I don't see it discussed much. But I have started no-sparge mashing with my Anova Sous Vide in a rectangular cooler with great results.
I bought a hole saw and cut a hole in my cooler lid to insert sous vide. I'm still using the steel braid for filtering, but If I were starting from scratch I would have bought a BIAB to fit my cooler.
Fill (or temporarily overfill to ensure sous vide gets submerged) with full volume (no sparge). Add water adjustments. Insert Sous Vide. About 2-3 hours in advance, set it to strike temp over the Wi-Fi from anywhere. Once it reaches temp, drain any water out if you needed to overfill. Remove Sous Vide and plug hole.
Toss in grain and stir. Mash for 30 minutes. I've been getting 75% efficiency since I started grinding myself. 60% efficiency with LHBS crush. Its also important to prop up one end of the cooler to get an extra 0.5 gallons to drain out.
I've also began reducing my boil times to 30-40 minutes.
If I spend 30 minutes measuring everything out, milling the grain, and set up sous vide the night before, I can cut my brew day down to 2-2.5 hours and it's not rushed at all. The 30 minute mash and boil gives you just enough time to clean and/or prep for the next steps.
Trying to get the strike temperature correct with a turkey fryer and a separate pot by over shooting the temp, then stirring down to strike temp, then adding grain, transferring, etc....is all eliminated. Set the sous vide to the nearest 0.1 degrees. It can stabilize the mash tun temp thoroughly as well. Additionally, I use the sous vide for cooking and thawing food for its intended purpose.
I bought a hole saw and cut a hole in my cooler lid to insert sous vide. I'm still using the steel braid for filtering, but If I were starting from scratch I would have bought a BIAB to fit my cooler.
Fill (or temporarily overfill to ensure sous vide gets submerged) with full volume (no sparge). Add water adjustments. Insert Sous Vide. About 2-3 hours in advance, set it to strike temp over the Wi-Fi from anywhere. Once it reaches temp, drain any water out if you needed to overfill. Remove Sous Vide and plug hole.
Toss in grain and stir. Mash for 30 minutes. I've been getting 75% efficiency since I started grinding myself. 60% efficiency with LHBS crush. Its also important to prop up one end of the cooler to get an extra 0.5 gallons to drain out.
I've also began reducing my boil times to 30-40 minutes.
If I spend 30 minutes measuring everything out, milling the grain, and set up sous vide the night before, I can cut my brew day down to 2-2.5 hours and it's not rushed at all. The 30 minute mash and boil gives you just enough time to clean and/or prep for the next steps.
Trying to get the strike temperature correct with a turkey fryer and a separate pot by over shooting the temp, then stirring down to strike temp, then adding grain, transferring, etc....is all eliminated. Set the sous vide to the nearest 0.1 degrees. It can stabilize the mash tun temp thoroughly as well. Additionally, I use the sous vide for cooking and thawing food for its intended purpose.
