Another Beer Ramble

https://www.wikiart.org/en/vincent-van-gogh/beer-tankards-1885

Look, what I will be laying out here is a function of the equipment that I laid out yesterday and what exists in my kitchen.  My apartment comes equipped with a standard issue, electric coil stovetop.  I tend to think of this as a standard.  If you have a gas range or one of those induction or glass top ranges, you will need to work out the details specific to your specific kitchen.

The first part of the brewing process is to place the big ol' mesh grain bag into your big pot.  Then you put the crushed grains into the pot and fill the pot up to around three-quarters full with hot water from the tap.  Put the pot on the stove and turn the heat on.

Time	Temp In °F		Thermo Remarks	Ingredient Δ
0	120	° F	Setting @ Med Low
5	122	° F
12	140	° F	setting to low	Amylase added
18	140	° F	Setting to halfway Low-Med Low
24	145	° F
30	150	° F
36	154	° F
43	154	° F	heat up a smidgin
49	160	° F	Heat off
56	158	° F
64	159	° F
70	157	° F
79	155	° F

As you can see, I started writing down the temps after the temp hit 120°F.  I did it this way because I have no idea of how hot your hot water is when it comes out of the tap.  There is also the fact that 120°F is where I think that temperature gets important. This is where you start paying attention. 

Slowly bring the temp up to 140°F.  This should take a little bit (as you can see, my stove takes around 12 minutes at a medium low setting to bring the temp to 140°F) the temperature between 120 and 140 gives proteases a chance to mess around with the long proteins.  Long proteins are what seems to make the head retain.  Now, I like the head on a beer as well as anyone, but sometimes it gets ridiculous, I think that a protein rest (fancy term for proteases doing their thing) helps the final product.  I like a beer that has a nice head that goes away after the first couple of sips, I really don't like wiping my mustache ever time I take a sip. 

Now you get to fiddle with the temp to figure out how to make the pot's temperature crawl up slowly over the course of an hour or so to give the amylases a chance to do their thing.  There are two different amylases alpha and beta. Alpha-amylase begins the process of starch digestion. It takes starch chains and breaks them into smaller pieces with two or three glucose units.   Yeasty Beasties don't like long chains.  Beta amylase chews the ends of the carbohydrate chains off making yummy simple sugars.  I figure that with a slow rise through the temps where the amylases do their thing. 

Beta amylase works best between 130–150°F (54–66°C). Alpha amylase prefers a warmer 154–162°F (68–72°C)