[quote=“Trub_Toad”]How much does time matter when mashing?
If I let the mash go for 90 minutes instead of 60; does it increase efficiency much?
I see almost every recipe says 60 minutes but have never known why.[/quote]
It might increase the efficiency a very small amount, but mainly it will produce a more fermentable wort. Crush is the most important variable in efficiency, followed by water amounts and pH.
Mash time is almost a non-issue for most malts as long as you mash for more than 40 minutes. The exceptions might be Munich malt based beers, and beers with a lot of so-called undermodified malt (which I can’t even find for sale anywhere, and I’ve looked). I can still get 90% efficiency pretty easily with a 40-minute mash. Even fermentability is a small effect above the 40-minute mark. Sure, if I want a super dry beer, I’ll mash for 90 minutes like anyone else, but the 60-minute standard is really unnecessary for most beers. I’ve played with mash time a lot, and in my experience, 30 minutes is not enough to assure good fermentability, but 40 is, at least for me and my simple system (I either brew in a bag or do the Dennybrew batch sparge system). I almost always mash for just 40 minutes. Saves you 20 minutes or more of your life, if you’re into time savings at all. Some people just don’t care, but some do.
This might all sound pretty detailed, but all you really need to know is that longer mash time leads to lower final gravity, and anywhere from 40 to 90 minutes is fairly standard and will get the job done right. But efficiency… it’s all about the crush and the volume measurements. Well, and gravity and temperature measurements, of course. Maybe that deserves a mention? You’re only as accurate as all your measurements, and they all matter quite a bit. But all other effects like pH, whether you stir, how you sparge, etc., are tiny in comparison.
Thanks, those replies are really helpful.
Longer mash time leads to drier (more alcoholic?) beer; but not by much.
I figured the active enzymes needed time to convert starches to sugars and the gravity would be determined by sugars. It sounds like gravity is determined by both starches and sugars, but fermentability is determined by sugars.
Are there multiple kinds of sugars produced during a mash?
Well did the Oberon clone today…this time double crushed and that seemed to fix it the efficiency was 71% . Only missed final OG by .002 points but I was about 2 qts heavy after the boil wit h probably the cause of the slight miss. Thanks to all for the input!!
