How to raise the mash temp when using a cooler as a mash tun

I want to make a wheat beer, which calls for mashing at a certain temperature for a certain amount of time and then a higher temperature for a certain amount of time. How do you raise the temp of the mash when using a cooler as a mash tun, short of mashing at the first temp, dumping the wort into a pot, cooking it up to the next temp and then dumping it back in the mash tun.

Add more, hotter, water.

You'll need to start the mash really thick, like 1qt/lb or less, and then when you need to raise it to your second rest temperature, add boiling water to get it there. There are calculators all over the place that will help you figure out the amounts of water you'll need to hit your steps.

Either add hot water, as described above, or perform a decoction.

i plan to make a heat stick like in the current issue of BYO for my cooler.

I go with decoction just because the calculation is more intuitive than infusion of boiling water. Remove a third of the mash, bring to boil, return, temp goes a third of the way to boiling. 125 becomes 154.

Use the "rest calculator" on this site:
http://www.rackers.org/calcs.shtml

brewingkitty said:

i plan to make a heat stick like in the current issue of BYO for my cooler.

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Don't you think it would take just one touch of the element to the plastic to destroy the mashtun or at least impart a plastic taste to the beer?

Not that I am pursuing this but you may want to use a herms coil inside the mashtun to raise the temperature using a normal mash thickness, if you don't want to use hot water. Some heat and some stirring should do the job.

Here's a great podcast a piece on step mashing in a cooler from the Aussie Homebrewer podcast. It's in the last third of the podcast. He goes step by step into how to do it in a cooler.

http://radio.craftbrewer.org/shows/December1-07.mp3

JVD_X said:

Don't you think it would take just one touch of the element to the plastic to destroy the mashtun or at least impart a plastic taste to the beer?

Not that I am pursuing this but you may want to use a herms coil inside the mashtun to raise the temperature using a normal mash thickness, if you don't want to use hot water. Some heat and some stirring should do the job.

Click to expand...

The only time I have ever had a problem with heatsticks was trying to raise the temp of a mash in a cooler.

Grain will stick to the heatstick, unless you are VERY careful.

I have raised temps of the mash with a heatstick, as said above you need to use care. Preferably a thin mash and KEEP the stick moving in the upper part of the thin mash which is mostly sparge water. Stopping the stirring, or plunging the stick into a thick mash may cause trouble. It can be done, but be warned, problems will occur if you are not "VERY careful".

not tryin to jack this thread,
but I think it goes along with what the question ....If you were to do a decoction ....would you have to vourlauf to remove grain from the wort...so when you bring that wort to a boil you dot have any tannin extaction? or is it such a small amount that its negligable?

iparks, you simple dip in a container and collect both wort and the grains. Tannin extraction is not an issue because you are not rinsing the grains.

I dont think you're suppose to raise the temps to a boil while performing a decoction. The web has calcs on there and what not, but the goal is to raise it from like 110 to 140 to 155, or whatever your final mash will be at. I dont think you need to boil anything to achieve that type of temp raise.

The example given before gave a huge jump, I dont thin decoction temps move that rapidly. I've never done it, only really thought about it while reading brewing with wheat (awesome book!)

Here's the mash procedure I'll be using for my next beer, a German Pilsner:

http://byo.com/component/resource/article/1845-german-pilsner

You certainly can do it just by adding the right amount of hot water at the right temperature, but any calculator that doesn't take into account the initial temperature of the mash, the thermal mass of the MLT and the thermal mass of the initial infusion will not work correctly.
I wish I could recommend one that works, but I have never found the need, so I have never tested any of the calculators under the required conditions.

-a.

iparks81 said:

not tryin to jack this thread,
but I think it goes along with what the question ....If you were to do a decoction ....would you have to vourlauf to remove grain from the wort...so when you bring that wort to a boil you dot have any tannin extaction? or is it such a small amount that its negligable?

Click to expand...

Whenever you see instructions for decoction mashing, they always say to remove the "thickest third" of the mash (meaning mostly grain) because the thicker it is, the less susceptible it is to tannin extraction.

Attach a stainless steel tube to a steam cleaner. Block the end of the tube and drill lots of 1mm holes in it. Set it steaming and stir the mash with it. Monitor temperature carefully. also works well maintaining 155 deg, a quick steam burst every 10 minutes is fine.

doctorRobert said:

I dont think you're suppose to raise the temps to a boil while performing a decoction.

Click to expand...

Not to jack, but i'm pretty sure that you DO boil during decoction.

doctorRobert said:

I dont think you're suppose to raise the temps to a boil while performing a decoction.

Click to expand...

Sorry doc, but boiling the wort is part of the decoction process.

In this case however, since the only purpose is to raise mash temps, boiling would be optional.

I'm glad there are others as confused as I am about decoctions!

I saw there were a few howto videos posted by someone on here, but he skipped the step where he pulled part of his mash. This is the part I never understand when it's explained!

So you guys are saying you pull the thickest (bottom?) 1/3 of the mash? Do you just use a ladle and give it your best effort, or is there more to it?

check this out, gig

http://braukaiser.com/wiki/index.php/Decoction_Mashing

EBloom97 said:

Whenever you see instructions for decoction mashing, they always say to remove the "thickest third" of the mash (meaning mostly grain) because the thicker it is, the less susceptible it is to tannin extraction.

Click to expand...

Yes and no...

The thickest part of the mash is typically removed to do the boils to raise the temperature from acid rest to protein rest, and from protein rest to saccharification rest, but the final decoction, for mash-out, should be thin.

The reason that the thicker part is removed is because the boiling will denature the enzymes needed for the rests, and these enzymes reside in the liquid, not in the grains.

The reason that there is little to no tannin extraction is due mostly to the pH of the mash, from what I understand. It has little to do with the boiling.

jpc said:

Yes and no...

The thickest part of the mash is typically removed to do the boils to raise the temperature from acid rest to protein rest, and from protein rest to saccharification rest, but the final decoction, for mash-out, should be thin.

The reason that the thicker part is removed is because the boiling will denature the enzymes needed for the rests, and these enzymes reside in the liquid, not in the grains.

The reason that there is little to no tannin extraction is due mostly to the pH of the mash, from what I understand. It has little to do with the boiling.

Click to expand...

I was thinking that the more grain you drag with you, the more potential sugar you'll have in the decoction, which, once unlocked, will keep the pH safely below tannin extraction range. That wouldn't matter after the main mash has gone through the saccharification rest because the pH has gone as low as it's going to get, hence the mash out can be thin as you like. I could be wrong though, in which case I regret spreading this misinformation.

Decoctions are less complex than they seem. I mash in a cooler/esky type tun and have done a few decoctions which form part of a step mash. I've also used water calculations (volume and temperature) and immersion heaters (what I guess you guys are calling a heat stick) and someetimes all three if doing multi rest.

I have never heard of a decoction being carried out that doesn't boil - the point is partly to extract flavours from melanoidins. It's also advisable to bring a decoction to sacch temp and hold it there for conversion if you pull it before it's hit that range.

'Pull a thick mash' to me just means get mainly grains but some liquid - hence 'thick'. My mash is not really thicker on one side of the tun than it is on another.

if using an immersion heater - move constantly and keep away from plastic walls (easy enough). You can also combine - add some extra hot water and use immersion heater or decoction.