For micro brewery factory, step mashing is a part of traditional all-grain brewing in brew house equipment, using multiple mash rests to help enzymes in the malted grains to convert starches into fermentable sugars.
A single infusion mash is one where a single infusion of mash water is combined with the grist, and the entire mash is completed at roughly the same temperature in brewing equipment.
Let’s look at a very basic rundown of the trade-offs between Step Mashing and Single Infusion Mashing.
COMPLEXITY
Single Infusion mashing is certainly more simple than step mashing.
This is because you can simply heat your strike water to the desired temperature and let it be.
With step mashing, you need to be able to periodically raise and hold the mash temp.
This can be done either via direct heat, or by using multiple infusions of hot water. Each has pros and cons, and the mash-tun design you use may force your hand on this one.
If you have a mash tun that brewing equipment is steam jacketed you have the option to use either direct-heat or multi-infusion for your step mashing.
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TIME
Single Infusion mashing gets the nod for being quick and easy as it’s just a single rest.
Step mashing typically results in a longer overall mash time due to the length and management of the various rests.
FERMENTABILITY
Step mashing can arguably produce a more fermentable wort, as more time and care has been given to breaking down all of the compounds in your grains.
This is much less of a factor with today’s highly modified malts. In the past, step mashing was almost a necessity.
But that doesn’t mean that step mashing can’t provide some benefit to modern brewers. Controlling the mash is one of the biggest ‘dials’ all-grain brewers have when it comes to having absolute control over the finished product.
BEER QUALITY
This is almost 100% subjective.
An Experiment done by the Brülosophy crew in collaboration with House of Pendragon had some interesting results. They compared a single infusion mash to a step mash on an otherwise identical recipe.
In a blind triangle test, a statistically significant number of tasters were able to tell that the beers were different, but the preference between the two was very very close.
There was also a small but present difference in the OG of the beers, with the step mashed batch ending up 0.003 higher than the infusion batch.
They finished at the same FG, indicating that the step mash process did provide a more fermentable wort.
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Emily Gong
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