I use a picnic cooler with slotted drain pipes in the bottom as a MLT. In reading David Miller's book he states that the temperature of the mash should be raised to 168 degrees F at mash-out to stop all further enzymztic activity, that he sees this as a necessary step, and that there is no good way to do that in a picnic cooler.
I typically mash 9 or 10 pounds of grain, and I have tried in the past to raise the temperature of the goods in the cooler by adding a quantity of near-boiling water. Now, I don't want to get us into high-tech energy equations here, but it seemed to me that I could add it until the cows came home and only get a few degrees of temperature rise, all the while thinning my mash hopelessly. I'm reasonably sure I wouldn't have room in the cooler for enough boiling water to get me to 168.
Thoughts??
I typically mash 9 or 10 pounds of grain, and I have tried in the past to raise the temperature of the goods in the cooler by adding a quantity of near-boiling water. Now, I don't want to get us into high-tech energy equations here, but it seemed to me that I could add it until the cows came home and only get a few degrees of temperature rise, all the while thinning my mash hopelessly. I'm reasonably sure I wouldn't have room in the cooler for enough boiling water to get me to 168.
Thoughts??