In a pinch - Mashing out into a bucket

Hey Guys,

I am getting the rest of my equipment next month, but have my first all grain kit waiting to be brewed. let me know if this would work while i wait for the rest of my kit:

Burner heating HLT, gravity fed into a 15 gallong Mash Tun.

Using this method I can heat the HLT, mash, sparge but my next question being.

Can I mash out into a bucket? I know the temp might fluctuate in it (as it will be times I will be vorlaufing) but this should not matter much right?

Once I get what I need in the bucket I would gravity drain the bucket back into the now empty HLT and boil.

Should that be ok for my first batch until my second burner, boil pot get here?

 

I am not sure i am following what your trying to do here. But from the gist of it, you are asking if you can collect your wort from the mash tun into a bucket to temporarily hold his until you can empty your HLT to use as a boil kettle.

Yes you can do that, you don't need to worry about temp once your mash / sparge is complete. Just keep that sweet wort covered so you don't get no dust/bugs in it while its sitting in the bucket.

an easier option would be once your sparge water is heated, transfer that to the bucket so you can drain directly into your HLT (boil kettle).

 

You nailed what I was trying to do. As I a pieceing together a full all grain kit with 15 gallon pots, that I will be putting onto a gravity sculpture base.... i just wanted to start my brewing now before I have everything.

Just will take more work, and more back power if you catch my drift....so not to bad.

Cant wait!

 

I use a bucket every time. I don't see any reason not to, that way I only need the one brew kettle.

 

I like surffisher2a's solution here, though as mentioned, your plan will work fine. I've used a cooler for a HLT (essentially what surffisher2a suggested) which has the advantage of holding your sparge water at temp. Are you batch or fly sparging? You could also consider a single batch or no sparge technique if your MLT is big enough.

 

My MLT/Boil kettle is 8.5 gallons until next month when I get the 15 gallon and another burner.

I plan on doing batch sparging, splitting into two batches to hopefully get my efficiency up.

 

I'm getting away with incredibly basic equipment and doing fine ( though planning on upgrading soon ).

Mashing is done in two 5l stock pots, out into a bucket via a colander. Remash rather than sparge and rely on settlement and a fine sieve to clear. ( this is why I rarely brew more than 12l )

The same stock pots are then used for boiling along with a smaller pan for the surplus.

I control my mash temps carefully and the sweet wort isn't hanging around long enough to develop problems. It works fine - it's just more work, and a bit messy.

 

Here's what I do:

• Heat mash water in kettle
• Add the mash water to pre-heated mash tun
• Dough in and mash
• Start heating sparge water
• Collect first 5 gallons of runnings into "Ale Pale" - Just because it's easy to measure using the line on the bucket.
• Sparge. If volume is too high to sparge in one batch, collect sparge water into separate bucket / cooler.
• Add those 5 gallons of runnings to kettle and start the fire for the boil
• Sparge to the final volume into bucket. Use markings on bucket to get best "guesstimate" to .25 gallon. (i.e. if Beersmith says 7.18 gallons, I'll sparge to either 7 or 7.25 gallons, eyeballing the quarter-gallon measurement using the graduations on the bucket)
• Add the collected wort to the already heating boil kettle.
• ...continue with brew day

Works great.

 

[*]Add those 5 gallons of runnings to kettle and start the fire for the boil

But don't you have sparge water in the kettle?

 

I guess I left out the part where you actually have to sparge with your sparge water. Sorry about that.

 

For three years, I collected my wort in graduated buckets I got from Lowes since my HLT doubled as my BK. I really liked it because it gave me a way of measuring my volume and kept me on track about hitting my volumes #'s.

 

So you take the first runnings, close the drain on MLT, then dump in the sparge water for batch sparge, then pour 1st runnings into the kettle to start boil?