chainsawbrewing
Well-Known Member
i started a new thread because i thought these questions warranted a new thread, and could probably help others in my situation.
so is it possible then to do an actual "all grain" brewing session, using only grain but following the "mini mash" method as described in this article here http://***********/feature/1536.html where you basically just heat some water, put it into the cooler, add the grains, close the lid, let it sit for an hour or so, open the lid, drain some of the wort out, pour it back on top of the grains a couple times untill it runs "clear" , then drain it all out into my brew kettle, then do what i believe is reffered to as "batch sparging" where you just pour a bunch of hot water into the cooler on top of the grains, close the lid, let it sit for about 10-15 more minutes, which is the "sparging" then drain that into the brew kettle untill i get around 6 or so gallons of "wort" then just boil, add hops, and thats it?
i think i can handle that, i just don't want to have to buy a hot liquor tank, a fly sparge thing, i already have a bigger brew kettle, and a turkey fryer, so i'm thinking if i can do all grain brewing, and full boils without a hot liquor tank, and fly sparge and stuff, all i will need to get is a 5gallon cooler and do the ball valve/stainless steel tube set up on the inside of the cooler. the only other question is the part of an all grain brewing session that does the thing where it "shuts off" the conversion of starches to sugars, and prevents tannins from being made. in the BYO article i linked to at the top of the page it says to boil 1/2 a gallon of water in your brew kettle, then after sparging, drain the wort into the brew kettle with the boiling water, and that will "shut off" or "stop" the conversion i think they call it "mash out".
i also understand the concern of a 5gallon mash tun for all grain brewing, as in running out of room for higher gravity beers, etc. that really doesn't concern me because A. i don't like those beers, and B. if i do like them, i'll just add a bit of extract to make up the gravity.
also, i wouldn't use a grain bag like he does in the BYO article, i would actually make the ball valve spigot, with the SS braided hose on the inside of the cooler, and put all the grain directly into the cooler.
i THINK at worst case scenario, i will be able to at least do BIG partial mashes with this kind of a set up, and procedure, such as maybe only have to add a pound or two of extract to the boil to "fill out" my fermentable sugars needed. and i'm fine with that, if that's all i can do, i'm just wanting to get to where i'm able to use less and less EXPENSIVE malt extract, and use more and more CHEAP grains, but i don't have the money, patience, or room for a "complicated" fly sparging, hot liquor tank, big bad setup.
lastly, part of what got me to this point, was me driving to about 6 different stores trying to find a 3 gallong cooler (because i wanted to be able to mash at least 5-7 lbs of grain and i thought a 2 gallon cooler would be too small for that) and all i could find was about a million 2 gallon, and 5 gallon coolers.
sorry for the long post, and thanks in advance for the help!
brian
so is it possible then to do an actual "all grain" brewing session, using only grain but following the "mini mash" method as described in this article here http://***********/feature/1536.html where you basically just heat some water, put it into the cooler, add the grains, close the lid, let it sit for an hour or so, open the lid, drain some of the wort out, pour it back on top of the grains a couple times untill it runs "clear" , then drain it all out into my brew kettle, then do what i believe is reffered to as "batch sparging" where you just pour a bunch of hot water into the cooler on top of the grains, close the lid, let it sit for about 10-15 more minutes, which is the "sparging" then drain that into the brew kettle untill i get around 6 or so gallons of "wort" then just boil, add hops, and thats it?
i think i can handle that, i just don't want to have to buy a hot liquor tank, a fly sparge thing, i already have a bigger brew kettle, and a turkey fryer, so i'm thinking if i can do all grain brewing, and full boils without a hot liquor tank, and fly sparge and stuff, all i will need to get is a 5gallon cooler and do the ball valve/stainless steel tube set up on the inside of the cooler. the only other question is the part of an all grain brewing session that does the thing where it "shuts off" the conversion of starches to sugars, and prevents tannins from being made. in the BYO article i linked to at the top of the page it says to boil 1/2 a gallon of water in your brew kettle, then after sparging, drain the wort into the brew kettle with the boiling water, and that will "shut off" or "stop" the conversion i think they call it "mash out".
i also understand the concern of a 5gallon mash tun for all grain brewing, as in running out of room for higher gravity beers, etc. that really doesn't concern me because A. i don't like those beers, and B. if i do like them, i'll just add a bit of extract to make up the gravity.
also, i wouldn't use a grain bag like he does in the BYO article, i would actually make the ball valve spigot, with the SS braided hose on the inside of the cooler, and put all the grain directly into the cooler.
i THINK at worst case scenario, i will be able to at least do BIG partial mashes with this kind of a set up, and procedure, such as maybe only have to add a pound or two of extract to the boil to "fill out" my fermentable sugars needed. and i'm fine with that, if that's all i can do, i'm just wanting to get to where i'm able to use less and less EXPENSIVE malt extract, and use more and more CHEAP grains, but i don't have the money, patience, or room for a "complicated" fly sparging, hot liquor tank, big bad setup.
lastly, part of what got me to this point, was me driving to about 6 different stores trying to find a 3 gallong cooler (because i wanted to be able to mash at least 5-7 lbs of grain and i thought a 2 gallon cooler would be too small for that) and all i could find was about a million 2 gallon, and 5 gallon coolers.
sorry for the long post, and thanks in advance for the help!
brian