When mashing to produce a beer, the recommended procedures are specifically calculated to leave a certain level of unfermentable solids. These are the very things which give a beer 'body'.
For some, a stepped mash, intended purely for distillation, reduces such unfermantables making a stepped mash (lacking body) unsuitable for beer production. The idea being that maximising enzyme activity at different temperature levels reduces such unfermentable elements, making the mash unsuitable for beer production, but, possibly, better suited for distillation by maximising fermentables.
In the case of all grain mashing, many argue that modern grains no longer require stepped mashing. I tend to the opinion that if a mashing procedure produces a beer with body, then a different procedure might be more beneficial when intending to distil.
Such unfermentables do markedly hydrometer reading both at the start and the finish. I tend to read the 'drop' as an indicator of how much sugar has been used.
With molasses one tends to know the estimated sugar content and, therefore, by measuring the 'drop' , ignoring actual level readings, one knows when all potential sugar content has been used.Statistics: Posted by Toper — Wed Jun 29, 2016 12:27 am
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