Best way to maintain temps?

[Scuba_Steve81]

In my first BIAB brew, I ended the mash 6 degrees lower than my target.

What is the best cost efficient way to negate this without scorching the bag? I am on propane btw.

 

[doug293cz]

Wrap with old sleeping bags, winter coats, blankets, etc. after hitting your mash temp. Then leave the mash alone until the time is up. Or, if you are using a pot small enough to fit in your oven, heat it to 150, and put the pot in the oven during the mash.

Brew on

 

[Scuba_Steve81]

So no stirring midway through the mash? I am sure that is where some heat escaped, but I didn't think it would be that much.

I am using a 17.5g kettle, and the house I am renting has the smallest stove known to man! Not that I would want to try and pickup that kettle with 9g of water anyways!

 

[doug293cz]

So no stirring midway through the mash? I am sure that is where some heat escaped, but I didn't think it would be that much.

I am using a 17.5g kettle, and the house I am renting has the smallest stove known to man! Not that I would want to try and pickup that kettle with 9g of water anyways!

If your crush is fine enough, then you can get complete conversion without stirring (I usually do.) Due to the diffusion kinetics with larger grain particles, it may speed conversion to stir mid mash. You can tell if your conversion is done simply by measuring the mash SG and using the method described here.

Brew on

 

[Magnus314]

It's the head space in your kettle that's messing with you. Don't stir until you're close to the end.

I use a reflectix cover and I lose 1F in an hour, 2 F in 90 mins. Bit with a fine grind you don't need that long, and stirring only once - 15 min from the end - will work.

 

[Scuba_Steve81]

It's the head space in your kettle that's messing with you. Don't stir until you're close to the end.

I use a reflectix cover and I lose 1F in an hour, 2 F in 90 mins. Bit with a fine grind you don't need that long, and stirring only once - 15 min from the end - will work.

I didn't think of that. That is a lot of air that needs to be reheated everytime I lift the lid! I guess that is one downside to buying an "overkill sized" kettle. At least I felt it was overkill when I bought it!

 

[wilserbrewer]

IME It takes a good several minutes and lots of stirring to reach a stable mash temp. If you stir in quickly and record the temp, you may be reading a false high.

Try stirring in, cover and wait a couple minutes, stir well again and check temp. Then try covering with a couple blankets or coats.

Another option is to strike a couple degrees high and mash a little higher anticipating temp loss, mashing in a temp range rather than an exact temp isn't a bad thing either.

Your oversized kettle with much surface area will lose more heat, perhaps a slight disadvantage to such a large pot, but you can certainly work around it and get acceptable results.

Mashing at 155-149 will work, 150-144 too low, find a sweet spot and RDWHAHB

If you want to go the extra effort, you can hold back some mash water and add small amounts of boiling water during the rest to bump the temp. Or you could get an inexpensive immersion heater and stir the mash during the rest ... Not sure it's worth the effort or will make that much difference.

Striking a bit higher may be your best, easiest most viable option.

 

[RM-MN]

As soon as you have the grains fully stirred into the water, put the lid on, insulate the pot with something like a sleeping bag or coat and walk away. Your 6 degree temperature drop in an hour is of little consequence because if your grain is milled well the conversion will likely be done in less than 10 minutes and from there on the temperature drop won't matter.

 

[Scuba_Steve81]

Thanks. The last 2 especially made me feel better. I targeted 154, striked at 158, and ended at 148 after an hour.

 

[wilserbrewer]

Thanks. The last 2 especially made me feel better. I targeted 154, striked at 158, and ended at 148 after an hour.

OK good, JMO but striking only 4 degrees over mash temp seems a bit optimistic. You might try 160? After a while I have realized to pay more attention to getting an accurate strike temp and your mash temps will fall into place. I am sometimes tempted to not even bother checking mash temp as I am comfortable in knowing my strike temp was spot on.

As RM-MN suggested, stir your grains in well and wrap it up for an hour...

 

[ballsy]

OK good, JMO but striking only 4 degrees over mash temp seems a bit optimistic. You might try 160? After a while I have realized to pay more attention to getting an accurate strike temp and your mash temps will fall into place. I am sometimes tempted to not even bother checking mash temp as I am comfortable in knowing my strike temp was spot on.

As RM-MN suggested, stir your grains in well and wrap it up for an hour...

