Ive been brewing for a few years, and have my processes down pretty well. I can basically brew with my eyes closed.
I started out all grain mashing in a 5 gallon round gott/igloo cooler with a ss braid. After a while, it became apparent if i was accepting 1:1 grist/water as a minimum, i was capped at using only so many pounds of grain; if i wanted a bigger beer, i either had to mash twice or add malt extract.
Then it hit me: My boil kettle is like 12 gallons. I can just mash in that, on the stove. Then, for sparging, i could dump (most of) that into the cooler, drain the first runnings. if necessary (due to volume constraints), i can dump whatever didnt fit before draining into it and drain again before sparging.
Eventually i got a bigger cooler, and could, in theory, mash in that, but the stove-top boil kettle mash stuck with me. I ALWAYS hit my mash temp, because i can provide direct heat. I can take the lid off if i want, and stir the crap out of it, and not lose any heat. My efficiency typically hovers around 78%, using a single batch sparge.
So, i was wondering, why is it that more people don't do this? am i missing some downside?
I started out all grain mashing in a 5 gallon round gott/igloo cooler with a ss braid. After a while, it became apparent if i was accepting 1:1 grist/water as a minimum, i was capped at using only so many pounds of grain; if i wanted a bigger beer, i either had to mash twice or add malt extract.
Then it hit me: My boil kettle is like 12 gallons. I can just mash in that, on the stove. Then, for sparging, i could dump (most of) that into the cooler, drain the first runnings. if necessary (due to volume constraints), i can dump whatever didnt fit before draining into it and drain again before sparging.
Eventually i got a bigger cooler, and could, in theory, mash in that, but the stove-top boil kettle mash stuck with me. I ALWAYS hit my mash temp, because i can provide direct heat. I can take the lid off if i want, and stir the crap out of it, and not lose any heat. My efficiency typically hovers around 78%, using a single batch sparge.
So, i was wondering, why is it that more people don't do this? am i missing some downside?