Adding Infusion From HLT to Mash Tun

[angry_gopher]

Re-reading How to Brew at the moment as I'm with an injury. Palmer says that thermodynamically that it's actually better to add the water to the grains rather than the other way around. He also points out that doing it that way can cause dry spots & dough balls. So the better method is adding the grains to the water. This made me wonder, has anyone tried adding the water by pumping it into the bottom? Could the false bottom help alleviate the clumping by allowing the water to be more evenly added to the grains? Maybe an experiment is in order. What's the worst the could happen? A lot more stirring and a don't do that again? LOL

 

[Dland]

That is how I do it. Underletting, I think it is called. The "dough balls" are easy enough to break up with a stirring spoon. There are usually some dough balls if you dump grain in too. It is less work to pump in from HLT than to pour 20# grain slowly, less dust too.

 

[Dog House Brew]

Look up underletting, many do it this way. I never have dough balls doing it this way.

 

[Bramling Cross]

I do underletting via gravity and it works very nicely. With underletting, it's rare to find a dough ball with North American or German malts. UK-sourced malts might produce a dough ball or two, but they're more of a curiosity than the rule when compared with The Great Dough Ball Hunt that occasions dumping UK malts into your strike water.

In short, I've found underletting to be the quickest and easiest way to achieve uniform consistency and temperature in the mash.