What method of mashing do you use?

[aboantopick]

Hi I am just starting to get into all grain brewing, I love it!
Reading and looking at videos I see many ways to mash. I ended up building mine from 2-Igloo 5 gal. water coolers and my boil pot.
Before I really perfect my technique I would like to see which method is used most. Probably mashing in the plastic coolers and using charts to add water a little hotter than you want the mash temps.
I only have 5 gallon vats and was afraid I was going to run out of room so this is what I am doing and it seems to work.

1. Put about 8 gal water in my 10 gal pot. heat it to about 185f and pump
about 5 gal of it into my sparge vat. Put the lid on to keep it to temp. It loses a little on transfer and cools down a bit,
2. Add more water to the boil pot bring it to 3.5 to 4 gal. and bring my mash water up to temp in my boil pot with valve and temp gauge.
3. Add my grain, stir well, cover and hit it with the flame when needed, stir just a bit to even the temp reading ( I have complete control over temps being in the boil pot)
4. After mash time reached I add flame and heat it up to sparge temp, then using a small pot I transfer the grain to the mash tun until the pot is easy to dump the rest into the tun. Using a bit of the sparge water I rinse the pot into the tun.
5. Then I drain the wort the usual way rinsing the grain bed with the first two cups or so of wort then into the boil pot sitting on the burner from the tun just above it with 1 ft of 1/2" hose from the sparge water just above it with 1 ft of 1/2" hose.

This is working and dont have to use my bad back much. Am I developing bad habits or is this just another way to skin a cat?

 

[Yooper]

I don't know if there is really a method that is used most. Some people batch sparge, some fly sparge, some do a hybrid of that, and some do a no sparge. Some brew in a bag (BIAB) and also do a no sparge, but some BIAB and sparge.

I think the days of most people having a three vessel system are gone. I happen to have a "standard" three vessel system on a stand, but if I had it all to do over again I might do things a lot differently.

It sounds like you are doing just fine, using what works for you.

I generally start with 14 gallons in my HLT (and heat it right in there) and pump to the MLT for mashing and then sparging, and that works great for me.

 

[kh54s10]

For simplicity, I went with a gravity 3 tier system. I have a 10 gallon pot up top on a turkey fryer burner for my HLT. That drains into my mash tun, a 10 gallon Rubbermaid water cooler. I do batch sparging. The mash tun drains into the boil kettle that sits on a Bayou Classic SP10 burner. It is high enough to drain into a Better Bottle or bucket sitting on the floor.

 

[vNmd]

If you like your mash method - keep it. If it works for you. I BIAB. I typically put 7 gal water and heat to 158 - 160. Put the bag in the boil ketttle, add the grain, and stir well. I put a winter coat around the kettle to keep the temp and remove the bag with grain after mash. Sometimes I mash out sometimes I don't. My back isn't the greatest and haven't had issues with pulling the bag out yet, but a lot of people use pullies for larger grain bills. I don't move anything, except the bag of grains, from sart to finish. I think the important thing is the result. If it produces good beer - go with it.

 

[MindenMan]

I agree, whatever works best for you, do that. I am still trying to not have to lift pots full of liquid, so i scoop out from one pot to another, but that doesn't always work out in my favor. I haven't decided which one of my BK's will be the first to get a valve installed.

 

[AnOldUR]

... but if I had it all to do over again I might do things a lot differently.

Traitor!

 

[Yooper]

Traitor!

Haha- I wouldn't change some of the things, but if I was able to wave a magic wand and change a few:

-Get a bigger HLT than MLT. 15 gallons is not big enough for a 10 gallon batch- but a 15 gallon MLT is more than adequate.

-Bottom draining ALL vessels, right from the start.

Things that are awesome and I would never change are numerous, but the biggies are the indoor all-electric system (should have done it sooner!) and having two pumps instead of using a two-tier with gravity.

I love the idea of BIAB, but as a 135-pound weakling, brewing 10 gallon batches (soon to be 11 again!), and all indoors, it's not feasible for me.

 

[masskrug]

Mash with 5 gallons, rinse with 4 gallons.

 

[ram5ey]

No sparge mash in a bag.

 

[Beergnomes]

I mash at whatever the style I am doing and grist I am using demand

 

[oakbarn]

We now use a HERMS and a Stout 40 gal MLT, but we still use our 10 gal igloos for a second batch that we run at the same time. We have 5 vessels.

Stout 40 gal MLT
Stout 30 Gal HLT
Blickman 20 gal Brew Kettle
Stout 45 Gal Brew Kettle
10 gal igloo cooler

We use BrewMath (IPhone app) to get our strike temps. We pre heat the igloo and the MLT and use the exact temp that the app says. We used to do 3 degrees warmer but finally bit the bullet and did what it said. It is right on.

