Cereal mash

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A cereal mash is needed when a raw adjunct cereal grain is being used for beer production and its gelatinization temperature exceeds the saccharification rest temperature (i.e. 62–65°C). Exogenous enzymes may be used instead.

A cereal cooker is a separate mash vessel needed when an unmodified adjunct is added to the mash. Unmodified cereals that are commonly used in brewing include corn and rice. Unmalted barley, oats, wheat, and rye also find their way into the brewing recipe. Initially, the use of unmodified grains was common as a way to save expense in the manufacture of beer. Today, the cost is a small part, the main reason for the use of unmalted cereals is that they are an integral part of the recipe. In other words, the use of adjuncts may be desired for the final flavor or the beer. If these adjuncts are used, we have to "modify" them so that their starch is available for fermentation. That modification is essentially the same thing that happens when barley is malted, with one large exception. None of the enzymes will be produced or survive the process. To do this, the brewer mills the cereal to break open the grains and then adds them to the cereal cooker. The addition occurs in the same ways that malt is added to the mash vessel. The slurry of cereal grist and hot liquor is stirred while the temperature of the vessel increases. The final temperature of the mixture is based upon the type of cereal used (see Table 6.1). This temperature allows the starch in the cereal to become available for enzymatic action during the mash. Stirring aids in this process and also keeps the mixture from scorching on the side of the heated vessel. It is important to note that while the process makes starch available for enzyme action, no enzymes are activated in the cereal cooker. Cereal cookers are required for unmodified adjuncts because those grains have not been malted. For example, if we add a handful of milled barley to hot water and waited a few minutes, we would easily see that this is true. The "barley tea" we just made would not be sweet. The lack of sweetness in the water indicates that none of the starch has been converted into sugars. Because the cereals have not been malted, none of the enzymes needed to convert the starch into fermentable sugars are present. In other words, cereal added to hot liquor will not mash. However, if the starch is made available by breaking down the cell walls and protein coats, the resulting slurry can be added to an existing mash. That slurry would be rich in starch and available to be mashed. The enzymes in the existing mash made with fully or partially modified grains can convert all of the starch from the cereals into fermentable (and non-fermentable) sugars. Once the cereal has maintained its gelatinization temperature for a specified amount of time (usually 20 min or so), it is pumped while still hot into the mash mixer with the malted grist. The malted grains and the cereal grains are mixed to make sure that the enzymes have access to all of the starch in the slurry. This mixing results in raising the temperature of the mash overall because the slurry from the cereal mixture has a higher temperature. A typical temperature profile for the result is shown in Fig. 6.2. Note that the result of adding both the gelatinized grits and the malted mash results in the final saccharification temperature where the starches are converted to sugars. While the heated cereals could be added with the initial mash-­in and then treated just as the mash is treated, the starch in the cereals would not be available for the enzymes in the mash. And if that was done, we would only have sugars that result from the malted grains, plus a bunch of flavor from a hot extraction of unmalted grains. In addition, adding them later in the mash steps saves energy associated with warming the overall mash.

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Cereal mash is out firmly. Tried it once , not again.