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You are here: Home --> Forum Home --> General Forum --> Homebrewing Links --> Cereal Mashing vs. Cereal Cooking (Gelatinizing)

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chino_brews
Charter Member
Eden Prairie, MN
301 Posts


I'm a little confused about why a cereal mash is necessary. It seems like one ought to be able to cook the unmalted cereal grains competely so as to thoroughly gelatinize and expose the starch and then add the cooked grain directly to the mash, taking into consideration any effect that may have on mash temp, of course.

The traditional cereal mash requires one to mill the unmalted cereal grains with 30% of the base malt from the main recipe, to mash this grist in the saccharification range (typically 158°F) for 5-10 minutes in a thin mash, then bring the mash to a boil. It seems like the mini-mash isn't going to do much until the unmalted cereal is gelatinized. Then you destroy ~ 1/3 of your diastase in the boil. Finally, you expect the remaining 70% of diastase to convert the whole mini-mash (and itself).

Does this seem counterproductive to anyone else?

It seems like, putting lautering issues aside, I would be better off using a pressure cooker as a cereal cooker, gelatinizing the unmalted cereal, and then just adding that to the mash. Am I missing something? 




Posted 34 days ago.

testingapril
Charter Member
Atlanta, GA
595 Posts


I'm with you, just cook it and add to the mash. If it's a low enough portion of the grist you could probably skip cooking and add it directly, depending on what you are trying to do.





Posted 34 days ago.

ingoogni
nl
314 Posts


boil the cereals and add them to the mash, no mini-mash.





Posted 34 days ago.

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