Wanting to go all grain

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PedalPirate

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So, I've got a couple of extract batches under my belt that'll be ready to keg when I get home in a week and I'm wanting to jump into all grain. I've made a top-cut sanke keggle, so I can do big boils. I just need to put the spigot on and eventually a thermometer. I'm thinking about building the Rubbermaid MLT illustrated in this thread https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=23008

Also thinking about downloading Beersmith (on sale through the 30th).

Any other considerations I should make or anything I might be forgetting?
 
Good call on Beersmith. Tell it everything you can about your equipment and it will be a very useful tool.

Go for it and learn as you brew. So much to explore.

It's a blast.
 
Even though you're wanting to go with the rubbermaid mash tun, I would personally just go ahead and BIAB. It really does make life easier. Then you can crush it basically into flour.

Why take the time to install the thermometer onto the keggle? You'll know if it's boiling, and when you're chilling it, you can just use a normal thermometer. I would think some kind of volume tube would be more worth the effort.

When I was able to afford the equipment, I was 100% glad I jumped into all-grain. I had wanted to pretty much from the beginning anyways, just didn't have the money for the equipment. I can't really picture myself ever using extracts again.
 
I'd been on the fence about the thermometer. But a sight tube would be more immediately beneficial. Where might I find a quality, inexpensive diy?

As far as BIAB, I've gotten this recommendation before. How do you maintain constant mash temps? All my brewing is done on the back deck outside and I'll see <0° temps a lot in the winter here in Alaska. View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1448494007.000858.jpg
 
OOOHHHH, sorry, I didn't relate the two threads. Now I see you're Mr. Brave Alaskan Brewer!

How are you maintaining the temps in the igloo mash tun? I simply meant to use that, but use a bag instead of the diy workup. But if you're <0 (I'm assuming you meant F?), then I don't really know how you'll maintain mash temps even in the igloo! That's just floccing cold!

Sorry, I don't have any diy sight glass bookmarked, but I'm sure google will serve you just as well.
 
On the sight glass for volume readings. You can buy the sight glass as a wells setup from a number of great vendors but will need to drill the holes yourself.

There are some tremendous how to videos from @Bobby_M a vendor sponsor of the site and solid bloke it would seem.

Other options are a calibrated dowel or metal ruler to measure volume in the vessel(s)

With a single vessel approach the boil kettle/mash tun can be insulated to better maintain stable mash-temps in a variety of ways.

Ski-jacket (I'm sure you got something comparable)
End of Mash.jpg

Reflectix.

DSC02261.jpg

However, I have never brewed outside the confines of my ~75°F kitchen

Alaskan climes IMO will require the higher R values that only a dedicated insulated mash-tun can provide. I would go with the tried and true cooler mash-tun in your situation.

Cooler Mash-tun and a boil kettle +/- a HLT if a sparge is planned. This will provide greater control of the mash parameters in my view.
 
Thanks for the info fella's. My thought was to heat my preheat water ~180° in the keggle and transfer to the cooler/MLT. Then heat the strike water in the keggle. Drain the preheat water into a bucket and save to reheat for batch sparging. Fill MLT with strike water and carry into the house. Wait for it to get down to strike temp then mash in indoors.

Finally typing it all here definitely shows me how much easier BIAB would be, but until I can boil indoors I don't see how I'd be able to maintain temps. I have thought about similar insulation ideas, but unsure of their effectiveness in these temps. I'll have to check into some local homebrewers on fb and see if they have any ideas.

Oh, and I've notched my boiling spoon up to 10 gallons until I can build a proper sight glass.

Outside of all that is there anything aside from basic brewing equipment I'm missing or should consider?
 
Seems like you're on the right track. It will obviously be easier to maintain temps indoors. If it were me (a 32-year old who has a back that feels 50-years old), I would invest in some kind of help to get that mash tun indoors. Then again, if I decided to live and brew in Alaska, I would find some way to do the entire thing indoors. I would imagine that an induction stove that could handle the full volume I would want to brew with would be well worth the investment at that point.
 
I would suggest finding a method to brew indoors. I have done "mild" outdoor winter brewing, and considering your extreme weather , wouldn't go the outside route.

E kettle or stovetop w heat stick perhaps.

0 degree F outdoor brewing sounds difficult to me....
 