I agree with wilserbrewer, that seems like a really low strike temp....use a mash/strike temp calculator. I use the one on brewersfriend and am always max 1 degree off. I do 5 gallon mashes every time no matter the grain bill and typically I'm around 162-163 strike temp for a 152-154 mash...I use a 10gal aluminum pot and keep temp with oven set to 150F (little trial/error to find that as temp that didn't increase or decrease mash temp). Usually pull it out for one stir at 30min's. My only problem now is the pot is scraping up the bottom of the oven...need a silicon mat to put in there or something.

 

[Scuba_Steve81]

OK good, JMO but striking only 4 degrees over mash temp seems a bit optimistic. You might try 160? After a while I have realized to pay more attention to getting an accurate strike temp and your mash temps will fall into place. I am sometimes tempted to not even bother checking mash temp as I am comfortable in knowing my strike temp was spot on.

As RM-MN suggested, stir your grains in well and wrap it up for an hour...

The only reason I chose 158 is my calculator suggested that with a 9.15g strike volume and 10lbs of grain at 80 degrees. I will say, after 5 minutes or so to give everything time to stabilize, I was right on the money at 154. It is only after an hour that I dropped the additional 6 degrees.

 

[jjeffers09]

**Edit you have a few guys that said what I was saying... I have used an old canning rack from a canning pot to help keep my bag off the bottom so it doesn't scorch the grains/bag. Plus that thing helps me get a good drain off my bag with the clips/handles on the sides of the kettle, and it has held 23lbs of wet grains without any problems.

 

[wilserbrewer]

The only reason I chose 158 is my calculator suggested that with a 9.15g strike volume and 10lbs of grain at 80 degrees. I will say, after 5 minutes or so to give everything time to stabilize, I was right on the money at 154. It is only after an hour that I dropped the additional 6 degrees.

154-148 doesn't sound like a problem to me....

JMO, I think some tend to put too much effort into trying to achieve "perfect" mash temp.
When at the end of the day if you hit your desired range, there really isn't a tangible difference. Just a different path to the same outcome IMHO.

Get it done, learn and move on....if your attenuation is too high, mash higher and vice versa, same as you would for a system that could hold mash temp to a gnats ass lol.

 

[jjeffers09]

154-148 doesn't sound like a problem to me....

JMO, I think some tend to put too much effort into trying to achieve "perfect" mash temp.
When at the end of the day if you hit your desired range, there really isn't a tangible difference. Just a different path to the same outcome IMHO.

Get it done, learn and move on....if your attenuation is too high, mash higher and vice versa, same as you would for a system that could hold mash temp to a gnats ass lol.

I would agree about the tangible difference is negligible. Unless you have a high starch mash, and need the starch conversion to work out. It will increase you time and effort in. However, I am assuming everyone knows the reason for these temps is to draw out enzymes to let them go to work breaking down the grist to fermentable sugars. For digestibility, a few degrees too low or a few degrees to hot, 6 degrees is a wide range, if it was 160-154 or 148-142 it would be different story. I think we all agree the 148-154 to be in the "comfortable" temp range.

 

[PsychoBiter]

I found that with a DIY Reflectix jacket and full volume mashing I can keep my mash temps stable for over an hour.
Stirring will lose heat obviously....adding a grate or false bottom with legs to hold your bag off the bottom could be a solution if you want to bump temp with a burner.

 

[austin713]

I found that with a DIY Reflectix jacket and full volume mashing I can keep my mash temps stable for over an hour.
Stirring will lose heat obviously....adding a grate or false bottom with legs to hold your bag off the bottom could be a solution if you want to bump temp with a burner.

just dont forget to take that reflectix cover off before you re-light the burner. i made that mistake once and smelt burnt plastic but luckily got it off before anything happened.

 

[pshankstar]

Not to high jack the thread but have some of you had the other issue where after you add the grains the temp doesn't drop to where you expect it to be?

For example I'm brewing the zombie dust clone right now. After entering the ingredients into BeerSmith it says to heat the water (9.6 gallons) to 169.8 degrees so that mashing can be at 156 after the grains are added (14lbs 6.1oz). Well I heat the water to the desired temp, pull the pot off the burner, insert the bag and start pouring the grains into the pot/bag. I do a little bit at a time and keep stirring out the dough balls and what not. Once done I placed the lid on and wait 10 mins or so. Check the temp with my 12inch thermometer (calibrated it earlier today) and it's at 160. So I left the lid off for a few mins to get the temp to finally drop to 156. I didn't insulate my keggle during this period.

So have others had this problem where the mash temps are a little high to begin with? Is it just a matter of getting use to my setup and making the appropriate adjustments? Thanks in advance everyone!

