Advice on using a cooler MLT for a Mini-Mash kit

CornyKegs 728
Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
KerryD

KerryD

Well-Known Member
Joined
Dec 13, 2008
Messages
156
Reaction score
1
Location
Katy TX
I've been reading a lot of the threads but I wanted to be sure.... instead of following the standard AHS instructions for mini-mashing that came with this kit... which are basically steeping the grains in a bag... could I just use the 48QT Mash Tun I've built and do a batch sparge on the grains, boil 45 mins, add extract and boil for 15 more minutes?

My grain bill is 4lbs.. I was thinking 7-8 qts of water at 155 for an hour and then sparge with enough water to get me to roughly 6.5 gallons and then start boiling.

Am I screwing up?
 
The thing I would worry about is not having enough grain to act as a filter. The grain bes itself will filter out a lot of particles. With such a small amout of grain is a big mash tun you might get some grain particles in the wort.
 
I did this with 2 of my minimash batches and I think It came out fine. I would suggest plugging these numbers into something like Beersmith and get the exact numbers for your mash/sparge.

Good luck!
-Me
 
KerryD said:
I've been reading a lot of the threads but I wanted to be sure.... instead of following the standard AHS instructions for mini-mashing that came with this kit... which are basically steeping the grains in a bag... could I just use the 48QT Mash Tun I've built and do a batch sparge on the grains, boil 45 mins, add extract and boil for 15 more minutes?

My grain bill is 4lbs.. I was thinking 7-8 qts of water at 155 for an hour and then sparge with enough water to get me to roughly 6.5 gallons and then start boiling.

Am I screwing up?
Click to expand...

You can certainly use a mash tun, but keep in mind that the AHS kits contain only about 3 lbs of grain, give or take. By adding all of the extract late and doing a full boil you'll end up with a very dilute wort, resulting in much higher hops optimization than the recipe was formulated for, which may unbalance your beer. So you'll want to do some calculations and reduce the bittering addition by an appropriate amount.
 
OK, I think I'll still do the mash tun but add the extract from the start.

Thanks!
 

Similar threads

A
RO Water - starting with lower pH
Replies
29
Views
1K
jerrylotto
jerrylotto
T
Mash Volume Higher than Boil Volume eHERMS
Replies
5
Views
532
Town9
T
micraftbeer
Water Calcs for Blichmann BrewEasy (2V RIMS w/ Full Volume... Seperated)
Replies
1
Views
569
Bobby_M
Bobby_M
B
Very High Post Boil pH
2
Replies
48
Views
2K
Bassman2003
B
TeflonTom
How to Balance a Water Profile between HLT and Mash Tun?
Replies
4
Views
891
hottpeper13
H

Latest posts

Back
Top