I know a lot of guys like to go either all-in, or pure biab.. but for my money as a real brew hack, it's hard to beat what the cooler does for keeping a stable temp. Just a total 'set it and forget it' proposition. Pure it out, hose it out.. boil away. I don't even have a ball valve fitting.. use a bag and just pour it out.
 
Right on. My buddy is giving me the cooler, so just a matter of picking up the conversion parts.
 
Just FYI, I built that exact cooler and ran into a couple of issues... the diameter of the spigot hole on the cooler was larger than the brass pipe nipple and this created the possibility of leaking. I fixed it but you might want to check the size of the spigot hole before ordering that part (it should be real snug). Second, get lots of those 5/8&#8221; stainless steel fender washers... you may find that you need lots of them to get the required fit. I needed 7 or 8.
 
Will do. Luckily there's a Fastenal near the house. Thanks for the heads up. Is there any benefit to using longer than 12" of stainless mesh sleeve? And should I run something more rigid through it?
 
eh, mesh sleeves and fittings.. it's getting complicated.

edit.. ok, here's what I do. bag it, number one. After mashing, hang the bag in a heavy duty colander wedged over the cooler. Heat the makeup water in the kettle while it drips away. After the dripping slows, put the bag/grains in the kettle when the water gets up to 150 deg. After a few minutes and some stirring, hang the bag/grains in the colander over the kettle now, and continue to fire the wort up to boil. When the bag cools off some and stops dripping, put some rubber gloves on and squeeze it good. Set aside in the colander. Transfer the wort from the cooler to the kettle. Put the lid on the kettle and now go dump the grains and hose off the cooler, bag and colander. Hang em' up til next time. Start weighing hops and setting timers, pour another beer, etc, etc. Enjoy.. I get 76-78% doing this no matter how long I let the bag dunk or how hard I squeeze. And as belly buster says.. use a siphon it you can't elegantly pour out 20-30 pounds of wort. (hint, put the kettle on the floor). Pretty simple. eh?
 
i've brewed sub zero temps, a cooler works well and only loses a couple degrees if you preheat. There are challenges but all are easily overcome with the same thinking that keeps you warm all winter. No need to add valves, they just suck heat away. Syphon works wonders.
I would think BIAB is the ultimate cold weather brewing method
 
Why take the time to install the thermometer onto the keggle? You'll know if it's boiling, and when you're chilling it, you can just use a normal thermometer. I would think some kind of volume tube would be more worth the effort.

+ 1 if you're not going to mash in your kettle you probably don't need to put a thermometer in. Plus if your gonna use a chiller it can get in the way.

I just went to all grain this spring. I don't use Beersmith. But take good notes on the ratios of water you use to mash and Sparger with. It took me a couple of brews to figure out my efficiency.
 
After reading this a few times and brainstorming I'm getting more and more curious about this BIAB option and using my existing cooler. Let me see if I get this straight.

1. HAHB* (should go without saying, but want to make sure I get it all)

2. Preheat cooler

3. Drain preheat water and pour in strike water

4. Once strike water drops to correct strike temp lower in bag of grains and stir grains. Close lid and stir periodically throughout

5. At the end of mash time drain wort into kettle, lift bag and let drain into kettle. Squeeze thoroughly when it's cool enough.

Then how do you go about sparging? Or is it not done in BIAB?

*Repeat as necessary throughout brewing process*
 
After reading this a few times and brainstorming I'm getting more and more curious about this BIAB option and using my existing cooler. Let me see if I get this straight.

1. HAHB* (should go without saying, but want to make sure I get it all)

2. Preheat cooler

3. Drain preheat water and pour in strike water

4. Once strike water drops to correct strike temp lower in bag of grains and stir grains. Close lid and stir periodically throughout

5. At the end of mash time drain wort into kettle, lift bag and let drain into kettle. Squeeze thoroughly when it's cool enough.

Then how do you go about sparging? Or is it not done in BIAB?

*Repeat as necessary throughout brewing process*

That's pretty much the drill (although don't repeat step #1 excessively, as it could affect your results. :drunk:

The two most important stirs are the initial stir at mash in (to make sure you don't have any dough balls), and the final stir before draining (to make sure the sugar is uniformly distributed throughout the wort.)

Gloves like these: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00Y0JZ9KI/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20 allow you to squeeze the hot bag without problems.

