With all the excitement over the State Championships being held here in Townsville, attention is being directed to the different procedures to make beer. In competition, mash usually is the favoured procedure of the top performers. Mash brew is simply beer that has been made from scratch. That is the brewer has started with the raw ingredients. The main ingredients in beer are malted barley grain, hops, yeast and water.

Usually the brew shop will crack the grain for the brewer but some brewers have their own mill and prefer to crack their own.
The grain comes in many different types suitable for different beers. The toasting of this grain is what provides the colour and malt flavours in beer ranging from none to some caramel, toffee, nutty, coffee and even roasted or burnt flavour as found in stout.

Hops are available in many varieties (to compliment the malt sweetness) and the type, weight and time in the boil will effect bitterness, hop flavour and aroma. Generally bitterness is achieved with 30 - 60 minutes in the boil, flavour with 5 – 30 minutes and aroma with less than a minute in the boil.

The yeast also comes in many varieties but generally, either a lager or ale strain. Lagers ferment at 8 - 13¼C and ales ferment at 15 - 22¼C.

The cracked grains are steeped in 2.5 litres of water per kilo of grain, with the temperature settling at 63¼C for lagers and 68¼ for ales. After 1.5 to 2 hrs the enzymes have done their work converting the starches to sugars and the grain is then rinsed with water at 75¼C (sparging). This rinsing allows the sugars to be collected in a boiler where the hops are added at various times relevant to the style the brewer is aiming for. The boil will last for 1.5 hrs and then the whole boil is cooled rapidly and when it is at a temperature within 5¼C of the yeast, the yeast is added to the unfermented beer (wort) in the fermenter. The whole lot then ferments. This can take 1 week or 5 weeks dependent on the yeast type.

To drink full mash beer is to drink the very best beer can be. A beer that has not been made to price, a beer where labour and ingredient costs are irrelevant. It is simply an experience that can alter the beer drinkers perception of what beer is.
Mashers note, this is a generalisation of mashing to demystify the procedure.

Good luck to everyone in the competition, even the cockroaches.

Cheers… Younga!