to do to gain a few points in mash efficiency is toss in a few more handfuls of malted grain. On the massive scale London brewers were working in that same increase in efficiency would require huge amounts of additional malt. It was much more cost effective for them to install the equipment needed for them to perform multiple temperature steps.

To replicate those schedules in the book I would simply treat them as a step mash.

 

[Drag0nHowdy]

Thank you for the input! I was leaning in this way and Ron more or less suggests this by showing a single infusion and mash out temp. So that is what I will do. And I concur, adding a little extra grain is not expensive. I am still working out my efficiency. I has so far been adding about 5-10% more base malt than my recipe has in BeerSmith to get to the points I want. But it is improving. Thanks again.

 

[Kevin58]

It is important to have an accurate equipment profile when using Beersmith. When you have that dialed in the software should give you accurate grain amounts without you having to add that extra 5 - 10%. Take accurate notes during brew day either by hand or use the session feature and then use these real world data points to adjust your equipment profile.

Brad Smith has posted on the Beersmith website some info on equipment profiles here: https://beersmith.com/blog/2021/11/23/the-ultimate-beersmith-equipment-profile-guide/

Alternatively here is the video I used to customize my profile from scratch (ignore that is says Beersmith 2. The process is the same whether you are using BS2 or BS3):