Yes, you can sparge with BIAB, although the purists frown on it (but they also frown on using a cooler instead of the BK for mashing.) Don't worry about the purists, it's your hobby. For your system, the easiest way to sparge would be to drain the MLT, pull and squeeze the bag (or do those in opposite order), all wort goes to the BK. Then put the bag of grain back in the cooler, add your sparge water, stir well for several minutes, then repeat the drain and squeeze. If you only want to squeeze once, the squeeze before the sparge is more beneficial for your efficiency. Squeezing improves your efficiency by getting more wort (and therefore sugar) out of the spent grains.

Brew on :mug:
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Thanks![emoji482]

Still learning about this all grain gig? I've seen a few posts regarding raising water temps to mash out. Still not solid on the process or why. What's the purpose of this?
 
That's pretty much the drill (although don't repeat step #1 excessively, as it could affect your results. :drunk:

Yeah, I agree, I don't actually have that as number 1. That one comes as my wort is getting to a boil if I'm brewing in the evening. Lately I've been beginning to heat the mash water at around 11 a.m., so not even until after everything is cleaned up on those days. And by then it's well-deserved in my eyes.
 
After reading this a few times and brainstorming I'm getting more and more curious about this BIAB option and using my existing cooler. Let me see if I get this straight.

1. HAHB* (should go without saying, but want to make sure I get it all)

2. Preheat cooler

3. Drain preheat water and pour in strike water

4. Once strike water drops to correct strike temp lower in bag of grains and stir grains. Close lid and stir periodically throughout

5. At the end of mash time drain wort into kettle, lift bag and let drain into kettle. Squeeze thoroughly when it's cool enough.

Then how do you go about sparging? Or is it not done in BIAB?

*Repeat as necessary throughout brewing process*

If you're going to mash indoors, as indicated earlier in the thread, then I don't understand why you're using the cooler at all - just use the kettle for everything (though moving it in and out of the house full of hot water will be a royal pain).

Also, your grain will be cold so you want your strike water hotter than strike temperature when you add it. Calculators like this can help figure out how much hotter.
 
Thanks![emoji482]

Still learning about this all grain gig? I've seen a few posts regarding raising water temps to mash out. Still not solid on the process or why. What's the purpose of this?

A mash out is only really useful if you are going to fly sparge (which takes a long time to do properly.) The high temperature of the mash out denatures the amylase enzymes, so they quit working to cut the poly-saccharides and (non-limit) dextrins into simpler fermentable sugars. This prevents a wort that produces beer thinner/drier than desired because of continued enzyme action during the run off and sparge time. But, if you are not doing a fly sparge, you can run off the wort quickly and start heating to a boil in the same time that it takes to do a mash out, so the mash out would be redundant (and a waste of time.)

However, if your starch to sugar conversion is incomplete prior to the end of your mash time, then a mash out can temporarily give you some accelerated conversion due to the higher temps, but only until the higher temps finish denaturing the amylase. So brewers who are getting poor conversion efficiency often see an efficiency improvement when they do a mash out. They would be better off crushing finer and/or mashing longer in order to get more compete conversion. You can test the degree of conversion in your mash by measuring the SG of the wort in the mash and comparing it to the values in the table here: http://braukaiser.com/wiki/index.php?title=Understanding_Efficiency#Measuring_conversion_efficiency.

Brew on :mug:
 
Thanks for clearing that up Doug. Makes sense now. So, mashing for a 5 gallon batch in my 10 gallon cooler I should be able to fit all my grain and water at once and not likely need a sparge. Assuming efficient conversion and reaching target sg. But I will if/when I do a larger batch.

And Wilserbrewer, I'd wondered about that. Thanks for confirmation.
 
Thanks for clearing that up Doug. Makes sense now. So, mashing for a 5 gallon batch in my 10 gallon cooler I should be able to fit all my grain and water at once and not likely need a sparge. Assuming efficient conversion and reaching target sg. But I will if/when I do a larger batch.

And Wilserbrewer, I'd wondered about that. Thanks for confirmation.

Most 5 gal batches can fit in a 10 gal MLT with enough water for no-sparge mashing. Below is a chart that shows how mash volume changes with grain bill size. The chart assumes 0.08 gal/lb apparent grain absorption. If you don't squeeze the bag (or suspend it and let it drain for a long time), your absorption is more likely to be about 0.12 gal/lb, and the mash volume will be somewhat higher (since you will need to mash with more water to make up for the higher absorption.)

Pot Size .png

Brew on :mug:
 
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