little baby three tier

I don't quite have the expertise or gear to do AG but my little baby three tier has been helping me get the technique down. Still having a problem with keeping the temp high. Strike water at 170 and when that 1.5 gal hit the 4 lb of grain in the mas tun I was at a crappy 140. There is always next time.

That's so cute....

From 170 down to 140? That’s quite a drop for only 4# of grain.

Try preheating your mash tun with hot water for 10 minutes. Also, if your grain is being stored somewhere cold, try bringing up to room temperature the day before.

Next time you miss you temp on the low side, do what I do, simply draw off a ¼ gallon or so and heat it up to near boiling and reintroduce. Then adjust with cold water if necessary.

I use an alternate method of heating my strike water to 180 first, drop it in the MLT and cover it for 5 minutes. Now check the temp. If it's 168-170, I dump the grain in.

I ended up storing my sparge water in a cooler, mashing in a cooler and installing my sparge arm INSIDE my MLT so that when I am sparging there is not an 18" gaping hole where the lid should be, letting out the heat.

so that avatar picture is of you, eh? I like those fuggin glasses. where you get em?

BierMuncher said:

Next time you miss you temp on the low side, do what I do, simply draw off a ¼ gallon or so and heat it up to near boiling and reintroduce. Then adjust with cold water if necessary.

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Man, that is a good idea. I knew I wasn't doing the right thing by just simply adding another .5 gallon of 190 H20, eh, that didn't do the trick anyway.

If this happens again, and it is the very beginning of the mash, is it OK to add that ultra hot water and stir up the grain bed again?

In this case I just ran the new water on top of the grain (through a bucket lid with a bunch of holes in it) in a "rain" of hot water.

I think the best part is the seat!
And I'll +1 the preheating of the cooler.

BierMuncher wrote:

Next time you miss you temp on the low side, do what I do, simply draw off a ¼ gallon or so and heat it up to near boiling and reintroduce. Then adjust with cold water if necessary.

Click to expand...

On last Sunday’s brew my mashout only got to 163 degrees with all my near boiling water added. Will this technique of drawing off, heating and reintroducing work for mashout also or would there be problems.

Sorry if this is a hijack.

You can do that to raise to mashout temps. No problem. I'd just recommend hotter sparge water personally.

The trick here is that no matter how hot you get your sparge water, if it is sitting in an un-insulated bucket with no lid, it will cool off pretty fast. Couple that with the fact that you are sprinkling it over the grain bed, which increases the surface area of the water (droplets!) Coolers with lids are about the ONLY way to maintain temp unless you have an expensive direct fired kettle.

I used to lose about 10-15F in during my sparge until I installed the sparge arm inside my MLT so that I could sparge with the lid on. Didnt even matter that my HLT water was at 175F... transferring it to the MLT and spraying it in there with no lid.... just undid all that I tried to do by heating the water.

Kilted Brewer said:

I think the best part is the seat!
....

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Yeah, didn't you hear that old wive's tale about sitting on cold cement will give you piles?

Looks like everyone here has helped your figure it out, but just wanted to add:

at least you gotta beer in your hand!

Evan! said:

so that avatar picture is of you, eh? I like those fuggin glasses. where you get em?

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8 bucks at a gas station in McCall Idaho, quite the find

Of course the other "trick" is to get a pot of boiling water and check to see that your thermometer is actually reading 212. You might need to calibrate your thermometer.

cowgo said:

Of course the other "trick" is to get a pot of boiling water and check to see that your thermometer is actually reading 212. You might need to calibrate your thermometer.

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Wouldn't it be better to calibrate at 32 in ice water because the boiling temp is subject to altitude and barometric pressure whereas freezing point is not affected by outside factors?

Try both methods... most thermometers are dead on at one temp, and vary linearly as the temp rises or falls...

anderj said:

...If this happens again, and it is the very beginning of the mash, is it OK to add that ultra hot water and stir up the grain bed again?

In this case I just ran the new water on top of the grain (through a bucket lid with a bunch of holes in it) in a "rain" of hot water.

Click to expand...

Yes, you can stir up the grain bed again...to distribute the heat evenly.

Since you're essentially batch sparging, I wouldn't worry about "sprinkling" the hot water.

Just dump it...stir it, let it settle. That's also how I mash out.

anderj said:

Wouldn't it be better to calibrate at 32 in ice water because the boiling temp is subject to altitude and barometric pressure whereas freezing point is not affected by outside factors?

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Boise Idaho? Should be safe with the boiling water temp.

You look like you've got the gear for all grain. I did my first 2 weeks ago (doing a pilsner this weekend), and my setup isn't any more complex than that.

It's great that we're all doing the same thing in different ways. Keep up the good work!

That's what its all about: Sitting on cinder blocks, sippin' a brew. That looks about as ghetto-tech as my setup. A+