bjzelectric

Recipes 

First AG batch is finished and I ended up losing 6 or 7 degrees in an hour mash. I wasnt expecting this much of a loss seeing that my MLT is a cooler. Is this typical? Will this have any negative effects on my final product?

__________________
Hooray Beer!

piperbrew

Recipes 

While I've only got a handful of brews under my belt, I had the same problem when I first started. All I did to fix this was set the MLT cooler on top of a chair (or milk crate) to get it off the ground. I wish I could offer more as far as the logistics and science behind this, but all I really know is it has to do with the heat distribution from the cooler to the ground. Getting it up off the floor helps eliminate this. Hope this helps/works for you.

ifishsum

Recipes 

Did you preheat it first with hot tap water? That makes a huge difference. It also will lose heat more rapidly if it's less than 2/3 full.

__________________
"If you're gonna be an ape, be a hairy one" - Spyder

Primary 2: Edwort's Robust Porter
Secondary 1: LW Pale Ale
Secondary 1: Blackened Soul RIS
Kegged: Dead Guy Ale
Kegged: Rye Pale Ale
Kegged: Haus Pale Ale
Kegged: Nut Brown Ale
Kegged: Afrikan Amber
Kegged: Jock Scott Ale
Kegged: Afrikan Amber

Evets

Recipes 

Try this. It's a piece of 2 inch foam insulation. My last mash lost 3 tenths in one hour.

__________________
If I'd known I was gonna live this long, I'd have taken better care of myself!

DeathBrewer

Recipes 

As stated, pre-heating helps vastly, and if you are setting it on the concrete it will suck out some of the heat, so keep it off the ground.

Also, how often did you open it? I generally only do 1-2 stirs during my entire mash...I don't want to lose too much heat and the last two runs I had 92% efficiency.

You can also wrap it in towels and stick a pillow on top of it. More insulation is never a bad thing.

Lastly, be sure your temp was correct to begin with. Use an accurate mash calculator like Green Bay Rackers--Mash Calculators so you get it right the first time and don't have to mess with it.

Throw your thermometer in and give it time to sit at least 10 minutes for the heat to distribute before you check, or you will get an inaccurate reading. Then you'll see what the actual temp of the mash is. You may find that it didn't drop that much after all.

In any case, don't worry about it. I've never had a bad beer from mashing too low. What was your starting and finishing temp for your mash, anyway?

__________________
Easy Partial Mash Brewing - Stovetop All-Grain Brewing

"Death is always with us." - Brewpastor

We will remember...

ChshreCat

Recipes 

That... is... awesome.

I was trying to think of something like that the other day, but I only got as far as a few layers of tin foil on the surface of the grain before putting the lid on.

__________________
"Science + beer = good!"
-Adam Savage

JMSetzler

Recipes 

That is pretty slick. I'm getting ready to try my first AG brew soon with a newly fabricated MLT. Now that I have seen this, I'm gonna have to go look around and see where I might find a piece of foam large enough to work with my cooler.... That would solve any dead space issues that might come up due to the size of the mash vs the size of the cooler.... great post...

PS- what type of foam is that? Is it styrofoam or some sort of foam rubber?

__________________
brewsandblues.org - Beer and Smokin' Blues

IrishLass

Recipes 

1st ag batch left MLT sittin on the floor all alone and lost 6 deg in one hour. since then weve been sitting it on a pillow and wrapping it with a sleeping bag and havent lost more than one degree. We pre-heat with almost but not quite boiling water for 15-20 minutes.

1st ag batch (Bee Cave Haus pale ale) tasted amazing anyway

__________________
Primary: Cream of Three Crops (AG), EdWort's Pale Haus Ale (AG), Fat Bastard, EdWort's Apfelwein, 1 gallon CranRasp Lemonade, 1 gallon Yooper's Welch's Wine, 1 gallon Mojito experiment
Secondary: None
Drinking: Most likely
Bottled: 90 Shilling clone, Summertime Lemon Wheat, Irish Stout, Cream Ale, White Chocolate Pale Ale, Double IPA#1, Irish Red, Oatmeal Stout, Blackberry Stout, Summer Lager, Mexican Lager, Hard Lemonade, EdWort's Apfelwein, Hoppy's 420 Double IPA.

Zen_Brew

Recipes 

Pretty slick Evets:
Cudos on the foam cap. I have been planning to do that soon as well as I lose about 5 degrees in an hour. I tried keeping it off the ground, but it is way obvious the problem is the lid as I can feel how warm the lid is during the mash. If the top of the lid is warm, it is letting out heat. It's either underinsulated, or not insulated at all.

I am a bit worried about what most foam might leach under heat, so was going to go with standard styrofoam like cut the bottom off a disposable cooler. What did you use?

__________________
Primary: German Hef, Belgian IPA, Scottish 80, Belgian Dubbel
On Tap: Oatmeal Stout, Vanilla Oatmeal Stout, Belgian Dark Strong, Munich Dunkel, Dunkel Weizen, Oktoberfest, Bock, IPA, Black IPA, English IPA, Pale Ale

Using the mind to look for reality is delusion. Using your senses to look for reality is awareness.

"One time I was so desperate for a beer I snuck into the football stadium and ate the dirt under the bleachers." Homer Simpson

Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Hoppiness

Yankeehillbrewer

Recipes 

Another idea floating around here is to drill some holes in the lid of your MLT and squirt some great stuff in there. Considering of course, that your lid is hollow.