 

[TexasWine]

Not to high jack the thread but have some of you had the other issue where after you add the grains the temp doesn't drop to where you expect it to be?

For example I'm brewing the zombie dust clone right now. After entering the ingredients into BeerSmith it says to heat the water (9.6 gallons) to 169.8 degrees so that mashing can be at 156 after the grains are added (14lbs 6.1oz). Well I heat the water to the desired temp, pull the pot off the burner, insert the bag and start pouring the grains into the pot/bag. I do a little bit at a time and keep stirring out the dough balls and what not. Once done I placed the lid on and wait 10 mins or so. Check the temp with my 12inch thermometer (calibrated it earlier today) and it's at 160. So I left the lid off for a few mins to get the temp to finally drop to 156. I didn't insulate my keggle during this period.

So have others had this problem where the mash temps are a little high to begin with? Is it just a matter of getting use to my setup and making the appropriate adjustments? Thanks in advance everyone!

IME, 170F is way too hot for a full volume mash. Might want to check your equipment settings in Beersmith to verify you don't have something like a mash tun temp drop specified in there.

 

[wilserbrewer]

IME, 170F is way too hot for a full volume mash..

Agreed, the rackers strike temp calc shows 166 strike for a 156 mash, 4 degrees lower.

Interesting as your strike and mash were both 4 degrees over the rackers estimate. You likely have a bug in Beersmith.

 

[pshankstar]

IME, 170F is way too hot for a full volume mash. Might want to check your equipment settings in Beersmith to verify you don't have something like a mash tun temp drop specified in there.

Agreed, the rackers strike temp calc shows 166 strike for a 156 mash, 4 degrees lower.

Interesting as your strike and mash were both 4 degrees over the rackers estimate. You likely have a bug in Beersmith.

Thank you both for your feedback. I will definitely check my equipment profile settings and see if the culprit is with the "mash tun temp drop".

 

[Arminius757]

A suggestion that I have:
I myself use a keggle for BIAB and I mostly do 3 gallon batches with it do to some space restrictions in terms of beer storage.
I had an issue with the temperature drop as well during my first round. So I looked around at various methods to insulate my keggle while keeping it on the burner. I saw things like mineral wool coming up a lot, do to its high fire resistivity. Ultimately, I settled on a hot water heater blanket much like this:
http://www.homedepot.com/p/UltraTou...ot-Water-Heater-Blanket-60301-48752/202710039
Some of the perks include that it is not fiber glass, it has a high R value at 6.7, and it is Class A Fire Retardant. It is also very cheep. I bought this, fitted it to my tank, and then tapped the ever living crap out of it with some high temperature foil tape. I made sure that none of the insulation is in direct contact with the burner flames. I will be able to test it fully this weekend when I go to brew again.
Id say the only real downside to this is that I made it a more permanent solution. Im not sure if I will have to worry about mold at any point, but I keep the outside of my pot dry anyway and take care not to spill liquids on it.
Anyway, I can give you an update as to how it turns out if you are interested. It is really easy to do! Its also cheaper and easier to work with than mineral wool.

 

[Scuba_Steve81]

A suggestion that I have:
I myself use a keggle for BIAB and I mostly do 3 gallon batches with it do to some space restrictions in terms of beer storage.
I had an issue with the temperature drop as well during my first round. So I looked around at various methods to insulate my keggle while keeping it on the burner. I saw things like mineral wool coming up a lot, do to its high fire resistivity. Ultimately, I settled on a hot water heater blanket much like this:
http://www.homedepot.com/p/UltraTou...ot-Water-Heater-Blanket-60301-48752/202710039
Some of the perks include that it is not fiber glass, it has a high R value at 6.7, and it is Class A Fire Retardant. It is also very cheep. I bought this, fitted it to my tank, and then tapped the ever living crap out of it with some high temperature foil tape. I made sure that none of the insulation is in direct contact with the burner flames. I will be able to test it fully this weekend when I go to brew again.
Id say the only real downside to this is that I made it a more permanent solution. Im not sure if I will have to worry about mold at any point, but I keep the outside of my pot dry anyway and take care not to spill liquids on it.
Anyway, I can give you an update as to how it turns out if you are interested. It is really easy to do! Its also cheaper and easier to work with than mineral wool.

I have a question about products like this. My little is 18" wide, and the skirt of my burner is like 14". Point is, I can not see the flame at all, thus I doubt it will affect anything on the outside of the pot. Could I trust to leave this on full time?