Partial Mash techniques

I am planning on brewing my first partial mash recipe tomorrow and was wondering if anyone has some good techniques for controlling the mash temperature? The recipe calls for a mash temperature for 148 degrees for 60 minutes. I have heard of wrapping your brew pot in a sleeping bag or other warm blanket. I have also heard about putting the brew pot in the over on warm, but when I tested this and put my thermometer in the oven it read much higher than 148. The temperature I had was around 180 degrees. This may not be an accurate measure of what the mash temperature will be, but with such a low mash temperature, I thought I would ask what others think. What about just keeping the brew pot on the stove top and monitor the temperature? Do I run the risk of scorching the sugars? Thanks again for any suggestions.

I use the stove top monitor method, you do have to watch it pretty closly.You dont want to get it above 160 till the end and not above 170 also.Using a few good insulating blankets like fleece and sleeping bag would be easier and you could do other things to set it and forget it. Thats why people end up turning their coolers into mashtuns also.A small cooler and a brew bag and adjusting hot water to get the right temp would seem pretty easy.

I loose very little heat in my stainless 5 gallon pot. I just heat the water to about 160 remove it from the heat and dump the grain in the bag. Stir for a few minutes , cover and let it sit. To hold the temp I check it every 15 minutes or so and add in a small amount of hot water when needed.

mfraier said:

I loose very little heat in my stainless 5 gallon pot. I just heat the water to about 160 remove it from the heat and dump the grain in the bag. Stir for a few minutes , cover and let it sit. To hold the temp I check it every 15 minutes or so and add in a small amount of hot water when needed.

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I have thin stainless steel pots and they will lose heat in a manner of minutes even on low,I constantly have to turn up down heat or pull it off, Im also doing 2 gallon steep or partial mash so the voulume in the pot is pretty low.Im shure its different for a pricey thick heavy pot.

I tried a partial mash and had trouble keeping the temperature. I have a thin stainless pot and kept having to turn the burner back on. It was less than ideal but the beer turned out great. I will probably stick to partial extracts until I get a cooler to turn into a mash tun

I just heat up the oven to ~150, turn off the heat, put the mash pot with lid in the oven, close the oven door and wait. I get very little heat loss that way.

The oven would work well as long as the temp is accurate. Make sure you check the temp before you deccide to do this.......oven temps are often far off from what you set the temp to.