Stirring the mash ?

I am finding my mash efficiency is not what it should be. I have a nicely insulated mash tun, and spend a lot of effort maintaining a perfectly constant temperature through the mash (I mash-in my ale at about 69deg C and get less than 1 degree temperature drop over the 90 minute mash). I have read about people stirring their mash. I leave mine totally alone after the initial stir to wet the grain. What are the feelings about stirring (ie opening tun and losing temperature profile, but perhaps getting better efficiency) ? Are there any considerations around a stuck mash which might happen from interfering with the mash?

It's very important to stir very well at dough in, more than a lot of beginning brewers realize, but stirring won't help any during the rest. It often leads to temperature losses, so IMO it's best to leave it alone. If you batch sparge, it's also very important to stir well after each sparge water addition.

Interesting response. I stir every 20 minutes because I don't lose much temperature and I figure it can't hurt. However, I would be very interested to hear everyone else's opinion to see if I am wasting my time!

Yes sir, you must stir.....The pros do...Do what they do.

I am going to do a batch this Saturday. I will probably start off at a slightly higher temperature at dough-in (say 70C or 158F) and then I will try to stir every 20 mins, hopefully not losing more than about 8F temperature through the mash. I will then try a batch sparge and will stir after sparge water addition here too. Quite a big process change for me - will be interested to see how it turns out.

Murray,

My efficiency went up quite a bit when I started stirring like crazy when I doughed in.

I initially did what you did- just stirred at the start to break up grain balls- but now stir for about 10 minutes to get the grain down to my mash temp. I then check temp every 20-30 minutes.

Before draining my first runnings, I add some strike water and stir for a few minutes before draining.

I batch sparge, so I also stir for a few minutes after adding sparge water to my tun. Let it set, stir again, let it set and drain for final volume.

This method helped me go from 65% to 75% efficiency.


Steve

Thanks Steve

i stir every 10 minutes or so througout the mash....then I give at least 20 minutes to settle and establish grain bed before lautering. I also stir like crazy mashing in. I do a batch sparge and stir like crazy, rest for 10, stir like crazy then wait 10 minutes and collect second runnings.

I think stirring has helped me increase my efficiency as well...

I stir well at dough in and at each new sparge water addition. Sparges then rest for ~10 minutes to settle the grain bed again to drain. I never stir mid mash, I don't see the benefit. Stirring during sparging makes sense as you want to rinse all surfaces. I hit 80% extraction every time. My thought is, Stirring causes temp loss and disturbs the grain bed, your filter. My guess is that your initial stir is leaving dough balls.