How do I maintain mash temperature in the winter

[bumstigedy]

I'll be brewing this weekend and it is going to be in the 30's
Any ideas on how to maintain my mash temperature?
My mashtin is a homedepot 10 gallon cooler.

This will be my first te brewing when it is this cold.

 

[shecky]

Move the cooler indoors or throw a heavy blanket over it.

 

[klyph]

Decoction or a boiling water infusion.

Or cover it in a sleeping bag/coat whatever. I'll bet with a little extra insulation you could pull it off.

You could also consider building a cheap HERMS or RIMS setup if you're going to be brewing in the cold on a regular basis.

 

[Blackhawkbrew]

Are you going to be mashing outdoors or in a garage? If in a garage a couple of blankets work for me. Outdoors. . .I guess more blankets?

 

[Docjowles]

+1 for just bringing the cooler indoors for an hour. Unless it's permanently mounted to a sculpture or something.

Although I will say those suckers hold temp way better than I ever expected. I brewed last weekend and it was in the 40's. I think I lost 1 degree over an hour.

 

[lumpher]

i just throw an old quilt over mine

 

[bumstigedy]

My options are to mash outside or in the kitchen.

It sounds like the kitchen might be a better option. I would have to carry the mash tun outside for sparging or sparge and runoff into my kettle and carry that outside.

 

[waldoar15]

I mash/sparge indoors and the runnings go into a white bucket, then out to the BK.

 

[malc]

I just did a brew in the garage. It was probably in the 40's and my cooler held for the full hour. Those things work well. Just make sure you prime your cooler first with some hot water.

 

[jds]

I've brewed when the outdoor temperature was around 10F, and it was around 30 in the garage. My cooler MLT holds temperature just fine under those conditions.

My money's on "You'll be just fine" RDWHAHB.

 

[kanzimonson]

How much heat are you actually losing during your mash? Even if it's 5 degrees, that's not a big deal (unless you're starting at 149 or so). Just don't open the lid very much and use a blanket. If that still doesn't work, you can easily build into your mash schedule a time where you add a quart or two of boiling water to bring the temp back up... say at the halfway mark.

 

[k47k]

I bring the mlt indoors and mash in the kitchen.

 

[Wellshooter]

Bring the cooler indoors overnite, to store some heat in it. Have you insulated the top? The tops of those things lack foam insulation and can be a heat sink in cold weather. I drilled mine and filled it with foam insulation out of a can.

With those things in mind it should work fine.

 

[Sheldon]

I think a demonstration would be in order . Come on down to my house in Woodbridge and I will show you how I did it last winter. And, while the grains are bathing in the mash tun, we can drink some of my pipeline of homebrews

Sheldon

 

[bumstigedy]

I'll have to take you up on the demonstration sometime.

So I just finished my brew day. I mashed inside. I moved my brew kettle outside when it had about 4 gallons in it and then ran the rest off into another pot and carried it outside. This worked pretty good. Now I have 5 gallons of dortmunder export fermenting!