Durden Park Recipies

[markbatten]

I like making small batches of beer, mainly to experiment with different recipies and styles (plus I like to bottle, have a nice selection of beers and I only have a small boiler).
I want to try a couple of the Durden Park recipies (they are already scaled to suit my methods at a gallon/4.5 litres) but am wondering about the mashing proceedure.
The 'norm' for me is a 90 minute mash at 65-67 degrees.
The Durden Park recipies are generally 3hrs at 65 degrees followed by 30 minutes at 77 degrees.
Why is there such a prolonged mash time and what advantage would this give over a 90 minute mash?
Would a beer suffer by giving it a 90 minute mash?
The mash is also very stiff, what does this acheive. I was under the impression a thinner mash would give better efficiency.

[Seveneer]

The thicker mash seems to give a better mouthfeel and more body to the beer. The flip side is that the conversion takes longer, hence the longer mash time.

That said, I have brewed a few of these recipes with a 90 minute mash and have had wonderful results.

/Phil.

[David Edge]

Why is there such a prolonged mash time

Probably because that's what the breweries that they took the recipes from did. And as Phil says, thick mashes don't half convert more slowly - I can't get them to convert below 2 l/kg.