If you happen to have a Japanese/Korean type Rice cooker

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BarleyAndApple

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You are in fora luck. They are GREAT for making wort. albeit small amount.


Basically keep the malt and water inside the rice cooker and press 'keep warm' button and leave it for 3 to 6 hours depending on the machine. Obviously keep stirring every 5 minutes.

Then tada, mashing process is finished.

Obviously you can't do big batches, but this is perfect for making small/experimental batches.
 
What is the temp that it uses for "keep warm"? That would be a very important factor.

Mine just has one button on it, and automatically switches to "keep warm" once it's done. I suppose there's a chance that it will go to "warm" mode if I push the button two or three times; I've always just cooked rice in it, or steamed the occasional xiao long bao.
 
I don't think it goes above something like 82 Celcius degrees, depends on the machine I guess. I use Zojirushi.

Remember, to be heated up to that point using 'warm' function on rice cooker, it takes LLLOOONNGGG time, which makes it ideal for

yes, 3-6 hours is long, but it works like decoction in some ways, but the good thing is that the temperature is consistent throughout the mash.
 
I use the rice cooker for the decoction/mashing only. I still boil in a kettle though.
 
Mashing at 82*C or 180*F for 6 hours? I would think the enzymes that convert the starches into sugar would be obliterated. You wouldn't have any sugars to ferment.
 
No, That's not what I mean, but to my knowledge I believe that's the temperature it'll eventually reach if you leave it long enough. It takes 2 hours to reach 50 Celcius with 1.5lbs of Malt. (lot of people preheat the water before to save time) But in Korea normally it's around 70-73 Celcius degrees. But I always finish mine with 'Cook' function to Reach 80 and above.
 
And do you then boil, or by 'finish' you mean you transfer to the fermentor? You want to be careful keeping the grains at a high temp like 80C for too long, it's good for sparging, but you'll start to extract tannins if left too long that way.

Walk us through the step-by-step process you use with the rice cooker, I'm not sure we're all understanding it right.
 
I am way too exact in maintaining my mash temps down to the degree to use this but this method might prove more useful for extract brewers who want a carefree method to steep some specialty grains. No worries with specialty grains over temperature shifts in the water, as long as it doesn't go too high.

I would preheat the water also, either by putting just water in the cooker and pressing cook until it reaches temp and then pushing the button again to kick it into warm mode, or by heating up the water in a kettle, and then dropping in the grains.
 
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