Alpha vs Beta mashing temps

Brewing a German Pilsener tomorrow, and this thread has me motivated to do the hochkurz mash as mentioned. Making a starter and getting the water together now…

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Utahbiodiesel… Many options… Sneezles61

A silly question, Must be you do the beta temp first for 30 min and the alpha temp second for 30 min and rinse for 30min? Just trying to learn and understand, thank you.

Depends on what your trying to achieve. For a balanced wort that would work. For a drier beer I’ll go 45mins beta and 15mins alpha. For a heavier body you may go 30min beta 45min alpha.
‘Rinse’ depends on your process. Fly sparge should last 45-60mins.

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Can you do the pitcher method or drip method also? Right now I would use the pitcher method. Thanks!

Do you know your filter size?

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600… And I have a 400 I use for hops… It is a bit too fine… Sneezles61

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I’m sorry. I have no idea what you’re speaking of.

The pitcher method for me is, I drain off some wort and use a pitcher to catch the run off and dump over the grain over & over. The drip method for me, is where the wort is dripping over the grain through a tub or pipe over the top of the grain.

Sounds like you’re confusing vorlauf with sparging. During vorlauf you collect your wort and then gently pour it back on your grain bed. Vorlauf sets your grain bed and clears your wort for filtering. During a sparge you are introducing clean water to rinse the sugars out of your grain.

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Learned something today. I thought that vorlauf and sparging the same thing. Thank you for clarifying that for me. Trying.

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Lots to learn in this hobby. Just takes time and studying and patience. We’ve all been there. I am still there.

That is one resin we have places like this.

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Not sure whether this will get a response, but I too have been wondering about this idea of a reverse infusion mash. I’ve recently started building one gallon batches to expedite my learning curve (i.e. trial and error) so have some leeway to quickly experiment. This is all theoretical at this point, but briefly my thought is to take half my well shaken bag of milled grain and mash at 160F for 45 minutes (subjective) and mash out at 170F. As you all know, this single alpha rest produces a longer starch molecule, less fermentable wort. Setting aside to cool, I’d then mash the other half of my grain at 140F for 60 minutes as a single beta rest. So getting to the point and adjusting for volumes, my thought is to add the cooled alpha-rest wort, to the low temperature mash so beta amylase has the entire focus on the unaltered starches (new) plus the cooled alpha-rest wort. I realize there are several variables to deal with here like diastatic power of the low temperature mash, mash viscosity, mash duration and perhaps sparge efficiency. But if the goal is a highly fermentable wort then this may be a way to do it. I will soon know.

Can’t see how that would be more fermentable than mashing all your grain at say 145

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I see the conversation was explained well above…
Sneezles61