Oven Mashing for partial Mash

Anyone else do this?

I take my 5 gallon stock pot and after dough in with about 5-7 pounds of grain put my oven on 170 and usually it will maintain a solid temp wherever I put it in at throughout the mash time.

I've done this to hold at 145, 152, 155... At least that's what my thermometer reads


Any experts out there with thoughts on this being a bad idea?

Not an expert by any means! But, I bet this works great. Some people comment that there oven does not go low enough to mash temps. IMO as long as the oven is close, say 20 degrees, it will hold the mash stable enough. Some I have heard simply turn off the oven and let the residual heat do the work.

Yep, works great. Did it once, liked the beer better than extract and went all grain.

-OCD

Well it appears to have been succesful with my last 3 partial mash recipes.. and I'd be lying if I didn't say it makes the partial mash a treat to do.. I set it and forget it for an hour and even when my OCD kicks in I've been surprised to see the thermometer holding stable at the temp I put it in at... just wondering if the oven is causing my thermometer to read stable when it's not, etc...


But hey! If it's working for your buddies it must be good enough!

I may try this with my next PM. My old stove couldn't hold anything lower than 225F, the new one can hold 170F (or so it claims). The cooler-based mash tun works okay, but it is getting cold out in the brewery.

What kind of thermometer are you using? Mine has a 6" probe and is mounted in the side of the pot. I'm certain, in that case, the reading is for the grain and not the outside.

wilserbrewer said:

Not an expert by any means! But, I bet this works great. Some people comment that there oven does not go low enough to mash temps. IMO as long as the oven is close, say 20 degrees, it will hold the mash stable enough. Some I have heard simply turn off the oven and let the residual heat do the work.

Click to expand...

Thats exactly the way I do it...works great.

Yeah, I'm sure it works fine. Get it to 170, put the pot in there, then turn the oven off. The ambient should stay in the mid 100's for a while. Maybe turn it back on at the 30 minute mark for 3 minutes to bump it up.

david_42 said:

I may try this with my next PM. My old stove couldn't hold anything lower than 225F, the new one can hold 170F (or so it claims). The cooler-based mash tun works okay, but it is getting cold out in the brewery.

What kind of thermometer are you using? Mine has a 6" probe and is mounted in the side of the pot. I'm certain, in that case, the reading is for the grain and not the outside.

Click to expand...

I use an 7-8" instant read thermometer that I just leave clamped on the side of the pot... I'm not sure the potential damage that can be done by "baking" those kinds of thermometers, if any... I would imagine they were designed for being in hot situations :cross:

Been using the oven for the mash tun "insulation" for years. Works like a charm.

Hit your strike temp, heat over to ~170* F then kill the heat and insert pot.