How often do you stir

So I have a question for my fellow AG cooler MLT brewers:

How often do you stir your mash, and possibly your batch sparge? I have been afraid to lose to much heat with opening the lid repeatedly so I usually stir the dough in, then once my temp seems on I close the lid and leave it alone for a full hour. I think I stir before my vorlauf, and I know I stir my sparge water in but then again I leave it alone for 10 min before another vorlauf.

What do you do? I'm suspecting that more stirring might push my effieciecy up a bit from the high 60's to a mid 70 range.

There is no need to stir after initial dough in. I dough in, stir for consistent temps, then let rest. After an hour I start my vorlauf. If you stir before vorlauf, you disrupt the grain bed and you filter.

Most don't stir the mash after dough-in. Some do. Some have even created/built mechanisms to constantly stir the mash.

I don't stir mine at all after dough-in.

I stir while pouring the grain and after to make sure there are no dough balls, then close it up. For batch sparging I just pour the water in, give it a good mix, and drain.

I have a direct fire mash tun, so I stir as much as I want and add heat if I need it. Realistically, I only stir two or three more times after dough in. I'm not 100% sure but I think I've gotten a couple extra points of efficiency but it's hard to tell if there are other factors.

Makes sense to me that it would add efficiency - it's like you're moving the liquid in and out of the grain pieces, and shifting sugars around to make them more available. But that could just be fool's logic.

I stir when I dough in and that's it, unless I am doing a decoction mash which requires stirring each time the decoction is added back in.

I did my first all grain batch this weekend; the mash tun is a 10 gallon Rubbermaid water cooler. Instead of a manifold, I mashed in a voile bag. With 4.6 gallons and 13 pounds of grain, the mash was on the thicker side.

After the initial dough-in with a slotted spood, I hit the mash with a drill powered paint mixer (metal shaft, plastic fins) to move the volume through the mixer.

With a 60 minute mash, I hit it once again at 30 minutes; so two times per mash. I lost 1 degree over the mash duration and I attribute that to not having the lid threaded on as tight as it should have been (bag material overlapping).

After sparging, the mash gravity was 1.060; post-60 minute boil was 1.070 with a 5.25 gallon batch.

Being an all grain newbie, maybe it is not necessary to mix like this but I feel it helped.

For less than $6, this mixer does a fantastic job - zero dough balls and a well mixed mash. Of course, having the grains in a bag instead of loose in the tun makes a difference as well.

I'm with the majority on this one - I stir while mashing in and once temp is achieved let it sit for at least an hour. I use a 5 gallon round igloo as my MLT and due to space constraints I do three batch sparges (main mash and two additions of 2-3 gallons each)allowing about a 10 minute rest for the grain bed to set up before draining after each sparge water addition.

I've been checking the mash @ the halfway point and stirring it... maybe I shouldn't...

No reason not to, really. Might help to even out the temperature of the mash if you have areas of differential heat loss in your tun. As long as you're not losing alot of heat by doing it, and you shouldn't, it won't hurt. Some do, some don't, and the consequences one way or another aren't significant.

I always give my mash a stir at about the halfway point. My mash efficiency on Sunday was 87%. I'm using a Rubbermaid 10 gallon cooler and batch sparging, I may lose 1 degree with a stir, not anything to worry about.

I have done it both ways but now I stir halfway through the mash my cooler has diff temp ranges in it so I stir it up to get it all mixed up again my eff has gotten better

Halfway through for a 60 minute mash and at 30 and 60 minutes for a 90minute mash. I do a quick stir on the 90 minute and a temp check, and a longer stir on the 60 minutes but still less than a minute.

I only stir at dough in. After that, I just recirculate.

The only exception to that is if I get a stuck sparge.

I stir as well - it looks like the majority might be stir people.

When first working out my equipment, I would stir every 15 minutes and check and direct fire as needed. once I hashed that out, I reduced it to 2 stirs during the mash.

It only makes sense that the stir evens the heat out, facilitates starch conversion. I know that my results for efficiency have always been at least 6 points higher than projected and the recipes I have done were calculated for 75%. I am still hashing out the finer parts of my system though, so I assume it will only get better.

I run a no sparge RIMs setup. I stir well at dough in then recirc for 25-30 minutes. Then I stop the pump, give it a stir and check to make sure things are good. Start the recirc up again. I've been getting 80 +/-5% depending on grain bill.

I'm a set it and forget it style. Stir for dough balls, walk away and do something else for an hour, drain, repeat for sparge (batch)- but only walk away for 15 minutes. My efficiency seems to be ~76%- not really sure, have to double check the math. Beer tastes great though! Kyle

Conan said:

I'm a set it and forget it style. Stir for dough balls, walk away and do something else for an hour, drain, repeat for sparge (batch)- but only walk away for 15 minutes. My efficiency seems to be ~76%- not really sure, have to double check the math. Beer tastes great though! Kyle

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During a 60 minute mash, I stir at 40 minutes and 20 minutes

I'm a new AGer after extract for 10 months. My first batch I stirred every 15 minutes and efficiency was in upper 70s. Subsequent brews I haven't stirred at all and my efficiencies have been between 66-71. After reading much about increasing efficiency, many posts recommend stiring. I'm going back to stiring.

I also haven't been stirring my 10 gallon cooler after dough-in, however, especially in the recent cold weather, I've been noticing a drastic (~10 degree F) difference between top and bottom of the grain bed when I mash out... Definitely thinking about stirring to even it out a bit.

I fly sparge.
I stir really well at dough in and then leave it for 60 - 90 minutes (depending on the brew) with no further stirring.
Then I mash out with another good stir, wait for it to settle for 10 minutes, vorlauf, and sparge.
The mash out with a stir increased my efficiency by 10%
I know that stirring during the mash reduces the mash temperature and I believe the mash temperature should be kept >= 148F. As I start most of my sparges at 149 - 150F, I don't want to stir the mash and reduce the temperature below this value.
If I were batch sparging, my gut feeling is that a stir and short rest before vorlaufing and draining the first runnings would increase your efficiency. After adding the sparge water for a batch sparge, you also need to stir and rest for a short while before vorlaufing and draining.

-a.

ajf said:

I fly sparge.
I stir really well at dough in and then leave it for 60 - 90 minutes (depending on the brew) with no further stirring.

-a.

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Pretty much how I do it. I stir at dough in. Stir some more. And again. Then check the temperature in several places. If they are different, stir some more. Once the temperature is equalized thoughout, I cover it and walk away.

I've been going back and forth between fly sparging and batch sparging (pH issues in the sparge) but don't have any issues with either.

Since I mashed in a bag, I lightly hand stirred the sparge water and grains in the tun as I wasn't worried about disturbing the grain bed. Nothing too agressive, just enough to get the grains loosed up and moving freely.

I completed my first all grain last Friday. I used a 48qt Igloo cooler. Stirred at dough in, that was it. Finished my double batch sparge with 91% efficiency.

It seems the mash enzymes need no encouragement to find starches to convert. Opening the cooler only lets heat out. Leave it be.

Gently pouring sparge water of an sheet of foil with holes in it works like a treat.

I stir at dough in then leave it until mash out/sparge. After I drain my first runnings I'll add the water to get the grain bed to 165-170, stir and let it sit for 10 mins before draining. I'll do that one more time with 170 degree water. Doing this I average 80-85% efficiency.

I direct fire my mash and stir at dough in and pretty much constantly during ramps, but not during rests when it's in the oven.