8 replies to this topic

[HVB]

Anyone here done a turbid mash? I have been reading Wild Brews by Jeff Sparrow and see he has the classic schedule and the modified Wyeast schedule. Trying to decide if I want to try this or not. Looking for some opinions.

[MtnBrewer]

I believe that strangebrewer has done one. If he doesn't respond in this thread, PM him and see if he's tried it. I have never brewed a lambic but if I ever do, I intend to do a turbid mash.

[strangebrewer]

Yup I've done it. Its a lot of steps but it's not difficult. It does make for a long brew day though. My normal turbid mash/brew days are split between 4 hours of mashing and 4 hours of brewing. So best advice I can give is start early.I do a full turbid mash for my lambics and I do the Wyeast abbreviated one for my Flanders sours.

[Genesee Ted]

I am feeling too lazy to check my copy of Wild Brews, what are the benefits of the turbid mash? Wasn't this just to compensate for under-modified, irregular, sometimes unmalted grain?

[strangebrewer]

I am feeling too lazy to check my copy of Wild Brews, what are the benefits of the turbid mash? Wasn't this just to compensate for under-modified, irregular, sometimes unmalted grain?

I don't have my copy handy either but as I recall there are a handful of reasons. One being the high adjunct proportions found in a lambic mash. The turbid mash process helps break down those long protein chains as well as other components, so yes, under-modified and large amounts of unmalted all together grain. The other big one attributed to complexity in lambics is residual unconverted starch. This is the food for the smaller fermenting friends to chew on over the course of the next however long.

[Genesee Ted]

There are unconverted starches left after 4 hours of mashing? I figured there was some sort of "flavor complexity" related reason, like decoction.

[HVB]

Well after reading here and some more research I think my plan is to brew a lambic using the recipe out of BCS now and get that started . When it cools down this fall I am going to go traditional and do the turbid mash and traditional recipe. The 2 batches will be a few months apart but will give me something to start playing with and blending. Can you really have to much lambic, I do not think so!

[McNuggets]

I've done the turbid mash from WBs a couple times. It makes for a bit of a messy day for sure, and plan for unexpected delays. For instance, when I tried to pull of a decoction from the first (coldest) part of the mash, I found it does not decoct easily. Very thick, sticky stuff, what I had to do was scoop out mash with a pot and dump it into a strainer and then agitate that with a spoon to get any amount of wort for the decoction. Took a bit of time...stuff like that.

[MtnBrewer]

There are unconverted starches left after 4 hours of mashing? I figured there was some sort of "flavor complexity" related reason, like decoction.

Read up on turbid mashing and you'll see why there are unconverted starches. But you're right that the reason is for complexity. As these starches are fermented by the bugs (brett mostly) a lot of flavors develop that you wouldn't get otherwise.