What are mash profiles and how do you utilize them in StrangeBrew Elsinore?

Mash profiles prescribe the temperature of your mash during the brewing process. In many cases, mashes have multiple temperature steps in order to activate and deactivate key enzymes. The most basic mash is a single temperature for the entire duration of the mashing process. A simple modification of this that can potentially raise mash efficiency is the use of a mashout step in which the temperature is raised at the end of the mashing procedure to stop enzyme activity and increase mash fluidity. Additional mash steps may be used when a grain bill consists of under-modified malts or in the pursuit of wort with very high fermentability.

Mash profiles can be created manually with StrangeBrew Elsinore Server through the use of triggers, or automatically through the use of BeerXML files. This post focuses on the latter. BeerXML is a data standard for beer recipes. BeerXML files are capable of containing all of the information necessary to recreate a beer, including specific mashing procedures. BeerXML files can be written manually, or exported from popular brewing software such as Beersmith. StrangeBrew Elsinore is able to import BeerXML files through its web interface. To do this, click “upload BeerXML” on the web interface, and browse for the file locally. Once this file has successfully uploaded, you should now have the ability to “Show Recipe Details”. Clicking this will display your mash profile amongst other recipe details. This mash profile can now be assigned to a specific temperature probe that has been previously set up as a PID controller. You can now carry out a mash exactly how it has been defined in your BeerXML file.