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Mashing

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Whisky Science

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Abstract

Mashing is the process of converting malt to a sugar-rich fermentable liquor or wort. Malt grains are first broken, typically by roller mills or hammer mills, to expedite the interaction of mash water with the modified endosperm. The broken grains, or grist, are mixed with hot water which first softens (gelatinizes) and ultimately liquifies the starch, and which activates enzymes that break the starch into fermentable sugars. At the end of an all-malt barley process, spent grains are separated from the sugary wort by filtering the wort through a filter bed comprised of the barley’s husks.

Your utensils being all properly cleaned, and scalded, your malt ground, your water in the copper boiling, and your penstaff 1 well set, you must then proceed to mash, by putting sufficient quantity of boiling water into your tub, in which it must stand until the greater part of the steam is gone off, or till you can see your own shadow in it. It will be then necessary, that one person should pour the malt gently in, while another is carefully stirring it; for it is equally essential that the same care should be observed when the mash is thin as when thick. This being effectually done, and having sufficient reserve of malt to cover the mash, to prevent evaporation, you may cover your tub with sacks, &c. and leave your malt three hours to steep, which will be a proper time for the extraction of its virtues.

– William Augustus Henderson, 1793 [344]

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Drain plug.

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  1. University of California, Professor of Chemical Engineering, Davis, CA, USA

    Gregory H. Miller

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Miller, G.H. (2019). Mashing. In: Whisky Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-13732-8_4

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