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'''Turbid Mashing''' is the traditional mashing process used for the production of [[lambic]]. This a labor-intensive process involves taking the mash through multiple temperature rests through infusions of hot water and the removal of 'turbid' starchy wort that is not fully converted. This process was used historically for a range of beers, both aged mixed-culture acidic beers<ref name='Evans 19058'>[http://www.horscategoriebrewing.com/2016/01/thoughts-on-evans-1905-beers-and.html Blog post by Dave Janssen about a historic article (Evans 1905) dealing with turbid mashing for French bière de garde]</ref> and young beers<ref name='Johnson 1918'>[http://www.horscategoriebrewing.com/2016/02/thoughts-on-johnson-1918-belgian.html Blog post by Dave Janssen about Johnson's 1918 article dealing with turbid mashing for young beers]</ref>. In modern brewing this technique is known due to its use for the production of traditional [[lambic]]. The main goals of turbid mashing are to maximize extraction from a grist with a high percentage of unmalted grains and to produce a dextrinous wort in order to feed wild yeasts and bacteria during the long fermentation that beers such as lambic undergo. Turbid mashing also pulls more tannin material from the grain due to especially hot sparge temperatures and prolonged sparging.

Turbid mashing procedures are outlined well in [http://www.funkfactorygeuzeria.com/2011/12/cantillon-turbid-mash.html Levi's writeup of Cantillon's procedure] and Wild Brews by Jeff Sparrow (see the [[books]] page). Turbid mashing requires Brewers conducting traditional turbid mashes usually have at least a 4 vessel system (: a mash vessel/lauter tun, a vessel kettle to hold turbid portionwort, a vessel to hold hot infusion liquor tank (or hot water on demand) and a boil kettle to receive the mash runnings. Many different specific turbid mashes may used by varying rest temperatures and the numbers and timings of turbid pulls. This was the case for historic turbid mashing (see, for example, Johnson, 1918<ref name='Johnson 1918'/>). An example of a modern turbid mashing mash based on observing records and observations of Cantillon's process is as follows:

Little work has been done to identify the types and amounts of carbohydrates in turbid mashes. One reference for an unknown lambic brewery showed that simple sugars (under 3 carbon chains) was 62%, 3-6 carbon chain sugars were 18%, 185+ carbon chain starches were 8%, 6-30 were 5%, 30-61 were 6%, and 61-185 were 1%. This study showed that the longest chain sugars were the third highest fraction in this instance of turbid wort. During the extended fermentation, the longest chain sugars were broken down into medium sized sugars during the extended fermentation by lactic acid bacteria and ''Brettanomyces''. By the end of fermentation (nearing 1°P), there was a surprisingly higher amount of smaller and medium sized sugars than the longer chain sugars. See this [http://www.horscategoriebrewing.com/2017/07/lambic-attenuation-and-carbohydrate.html Hors Categorie blog article] for more information.