Cooler Woes.

[HungerJack]

So, Im brewing a Robust Porter right now. My mash/lauter tun is an Igloo 5 gallon with a false bottom. The recipe I made has 12.5 pounds of grain. I knew it would be pushing the limits of mash tun capacity. I have a 1.25 quarts per pound ratio. I didn't want to have a thicker mash than that, and I plan to sparge twice.

Well, on to my question. With the total volume in my MLT, I can't put the lid on. If I do, it will overflow. So I covered the top with plastic wrap to try to seal it as best as I could. Will that hold temp at all, or will my mash temp fall drastically? The temp after trekking down the thick mash with my mash paddle was 153. Then I covered it with plastic wrap. I'm fine with a longer mash duration if needed, for instance if it drops to 149ish.

If it drops too low though, what should one do in that case, seeing is that I can not add more water to the MLT?

Any thoughts and comments are well appreciated.

 

[HungerJack]

I should add, I did preheat the MLT with boiling water prior to doughing in.

 

[LuiInIdaho]

After covering the top with plastic wrap or aluminum foil, you could cover the MLT with a blanket to keep heat from escaping out the top. Not sure if this reply is too late, but iy might be helpful for next time. Mark

 

[pelipen]

If you have a sheet of styrofoam it will work better. You should be able to pick some up from an office supply store for cheap.

 

[HungerJack]

So, the temp held at 152. I mashed for a total of about 80 minutes, I had family over. I sparged twice and ended up collecting 7.5 gallons of wort which was about a gallon more than I needed. Probably shouldn't have sparged twice, but with trying to entertain people and brew at the same time, and I wasn't thinking. I took a hydrometer reading and adjusted for temp correction and it was pretty low. 1.036 pre-boil gravity.

To reach a higher original post boil gravity in what I would like to achieve, which is my target of 1.064, would I need lengthen my boil? More wort boiled off would equate to a more concentrated wort correct? Or did my mash just suck, and conversion didn't fully take place and there is less sugar conversion than I anticipated?

I will note that I didn't do a conversion test because I don't currently have an iodine tincure to do testing of starch conversion.

 

[pelipen]

So, the temp held at 152. I mashed for a total of about 80 minutes, I had family over. I sparged twice and ended up collecting 7.5 gallons of wort which was about a gallon more than I needed. Probably shouldn't have sparged twice, but with trying to entertain people and brew at the same time, and I wasn't thinking. I took a hydrometer reading and adjusted for temp correction and it was pretty low. 1.036 pre-boil gravity.

To reach a higher original post boil gravity in what I would like to achieve, which is my target of 1.064, would I need lengthen my boil? More wort boiled off would equate to a more concentrated wort correct? Or did my mash just suck, and conversion didn't fully take place and there is less sugar conversion than I anticipated?

I will note that I didn't do a conversion test because I don't currently have an iodine tincure to do testing of starch conversion.

Yes, less wort = higher gravity. The total sugar doesn't change, so it's just solving a simple equation.
points 1*volume 1 = points 2*volume 2

You need to boil down to 4.2 gallons to hit 1.064.
36 * 7.5 / 64 = 4.2

If you want more volume, add some dme/lme.

You would need to post your ingredients to know if you are on the low side.

iodine is worth getting from the pharmacy, just don't get the clear kind.

 

[HungerJack]

Thanks for your reply. I checked to see what temp my hydrometer was calibrated to read at, and the temp was lower than I thought. So, after plugging in the new numbers my pre-boil gravity was a bit higher than I thought. I ended up boiling down to just a tad over 5 gallons, and ended up with my target gravity.

 

[BreezyBrew]

Thanks for your reply. I checked to see what temp my hydrometer was calibrated to read at, and the temp was lower than I thought. So, after plugging in the new numbers my pre-boil gravity was a bit higher than I thought. I ended up boiling down to just a tad over 5 gallons, and ended up with my target gravity.

Funny how stuff works itself out like that sometimes. Cheers!