TimSTi

Recipes 

So for my next beer I'm going to do Blacklabs Orange Pale Ale converted to a partial mash recipe. What I'm wondering is I have a rectangular cooler that in the future I intend on setting up as a MLT. That won't happen until later on after I brew this next partial. I have a 24x24 grain bag that should hold the 6lb mash. Can I just heat up the water to proper temp, pour into the cooler, then secure the grainbag and add grains like I would if I was doing pure stove-top? Last time I did a partial mash I had a bitch of a time maintaining proper temps so I think kthis would help a lot. If there are any cons to this let me know. Thanks

__________________

Primary1:Empty
Primary2: Cream of 3 Crops 2/2
Secondary: Empty
Bottled: Red Ale 11/23 - Imperial Winter Ale 1/5 - Orange/Cascade PA 2/16
Next Up: American Bock - Apfelwein

I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, violence, or insanity to anyone, but they've always worked for me. Hunter S. Thompson

Yooper

Recipes 

It should work, but I wouldn't secure the grain bag to the cooler. I think it'd be hard to do that. I'd put the grains in the grain bag (loosely, don't pack!) and then tie up the grain bag. Then you could put it in the cooler with the strike water and stir it up, thoroughly wetting the grains. If you find that 6 pounds of grains is too much for your grain bag, use two grain bags or reduce the amount of grains and add more DME.

__________________
Broken Leg Brewery
Giving beer a leg to stand on since 2006

Anthony_Lopez

Recipes 

Thats exactly how I did them... I got an extra large grain bag that can hold about 10 lbs of grain (i dont remember dimensions) and just tied a knot in the top. Add strike water to cooler, add grains, and let it sit. I used a higher water to grain ratio in order to get more out of the grains.

__________________
I'd rather have a bottle in front of me, than a frontal lobotomy.
--Tom Waits

You can't be a real country unless you have a beer and an airline - it helps if you have some kind of a football team, or some nuclear weapons, but at the very least you need a beer.
--Frank Zappa

My Cheap and Easy Stirplate

TimSTi

Recipes 

Thanks and thanks! Time to go cleanthe cooler...

__________________

Primary1:Empty
Primary2: Cream of 3 Crops 2/2
Secondary: Empty
Bottled: Red Ale 11/23 - Imperial Winter Ale 1/5 - Orange/Cascade PA 2/16
Next Up: American Bock - Apfelwein

I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, violence, or insanity to anyone, but they've always worked for me. Hunter S. Thompson

Saccharomyces

Recipes 

I do this for small PMs. I use a 5 gallon paint strainer bag to hold the grain. I stretch it over a orange Homer bucket, mill the grain right into the bag, tie it up, and drop it in the cooler which has my mash water heated to 14*F over my target mash temp. Slap on the lid, set the timer for 60 minutes, and go do something useful. Works like a charm. When it's time to sparge I heat a gallon of water in my kettle to 175*F and drop in the grain bag, let it steep for 5 minutes, tea bag, dump the grain and pour the contents of the cooler into the kettle. I calculate my mash efficiency is 75% with this method.

This week I'll use this exact method for preparing a starter wort from grain.

__________________
[How to Calculate Mash Efficiency | Do I Need a Yeast Starter? | My Ghetto Fermentation Chamber | Twitter | 6 Gal. HDPE Fermenters | Slanting Yeast | No Sparge Brewing]