I'm just getting into partial mash brewing and bought a 3 gallon Igloo round cooler. I want to get a mesh bag to fit inside it to make draining the grains easy. I was wondering if anyone else had one and what size of mesh bag you used. I was thinking about getting one on Amazon that is 22"x26" and 250 microns.
Partial Mash 3 gallon Igloo Cooler Mesh Bag
- Thread starter kylewag
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My experience with partial mash is limited since I started with all grain but I’ve done a few both teaching beginners and doing demos at my LHBS brew days.
I’ve never used a cooler mash tun since that would be an all grain mash.
For partial mash you use a boil kettle to first bring your water to a given temperature based on your recipe with your specialty grains suspended in a small mesh bag and then remove them and mix in your DME or LME and bring to a boil for as long as the recipe requires.
Then chill, pitch your yeast, etc.
I’ve never used a cooler mash tun since that would be an all grain mash.
For partial mash you use a boil kettle to first bring your water to a given temperature based on your recipe with your specialty grains suspended in a small mesh bag and then remove them and mix in your DME or LME and bring to a boil for as long as the recipe requires.
Then chill, pitch your yeast, etc.
Do you have the inside dimensions of that cooler? It's important the bag touches the sides all around. A little looseness is wanted, but not too baggy, as that could make stirring more difficult, the bag's excess wanting to wrap around the paddle or long stirring spoon.
A flattened bag that's 22" wide makes her circumference (C) 44".
C = 2 * 3.14 * r
Diameter (2r) = C / 3.14 = 44" / 3.14 = 14"
250 micron = 0.25 (=1/4) mm or around 0.01 inch.
That's the diameter of the pores, yes?
I'd say pore wise that should work. But I don't know how it compares with the pores in standard BIAB bags, such as those made by @wilserbrewer. If the pores are too tight they may plug up, not helping getting the wort out.
Maybe someone could chime in on that.
A preheated cooler should work well, yes. If outside in cold or breezy weather maybe wrap the cooler in a thick moving blanket or sleeping bag. It's quite difficult to heat up a mash that's too cold without adding direct or indirect heat.
I've done much partial mash in the beginning of my homebrew career, using a large, 2 gallon kitchen pot in a prewarmed oven. Then switched to all-grain.
A flattened bag that's 22" wide makes her circumference (C) 44".
C = 2 * 3.14 * r
Diameter (2r) = C / 3.14 = 44" / 3.14 = 14"
250 micron = 0.25 (=1/4) mm or around 0.01 inch.
That's the diameter of the pores, yes?
I'd say pore wise that should work. But I don't know how it compares with the pores in standard BIAB bags, such as those made by @wilserbrewer. If the pores are too tight they may plug up, not helping getting the wort out.
Maybe someone could chime in on that.
A preheated cooler should work well, yes. If outside in cold or breezy weather maybe wrap the cooler in a thick moving blanket or sleeping bag. It's quite difficult to heat up a mash that's too cold without adding direct or indirect heat.
I've done much partial mash in the beginning of my homebrew career, using a large, 2 gallon kitchen pot in a prewarmed oven. Then switched to all-grain.
