2 Partial Mash Questions

[DonnieZ]

Did my second PM batch yesterday and I have a couple of questions.

First: How do you keep the temperature of the mash stable and consistent throughout the mash?

Yesterday's batch consisted of 2.5 pounds of grain (2 pounds 2 Row and 1/2 pound Crystal 20.) While the grains were mashing, I had the thermometer in the grains and it looked like it was holding a solid 151. However, when I would move the thermometer to a different spot in the pot it would measure somewhere down in the high 140's. Is this just something I have to deal with when mashing, or is there a better way to keep all the grains at one temperature throughout? How important is keeping this constant temperature for the whole hour with a PM batch?

Counting the DME I added, according to the calculations from BrewMate I hit my gravity spot on.

Second: The grain bag I had was entirely too small for the amount of grains I had. I ended up foregoing the grain bag in the pot and had about 45 minutes to improvise. I came up with the solution the attached picture.

Finding nothing else, I raided my wife's drawer and found a brand new package of cheap pantyhose. I took the collander and put it in the pantyhose, set it on top of my boil kettle, and poured the mash in. After the liquid drained from the grains, I poured the sparge water over these grains and waited for it to all strain through.

Unless there's something I'm missing, this did a fantastic job of keeping the hulls out and only letting the wort through. Is there any reason that this isn't a good idea?

 

[Yooper]

To keep the temperature, it's best to stir, stir, stir, stir, and then stir some more to get the grainbed thoroughly wetted and so that it's the same temperature throughout. You want to make sure the grain is very loose, so you may need more than one bag, so that the water and grain and thoroughly mixed. Then check the temperature- if it's different in one place than another, you didn't stir enough, so stir some more! That's really the key. You want the grain to be very loose so that there isn't a portion that's in the bag and a higher temperature than the liquid around it. Keeping the temperature stable is crucial, but with a very small amount of grain it's not going to affect the beer all that much.

Whatever you can use to separate the grains for the liquid is fine.

 

[MTB]

Do you stir throughout the whole process? or just at the beginning? I'm doing my first PM soon and the OP pretty much has the same questions I was about to ask

 

[Yooper]

Do you stir throughout the whole process? or just at the beginning? I'm doing my first PM soon and the OP pretty much has the same questions I was about to ask

You only have to stir at the beginning- to ensure that it's thoroughly wetted and at the same temperature throughout. Then, cover it and insulate it (throw a blanket over it if you need to!) and you should be fine. If it's in a pot, you can check the temperature halfway through and turn the heat back on just a little if the temperature dropped too much (below about 148). Otherwise, no need to stir once you're all mashed in.

 

[biestie]

Gordon Strong's book Brewing Better Beer suggests 1 lb of rice hulls per 5 gallons to keep the temp consistent (he credits Tasty Mcdole with that tidbit of knowledge). The hulls also have the added benefit of preventing stuck sparges which I suppose isn't a concern for you right now since you're doing pm, but for future reference....