What do you do during the mash?

[BrewinJay]

Okay so I am doing my first ag right now, trying out the BIAB method. The recipe I ave calls for a 90 min mash, and I started wondering what everyone did during their mash?

 

[thughes]

nap (seriously)

 

[chumpsteak]

yard work

 

[neosapien]

james bond movie and have a homebrew

 

[sonex]

measure out my hops, get out every thing in prep for boil, crank up the tunes.

 

[PKLehmer]

yard work

+1, but only when it's not 100° like it has been lately. Otherwise we go out for lunch.

 

[BrewinJay]

So basically I don't need to sit on it like an old mother hen? How often do I stir it ? I have been averaging about ever 15 mins or so.

 

[Denny]

Vacuum the house, do laundry, start cooking sinner, clean the bathroom....

 

[Monstar]

So basically I don't need to sit on it like an old mother hen? How often do I stir it ? I have been averaging about ever 15 mins or so.

Don't stir. Turn on The Twilight Zone, grab a beer and chill out for 90 minutes!

 

[BrewinJay]

Monstar that goes against everything I have read and heard. I have always seen that you are supposed to stir the mash in order to break up dough balls.

 

[pabloj13]

Monstar that goes against everything I have read and heard. I have always seen that you are supposed to stir the mash in order to break up dough balls.

You stir the crap out of it at the beginning. Then you leave it. What kind of mash tun do you have?

 

[craigger64]

You stir the crap out of it at the beginning. Then you leave it. What kind of mash tun do you have?

Yes, stir the crap out of it at the beginning, then leave it alone. I find that I lose too much temp if I stir during the mash.

 

[Denny]

Monstar that goes against everything I have read and heard. I have always seen that you are supposed to stir the mash in order to break up dough balls.

Stir it well when you mash in, then leave it alone. Doughballs don't magically form during the mash. By opening the tun to stir, all you do is lose heat.

 

[BrewinJay]

Okay so just stir at the beginning and I am good. Thanks for the advice guys. As for what I am using it is a keggle with a BIAB bag so not really a mash tun.

 

[mugzz819]

I do BIAB as well and, like the others said, stir it well in the beginning and leave it. I usually wrap an old winter coat around the kettle to retain heat and then just give it a good stir before I pull the bag out. One other thing I do that is a bit different than usual biab is put the grain bag in an empty pot and pour some hot water over it and let it soak a few minutes to collect any extra sugars and then dump that in the kettle. I get great efficiency with this method.

 

[duckredbeard]

Vacuum the house, do laundry, start cooking sinner, clean the bathroom....

Care to share your favorite sinner recipes? Guess you use fire and brimstone...

I get hops weighed and marked, run a sanitizer through my wort pump/chiller/oxy stone, prepare sparge water (pH5.2 and heated), RDWAHAHB.

 

[Denny]

Care to share your favorite sinner recipes? Guess you use fire and brimstone...

Sometimes being a bad typist can be pretty amusing!

 

[CidCitrus]

I take care of any prep for the boil/fermentation, work on stuff, or bottle if a batch is ready

 

[MaddBaggins]

I sit on the couch in the garage and read HBT and IH8MUD forums, play solitaire on my phone, stare at the wall.

 

[beergolf]

Usually bottle a batch...

 

[JeffersonJ]

I generally brew on weekend evenings and I walk the dogs during the mash so they'll be too tired to annoy me during the rest of the brewing!

 

[Shooter]

Last Friday, during the mash, I did the weekly grocery shopping.

 

[evandena]

Usually times out so I eat lunch during the mash.

 

[allenH]

Prep my hop additions, heat my sparge water. Drink beer, stare off into space, look busy when SWMBO peeks outside, repeat.

 

[Stauffbier]

During the mash I cook bacon, hashbrowns, eggs, toast, and watch TV while I eat it. Then during the boil I take a little cat nap on my recliner!

 

[dutra2418]

I actually have a checklist (I'm obsessive like that). First thing is first, I open a beer. With 50 mins left I grab the other stuff I will need (aerator, carboy, utensils etc) and sanitize them. 35 left I pull my hops out of the fridge and weigh them out. Grab another beer...Measure out my sparge water and by 25 mins left that is on the burner. Quick peek at the temp probe on the mash tun to make sure nothing went horribly wrong, grab the pitcher for vorlauf and refractometer for first running gravity. Set up the bench that I place the boil kettle on for the runnings. With 10 mins left I pace back and forth nervously and check the clock every 30 seconds until it's showtime.

 

[CadillacAndy]

I've been listening to back episodes from the Brewing Network. Just downloaded a bunch of Brew Strong episodes. In order to listen to everything they have available for download I'm going to need to start brewing all day, every day for the next year!

 

[phoenixs4r]

We generally time the mash with the kids nap time so we can have some uninterrupted PEACE!

 

[ArcticBear]

Generally I make lunch or dinner... And heat my sparge water

 

[PKLehmer]

Prep my hop additions, heat my sparge water. Drink beer, stare off into space, look busy when SWMBO peeks outside, repeat.

Looking busy is the most important part, wouldn't want to get sucked into doing any extra work...

 

[iijakii]

Drink and admire the glory of beer.

 

[teddy4xp]

I usually spend some "quality" time with my wife

 

[griz419]

Boil an extract recipe

 

[Jakeintoledo]

I try to bang the wife.

Hey, you asked.

 

[squeekybobo]

No harm in trying, I guess... Lack of quality time is what drives me to brew :-/

 

[Jakeintoledo]

well, to be fair, I usually give up and do what most everyone else do, namely, get all the crap ready yada yada.

but there have been a couple of batches that called for 60 min mash times, that went 90 mins.

okay. 65.

 

[Brulosopher]

Okay so just stir at the beginning and I am good. Thanks for the advice guys. As for what I am using it is a keggle with a BIAB bag so not really a mash tun.

You can absolutely stir more often than just the beginning, many people do. I do, every 20 mins- I lose 1F to 2F over an hour and pick up 4-5 points in efficiency. I sometimes just let it sit, too.

 

[Rogue14]

Drink a beer and smoke a cigar.

 

[eanmcnulty]

I often clean the wheels on my car or vacuum the inside or wash the windows.

 

[malevolent]

Brewing at home on my own or with a single friend, relax and watch TV with a homebrew.

Brewing in the city doing test batches for a microbrewery with 4-5 guys, we sample each other's home brews and share some cellar rarities. Some fantastic days...