Finn
Well-Known Member
Seems like every post I read involves mashing and lautering in a converted cooler. Am I the only one around who mashes in a pot on the stove and lauters in a double bucket?
Wade E said:I dont know since Im a newbie but would like to learn your method as im a little low on funds to build a MLT right now with 2 kids a mortgage and these home heating and gas prices. Can you explain your method to me and Ill join you in your lonely method. Much appreciated.
Wade E said:I dont know since Im a newbie but would like to learn your method as im a little low on funds to build a MLT right now with 2 kids a mortgage and these home heating and gas prices. Can you explain your method to me and Ill join you in your lonely method. Much appreciated.
Wade E said:I dont know since Im a newbie but would like to learn your method as im a little low on funds to build a MLT right now with 2 kids a mortgage and these home heating and gas prices. Can you explain your method to me and Ill join you in your lonely method. Much appreciated.
Good post! You reminded me of how simple but effective way it's to use Charlies old bucket in bucket lauter tun set up. I've been using a grain bag in a bucket for lautering in the house. I use my keg system when brewing 10 gal or big beers. I'll be drilling a bucket to use instead of the grain bag as it's more effiecent. I do agree clean up is much quicker and easier with the bucket set up. I can also brew in the house with that set up. Tomorrow I'll be using the keg set up on the deck because I'll be making a Bock which needs a good amount of grain.Finn said:Sorry I was away from the computer for a few days! Anyway, I got started with the bucket system because I happened to have two food-grade buckets left from when I bought strawberries from the Kiwanis Club. I just drilled about forty dozen 1/8" holes in the bottom of one, installed a tap in the other and tried it.
I don't mash in the buckets. After an hour in there, the mash would be about 120 degrees, even with the tun covered in towels. The actual mashing is done in a pot on the kitchen stove -- so I'm starting out with two pots on there, the mashing tun and the canning kettle full of strike water. The strike water goes in at 172 degrees for a 9-10-pound grainbill and the mash ends up in the mid- to high 150s. Judicious heat inputs get it right where I want it within about 10 minutes, and at :50 I turn it up to medium heat to get a 170-degree mashout. This kicks my efficiency up noticeably when I go to lauter. Meanwhile I'm heating that canning kettle back up, with 4 gallons of fresh strike water inside, on the way to 175 degrees.
When mashout is done, I pour strike water into the lauter tun until it's up to the level of the inner bucket (skipping this step guarantees a stuck sparge) and put the mash in it. The mash is 170 degrees by now. It loses about five degrees going into the buckets and being messed around with, not enough to worry about, and soon I'm pouring 175-degree sparge water onto a coffee can lid on top of it. It stays hot enough for this process to work.
Now, here's the best part. The buckets are translucent plastic. When I put the mash in, I can watch the liquid go up into the space between the two buckets. When I start my mashout, I open the taps up until the wort is drawn down to about 2 inches above the bottom of the inner bucket, then close it down just enough to hold it there. At this point I'm mashing out exactly what's perking down from the two inches of sparge water I'm keeping on top of the grainbed. This virtually guarantees I will not overdraw my grainbed and stick the sparge even with very gooey mashes like Irish stout (with three pounds of flaked barley -- mmmmm!). If I want a little more pressure on the grainbed, I bring the level down to a half inch or so. It's like a pressure gauge for my lauter tun. I have total control of flow rate and pressure on the grainbed, and -- through the sparge water -- adequate control of the temperature. And it also gives me a surprisingly good efficiency with 9-pound grainbills, especially considering I'm only mashing out about four and a half gallons of wort. And did I mention it's super easy to clean afterwards?
Like I said, it's a small-capacity system. Anything with an O.G. over about 1.055 I have to spike with DME. Ten pounds of grain are the absolute maximum it can handle. But it works very well for me for the beers I like to drink, and gives me a lot more temperature control than I could manage using a cooler with no heat source inside ...
One other thing. If anybody's thinking of making one of these, don't do what I did -- which is flip the bucket upside down and punch holes in it with the drill from the bottom. The hot wort will soften the plastic enough to close most of these holes back up when you fill 'er up. Drill down from inside the bucket so the "lips" the drill bit makes as it pushes through point downward. And do yourself a favor -- get a pair of five- or six-gallon buckets to do this in. My four-gallon ones really big enough to use comfortably.
Sorry for the long-a** post, but Wade asked (thanks Wade!) Brew strong, bros!
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