Dough In- Devices and techniques?

[cactusgarrett]

I use a Brewzilla so that is what my strike water is heated in and the mash is performed in. With the strike water already in the vessel, the only way I could see to underlet would be like you said - fill the grain basket while it is raised and then slowly lower it into the strike water.

I do the same, but for me it doesn't work as slick as many claim: despite lowering the basket very slowly, the grain usually starts floating and the entire dry grainbed usually would float to the top of the malt pipe if I allowed it to. Also, I don't want the hotter water interacting with the little amount of grain it's in contact with for that long, so I usually just drop the basket in and start stirring so as to get everything to temp ASAP. It doesn't seem to work that well, but I continue to do it, as it's better than just dumping the grains into the basket already in the system with strike water in it. On bigger grainbills I still actually get dry spots, despite stirring what I think is a sufficient amount, often 2-3 times during a 60min mash.

 

[Closet Fermenter]

Did my first underletting today on a 17.5# grain mash. Wow! Was this great! In the past, I’ve had to lift the water up to my mash tun where it was situated to drain down into the boil kettle. I have recently purchased a hydraulic lift table, so it occurred to me that I could drain the water down into the mash tun (while on the lift), then lift the mash tun later for the sparge. Yeah, I know, pumps, but I prefer to stay away from electric. It’s just my crazy notion that I don’t want to have to depend on the grid for brewing.

Anyway, worked fantastic. I let it go slow, took lid off the tun when completed, gave it a couple good stirs and shut it back up. Way easier than water, grain, stir; water, grain, stir, etc., etc. Will be doing this from now on.

 

[fluketamer]

underletting for the win. i will never pour grain into water again. no stirring needed just a little bit of the "up and down" with a whisk gets it done. although the whisk part prolly not even needed . its more for me than the mash.