mashing in a pressure cooker?

[beersurgeon]

This just hit me and i want to know if it's a dumb idea.

As i understand it, the purpose of mashing is to extract fermentable sugars from grain. Thus, the key is to maintain proper temperature to get good utilization out of your enzymes.

But i have this nice big pressure cooker.

Am i looking at a no sparge/biab type setup or is there a way to mash under pressure?

 

[Tinga]

what does the pressure have to do with it? Could you just use the pot an not pressurize it?

 

[beersurgeon]

what does the pressure have to do with it? Could you just use the pot an not pressurize it?

Well, yeah, i COULD do that.

My concern is using the kitchen stove gas burner. Not sure how well i could boil a pot that big.

Money is tight and a propane burner isn't in the budget right now.

 

[Misplaced_Canuck]

I could see using the pressure cooker under pressure but not under vapor-pressure. In other words, mash at the right temperature, and add air-pressure via a compressor of sorts. This would be as opposed to using heat to create steam pressure.

What would it do? No idea. My guess would be possibly better extraction. You'd have to be eagle-eyed to not overshoot the mash temp.

MC

 

[onthekeg]

Mashing is done around 152 degrees. You don't need a pressure cooker for that.

 

[Dean Palmer]

Mashing is done around 152 degrees. You don't need a pressure cooker for that.

+1

Don't try and solve a problem that doesn't exist. Mashing is just giving the grains a warm bath to facilitate the action of enzymes, not cooking them.