We batch sparge with 170 degree water.

We plan on a 90 min mash but start checking with the iodine test at 45 minutes, 90% of the time we are done by 60.

 

[aboantopick]

Mash with 5 gallons, rinse with 4 gallons.

Being limited to two 5 gal Igloos right now I was thinking that very thing! Mash to the limit of my equipment because my sparge seems to run clean after 4 gal.

 

[aboantopick]

We now use a HERMS and a Stout 40 gal MLT, but we still use our 10 gal igloos for a second batch that we run at the same time. We have 5 vessels.

Stout 40 gal MLT
Stout 30 Gal HLT
Blickman 20 gal Brew Kettle
Stout 45 Gal Brew Kettle
10 gal igloo cooler

We use BrewMath (IPhone app) to get our strike temps. We pre heat the igloo and the MLT and use the exact temp that the app says. We used to do 3 degrees warmer but finally bit the bullet and did what it said. It is right on.

We batch sparge with 170 degree water.

We plan on a 90 min mash but start checking with the iodine test at 45 minutes, 90% of the time we are done by 60.

Sounds like a brewer with a plan!
I read about the iodine test, meant to use it but never bought it. It is a tool I will use next batch.

 

[bleme]

I BIAB and sparge when I brew at home. Nearly half the time, I brew at a friends house though. Then I use whatever they have.

 

[FatDragon]

I tweak the numbers a bit based on each beer, but generally about 7 gallons of strike water heated on our gas stove in my 9.15 gallon kettle, once it's reached strike temps I set up my bag, dump the grain in all at once, and stir to break up any clumps. Forget it for most of the next hour, maybe a couple stirs and temperature checks, then the bag goes out into a grain bucket for a pourover sparge of the last 4-5 liters of cold water. Let that sit about ten minutes while the bulk of the wort is heating to a boil, then it's time to drain and squeeze the bag, which is much easier as the cold sparge water cools most of the grain down to manageable temps (though some of it's still too hot to touch for long).

My last couple brews I've taken about a gallon of the mash water after about 45 minutes, brought it to a boil, and tossed it back in for a sort of mash-out around the one hour mark, but since I don't get to actual mash-out temps and don't want to run the burner on my kettle too long for fear of burning the nylon bag, I'm not sure if I'll keep doing that.

Upgrades I'd like to pursue are electric heating and a false bottom. I'll probably get a curtain maker to sew me a better, voile bag at some point as well - the cheap nylon ones I got from an online Chinese brew shop drain poorly and need to be mended almost every time I brew.

 

[Puddlethumper]

+1 to advice that if what you are doing makes good beer and you like it, then keep at it!

I have a basic HLT, MT, BK setup that evolved from my partial mash early brews. The HLT is an aluminum turkey fryer kettle, the MT is a thoroughly insulated 30 qt. stainless kettle with domed false bottom. The boil kettle is 32 qt. stainless with drain valve installed.

Heat 7 gal. of water to 165F. Add 1 1/2 qt. to preheat MT. Calculate strike water (usually at 1.25 qts/pound of grist). Add the water to the mash tun, dough in, allow to set a bit and check pH. Adjust as needed. Check temperature of mash (usually right on). Throw an old blanket over the MT and start prepping for the next step. Stir at 40 and 20 min. checking temperature.

Usually a 15 minute batch sparge using whatever volume of ~180F water is required to make up the 6.5 gal. required for a 60 min. boil. All this takes place with the help of a propane fired SQ14 Bayou classic in my garage.

The setup the OP has will work just fine for this method using one cooler for a MT and the other to old hot wort while using the BK to heat the sparge water.

 

[Queequeg]

I basically have the same setup described in Dave Millers "Brew like a Pro" with the exception that I bottle and batch sparge.

 

[Puddlethumper]

I basically have the same setup described in Dave Millers "Brew like a Pro" with the exception that I bottle and batch sparge.

Do you use a pump?

 

[Queequeg]

Yes.

 

[Puddlethumper]

Yes.

My next big purchase. His book got me thinking along those lines too.

 

[Queequeg]

Its a great book, the setup he suggests work great. My next big upgrade with be to switch from swamp cooling to chest freezer with an STC1000 PID.

I cover the top of grain bed with a sheet of aluminium foil which I make wholes in with a knife as opposed to making the return arm that he suggests. The foil works well as a diffuser.

I use gekka connections for my whole brewery. They are great on the kettle, grant and Tun. They don't work as well on the plate chiller because they are oversized. I can just about squeeze two gekka and two hoselock on the plate chiller. I'll probably change these to camlocks in the future.