Am I improperly aerating?

Quick question for my (potentially) paranoid mind. I read somewhere that you should never aerate hot wort. My mashing process consists of heating my mash in my brewpot till i hit my desired temp, transferring (dumping) it into an igloo cooler in order to hold the temp, transferring (again, dumping) it back into the pot to heat it to mash out, and then transferring it back to the igloo cooler for sparging (there is a filter and valve on the cooler). My question is am I aerating hot wort by doing this and if so is it going to do anything to the quality of my beer?

Thanks.

Sounds like a complex way to get the job done. I'd read http://hbd.org/cascade/dennybrew/ and try and simplify the process.

I am ignoring answering your question on purpose.

The topic of hot side aeration is hotly debated with no real consensus on the subject. If you're happy with you beer then you shouldn't worry about it.

Why do you think he is purposefully not answering my question?

possibly avoiding your question to avoid the debate about hotside aeration.

By the way, unless you already have your system dialed, check out Kaiser's decoction video as a possible technique. From what you described, I'd guess that an infusion to start with and subsequent decoctions to hit desired temps would be what I would reach for.

If your making good beer though, keep on keeping on.

It's being avoided because not many speak up about dumping the mash back and forth. Maybe some do, but it's just so easy to avoid doing so that most don't set up their systems that way. That's why you get the "if it works for you keep doing it" answer.

You could definately make things less physical for yourself on brewday if you kept your mash in your cooler and infused water and grain in there, IMO.

i never dump the mash back and forth. no main reason except it seems like a lot of work. i agree with cuin...

cregan13 said:

Why do you think he is purposefully not answering my question?

Click to expand...

Because you should consider changing your methods to something simpler like Denny shows on his site. And then the point is moot about the Hot Side Aerating.

It's not because I don't like you.

I appreciate all the advice. The problem for me is that my mash tun is only 5 gallons so if i undershoot on an infusion I can easily blow through it's capacity and then wind up dumping it anyway. In the end, I find it to be less of a headache to just pick up the cooler and pour (is that a nicer word than dump?) the contents back into the kettle. I just wanted to make sure that by doing so I wasn't breaking some cardinal rule about aerating hot wort. However, since there seems to be no consensus about that I will follow the advice of many on here and let my taste buds be my guide.

Thanks for all the adivce.

I would try to avoid HSA if you can. As stated before, there is much debate on whether it will affect the long term stability of the finished product, so if you can avoid it,why not?

If I have to move my mash or wort when it's hot, I'll use a 1/2 gallon pitcher to transfer the magority of it gently.

Good luck,

Bull

I just always feel awkward dumping large vessels of hot liquid. 150 is no problem but at 180+, the potential for hazardous splashing of the male frontal anatomy is a real threat. I use a simple siphon and let gravity do the work when transferring from MLT to boil. this eliminates the safety issues and also lets you place the tube all the way down into the wort to eliminate aeration. Is HSA a problem? I have no idea, and I never will. ;-)

I have had to pour/dump hot ass mash from the cooler to the kettle before (due to an awesome brewing mistake of not putting the manifold in) and found it makes things difficult and unwieldy.

I don't understand why you wouldn't want to change/evaluate your brewing practices to avoid the pouring of hot ass gruel multiple times (and thus exposing yourself to many opportunities to burn the f out of yourself) and also avoid any possible flavor issues (assuming they exist).

If you are doing single infusion mashes then you can use calculators to figure out how hot your strike water needs to be to reach your mash temp. To account for thermal mass of the cooler, I usually over shoot that ideal strike water temp by about 10 degrees and add the water to the cooler. Close the lid and let it heat up. Thermal mass issue resolved. Then once the temp is about 2 degrees above strike I start dough in. After all the stirring and crap, mash temp is reached.

If you are wanting to do step mashes, then I say go for a bigger cooler (actually going for a bigger cooler would be better in general). I use a 54 quart marine cooler that was about 25-30 bucks. It lets me do huge 5g beers and even decently strong 10g batches. Also plenty of room to do step mashes with infusions instead of having a direct fired tun.