All I ever think about is beer. Seriously.

I moved into a place with a room called 'the brewery'. I've brewed two beer since August 21st and my partner in brewing has made one since then as well. I'm brewing again tomorrow. The new hotness around this place is a temperature controlled freezer that will house two cornelius kegs at once. My last three brewing sessions have been transitions to step mashing. I have had the capacity to do this for awhile and never enganged it, but I will now. I now mash in a kettle, which means that I can add just a bit of heat any time I like. My brew program will from now on always include a mash out to 167 to cease all enzyme activity. Tomorrow is my first experiment in a protein rest, which I'm introducing to reduce chill haze. I don't know how well this will work but since I'm fucking sick of very cloudy beers, I'm giving it a try. Also, I think I'm going to start using a two stage sachrification rest as part of what I'm calling "single-variable step mashing." Basically, the sachrification will compose two stages, one at a varriable temperature for fifty minutes and one at 158 for 15 minutes. The later mash will teminate beta-amylase activity, leaving only alpha-amylase to complete startch conversion. The earlier mash temperature, since it is the only variable, will determine the composition of sugars in the wort and thus the fermentability of the wort. A high temperature initial sachrification rest will give a less fermentable, more dextrinous wort, a lower temperature will yeild greater fermentability. Maximum fermentability will arrise from a 149 mash. At least, that's what going to happen in theory.

Tomorrow's brew is 2.5 pounds Munton's Marris Otter, 5.5 pounds Briess pale malt and .75 pounds of 80 L crystal; 5.1% AA Ahtanum hops only, with 1 oz. at 60, .5 at 30 and .5 at 2--that's 31 IBU. I'm calling the style american amber, but it rides the lines between amber and pale american ale. I figure the darker crystal, which should be notable, and the relatively low bitterness to OG ratio make this closer to amber than pale, but if you called it pale you'd probably not be wrong. The mash program calls for a protein rest at 130 degree for 20 minutes followed by 50 minutes at 149, followed by 15 minutes at 158, mash out at 167. (In my short experience with mashing out, I'm not ready enough with sparge water to count the time of the mash out too carefully, but since the only point is for it to be long enough to end enzyme operation, I don't think that matters.)

Do I have concerns about the mash program I'm conducting? Sure. The big concern is that the protein rest changes the effect of the sachrification rests. In particular, the period at 130 degrees should cause some gelatinization which might make for some more rapid acitivity during the rest at 149. Alternatively, some amount of sachrification may occur during the protein rest at 130, since this is close to the activity range for beta-amylase. We shall see what happens.