No this isn’t an anti-Pilsbury Doughboy post, lord knows we could all use with a couple more of those crescent rolls in our lives. No this is about those balls of crushed grain that form in your mash tun when you’re setting up to have a perfect brew day. The ones that sit there and bob around in your mash in pure mockery of your perfection. Here’s a picture of some I made for this post, because all of my brew sessions are perfect… every time… always…
Look at those dough balls! All lined up like they’re ready to be turned into crescent rolls. But just like an iceberg, that’s just the tip! Look how big they can get in the image on the right. The nerve!
But what’s the real issue here?
Well depending on what you believe in from threads in the forums, dough balls muck with your efficiency. Think about the outer surface of the dough ball as a protective shell and insulation. What it’s effectively doing is keeping the hot liquor from mingling with a portion of your grain.
If the liquor can’t get access to the grain it can’t get access to activate your enzymes for conversion. But isn’t that the whole point of a mash? To convert grain into delicious fermentable sugars for our yeast? Yes, well one of the many reasons, but you bet it’s one of the most sought after points of a mash.
So what happens if there are dough balls?
Don’t stress too much about this because there are simple solutions to rectifying dough balls. The easier method is to take your mash puddle, and mash them, squish them, squash them.
Some homebrewers use other tools to help get rid of their dough balls. Like giant kitchen whisks. Whatever you use just be conscious that you’re still trying to hit your resting temperature. So for those who are brewing on a non-regulated system, try to do this quickly OR avoid them all together. Which brings us to…
Practical Tips For Avoiding Dough Balls
Tip 1: What’s your crush?
This size of your crush has a lot to do with the overall process of your mash, but it also impacts the amount of dough balls you get in a mash. Think of it like this. If you’re going to make bread, you have some very basic ingredients. Flour, sugar, salt, water and yeast. OMG! It’s like we’re bakers!
One of the key differences between the brewer and the baker is obviously the final outcome. Delicious comforting beer, or warm supportive rolls.
So if you’re crush is far too small and it’s starting to look like flour, you can bet your buns you’re going to have to be on the lookout for some dough balls in your mash. In general, when you crush your grains you’re looking for the grains to be cracked to allow for conversion to really kick in.
Tip 2: What’s your grain and water mixing method?
There are a few methods to getting to your mash, both have pros and cons to the homebrewer depending on who you’re talking to.
The Mixing Options Are: Add Grain To Water, add Water To Grain OR BOTH by focusing on maintaining a consistency in thickness through your additions.
Personally I find I hit my strike better if I transfer the water to the mash tun first (JUST PREHEAT IT!) rather than adding water to grain. However, a man very near to our hearts does remind us:
John Palmer “How to brew” 3rd edition, page 201:
“Mash-in. You want to add the water to the grain, not the other way around. Use a saucepan or a plastic pitcher to pour in a gallon of your strike water at a time and stir between infusions. Don’t try to pour 4 gallons of hot water into the mash tun all at once. You don’t want to thermally shock the enzymes.”
I have tried both options, and not to disregard my education, but I am my own test maker and test taker in my brewery. So I prefer the grain to water method and haven’t seen issues with my efficiency.
The key point here is identifying your type of method to understand what your issues are when getting dough balls. If you’re adding water to grain, you essentially have a higher chance of getting dough balls. The reason being is that you have less water to grain as you mix in and the potential for the cracked grain to cake up because it’s absorbing the water quickly as you mix. If you’re having real issues and using this method, then maybe the “BOTH” method is better for you. Allowing you to use complimentary ratios of water and grain as you go.
Advanced Tip: Underletting is adding the water from below the grain. It’s something that many breweries do or advanced homebrewers to much success in reducing dough balls. If you have a false bottom setup of some type it might be worth giving it a go.
Tip 3: What do utilize to support mashing in?
Homebrewers with advanced setups for fly sparging or otherwise can skip this section. Because you’re system is your partner in crime at this point.
A key to avoiding dough balls is being able to stir the grain or water as you mix things together. Personally I find it difficult to use a bag to add grain while stirring it into my mash. Alternatively you could find it difficult to stir while pouring very hot water onto your grain.
So if you don’t have an extra set of hands available to help you, what can you do? Many homebrewers leverage a surface like a pale or counter top to balance a bucket/pot of grain or water to help them pour into their mash tun. This frees up a hand for stirring as you mix.
Alternatively, you could add your water or grain in smaller more manageable increments with a smaller pot. If you had several pots or vessels to pre-measure everything out with, it could make it easier for you to quickly mix everything together with one hand.
Last option would be to hit the gym with preacher curls and a can of spinach to get your Popeye arms on.
Main Takeaways
Test and see what works best based on your own capability and setup. Maybe you’re just not good at multi-tasking and can’t handle pouring grain and stirring at the same time. Maybe you’re very scientific and get excited with 1 gallon measurement increments and being precise. Whatever it is there’s lots of options, and dough balls should be something you strive to have mastery over obliterating.
by Frank LockwoodFrank works as a Group Director of Experience Design in the advertising industry. When he’s not building mobile apps and websites he’s usually thinking, drinking, making something to do with beer. Luckily, his wife loves to cook and drink beer, so many of the beers he brews usually have some type of ingredient you’d find in your kitchen. Molasses in his ambers, celery root in his Rauchbier and mustard seeds in his stout. He can also brew the classics and has done so to win homebrew awards and collaboration brews with breweries from 4 of the 5 boroughs in NYC. Carpe cervisiam!
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