The Forgotten Step: Do You Ever Do a Mashout?

Good morning. If you’re looking for an alternative to barley based beer, Meli Beer, founded by Samara Oster and inspired by her travels through South America, brewed the first commercially sold beer in the US that uses 100% quinoa for it’s grain bill. A side benefit is that it’s gluten free by it’s nature.

-Brandon Copeland

The Forgotten Step: Do You Ever Do a Mashout?

You follow the mash schedule, hit your temps, maybe even stir like a monk. But just before sparging, there’s one step most homebrewers skip - the mashout.

Books still mention it. Some all-in-one systems include it. And if you hang out in certain forums, someone’s always recommending it. But how many of us are actually doing it? And more importantly… does it matter?

What Even Is a Mashout?

A mashout involves raising the temperature of the mash - typically to around 168-170°F (75-77°C) - before lautering. The idea is to:

• Stop enzymatic activity

• Reduce viscosity

• Improve runoff

In theory, it sets your sugars and helps with clarity and extraction. In practice… well, a lot of us skip it.

Why Homebrewers Leave It Behind

• Time and Gear: If you’re doing a single infusion in a cooler, you can’t exactly apply heat to raise the temp.

• Modern Efficiency: Today’s malts are highly modified, and enzyme activity generally slows enough on its own by the time you get to sparging.

• Laziness (and that’s okay): You’re juggling mash temp, water volumes, and a toddler crawling near the burner. Skipping one step is tempting.

When a Mashout Might Actually Help

Still, there are brewers who swear by it—especially those doing step mashes, using low mash temperatures, or working with thicker mash ratios. It might be especially relevant if:

• You’re targeting max efficiency

• You’re brewing high-gravity beers

• You want to avoid slow or stuck sparges

It’s also more common for brewers using HERMS/RIMS systems or electric setups where ramping up temp is easy.

So... Is It Worth Doing?

That’s the thing—there’s no clear consensus. It’s one of those steps that lives in the gray zone: possibly helpful, not strictly necessary, and very situational.

Which brings us to the question…

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Beer Trivia Question

🍺 Which key enzyme, responsible for cleaving maltose units during the saccharification rest, is fully deactivated when you raise the mash to typical mashout temperatures (around 170 °F)?

Read to the end to find out if you're right!

Brewgr Recipe of the Week
Clone of Space Dust IPA

If you have never been “Dusted”, aka enjoyed a Space Dust IPA from Elysian Brewing Co. in Washington, you’re missing out. However, creating a clone is just as good, and this recipe looks promising. At the very least, you will have yourself a hop-tastic beer with a mix of Chinook, Citra, and Amarillo.

Credit: Brewer 147086

Poll Results: Would You Go Pro (Nano)?

Going from homebrewer to running your own professional brewery is not for the faint of heart - suddenly, your favorite hobby turns into your source for livelihood, raising the stakes and increasing the stress. For the majority of folks in the poll and those who wrote in, the transition is way more work than it’s worth - many have seen friends or colleagues make the switch and not realize how much work it would actually be.

However, for some, this dream is alive and real, and it’s not without it’s many cases of success. If you’re able to spin up a brewery logistically, and you don’t forget about the actual brewing, the dream can become a reality.

And the Answer Is...

🍺 Beta-amylase. Beta-amylase operates best around 140–150 °F (60–65 °C) and denatures when the mash is held at mashout temperatures near 170 °F, halting further maltose production.