GreenDragon
Well-Known Member
So I'm slowly expanding my brewing equipment. I have to do it piece by piece so the wife doesn't notice too much. My biggest issue right now is I don't have a mash tun, here's my work around that gives decent efficiency.
I have a 6.5 gallon pot. I also have what the LHBS described as a "mash tun bag", it's basically a really big grain bag. It would probably fit a 5 gallon cooler, its that big.
So for the bee cave I just did I did the following:
1) Heated the required water (1.25 quarts per 1lb of grain) to 160F
2) Clipped the grain bag onto the handles of my pot
3) Slowly added the grains, gave it a stir, and checked my temps.
4) I was at 148F but when I put the lid back on it goes up a few.
4.5) I set my stove so the wort would stay at 152F. I did notice the temps at the bottom of the pan were warmer then the temps at the top, but only by a few degrees and I don't really see a way around it.
5) Every 20 mins I took the lid off, stirred, and checked the temp.
6) After the 90 mins was up I pulled the bag out and held it there for a long while
7) My arms got tired so I put the grain bag in a separate empty pot to drain while I took a break (huge grain bill on this bee cave, like 13lbs or more).
8) After taking a break I lifted it up and let it drain some more, I moved the grains in the bag around with a sanitized spoon a bit to help with draining.
9) I wasn't quite at the wort level I thought I should be at so I poured another 1/2 gallon of 170F water through the grains (this was supposed to be a single infusion mash but I had no choice).
10) Continued brewing like normal.
EdWort's recipe called for an OG of 1.062 and I hit 1.0614 so my little hybrid method did at least pretty decently.
Is there anything majorly wrong I did that I should avoid next time?
Next item on my shopping list is a 10 gallon cooler but until then this is how I'm going to have to do all grains.
I have a 6.5 gallon pot. I also have what the LHBS described as a "mash tun bag", it's basically a really big grain bag. It would probably fit a 5 gallon cooler, its that big.
So for the bee cave I just did I did the following:
1) Heated the required water (1.25 quarts per 1lb of grain) to 160F
2) Clipped the grain bag onto the handles of my pot
3) Slowly added the grains, gave it a stir, and checked my temps.
4) I was at 148F but when I put the lid back on it goes up a few.
4.5) I set my stove so the wort would stay at 152F. I did notice the temps at the bottom of the pan were warmer then the temps at the top, but only by a few degrees and I don't really see a way around it.
5) Every 20 mins I took the lid off, stirred, and checked the temp.
6) After the 90 mins was up I pulled the bag out and held it there for a long while
7) My arms got tired so I put the grain bag in a separate empty pot to drain while I took a break (huge grain bill on this bee cave, like 13lbs or more).
8) After taking a break I lifted it up and let it drain some more, I moved the grains in the bag around with a sanitized spoon a bit to help with draining.
9) I wasn't quite at the wort level I thought I should be at so I poured another 1/2 gallon of 170F water through the grains (this was supposed to be a single infusion mash but I had no choice).
10) Continued brewing like normal.
EdWort's recipe called for an OG of 1.062 and I hit 1.0614 so my little hybrid method did at least pretty decently.
Is there anything majorly wrong I did that I should avoid next time?
Next item on my shopping list is a 10 gallon cooler but until then this is how I'm going to have to do all grains.
that or I was still on my first cup of coffee and forgot a zero.
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