BeerBorg

I was wondering if i was on the right forum

I've been putting off the urge to upgrade to a 10 gallon mash tun for years. I can do 13 pounds of grain in my 5 gallon which gets me through most brews so I've not been able to justify going to a larger one. Instead I cheat with sugar or malt extract when doing high gravity brews. How do normal sized mashes work in the larger tun? Any trouble with heat loss?

As far as squeezing your sack that's a mechanical process and personal thing. I've always thought of tannin extraction as being more dependant on ph and temperature and I'm undecided if gravity has an effect. Squeeze your grain sack all you want. It may cause blindness but I don't think you can squeeze hard enough to extract tannins.

Keep it clean, boys.

Dane wrote:I've been putting off the urge to upgrade to a 10 gallon mash tun for years. I can do 13 pounds of grain in my 5 gallon which gets me through most brews so I've not been able to justify going to a larger one. Instead I cheat with sugar or malt extract when doing high gravity brews. How do normal sized mashes work in the larger tun? Any trouble with heat loss?

As far as squeezing your sack that's a mechanical process and personal thing. I've always thought of tannin extraction as being more dependant on ph and temperature and I'm undecided if gravity has an effect. Squeeze your grain sack all you want. It may cause blindness but I don't think you can squeeze hard enough to extract tannins.

I have not had any loss of temperature loss with a 10 gallon mash tun. I always preheat the cooler with a gallon of water before I start the mashing in process.

alb wrote:Keep it clean, boys.

Your 100% right Alb. Seriously, my apologies. Sometimes the high school kid in me comes out but as a mod, I need to remember where I am.
Guys, lets all have fun but remember where we are. Let's joke and have fun but keep it clean.

Thanks for waking me up Alb. Hope I didn't take it too far. If I did, please accept my apologies.

Aw, no worries. We're all friends here.

Yeah sorry alb

Thanks! You are a
And to the point, I really do squeeze the bejeezus out of the BIAB bag. I've got some heavy duty gloves that work at high temps and it does help but even with the gloves, those bags are 160 degrees and it's still pretty hot. It only takes a few minutes and I get about 3/4 gallon from most of my beers.

I was curious of how much you would get from the squeeze. So it is worth it, it sounds like.

I let mine drip yesterday for about 10 minutes and it seemed almost dry except right at the bottom of the bag. Does anybody have references for the articles that say tannins aren't a problem when squeezing? I'd like to take a gander.

+1

I don't know of any article, but I'll see what I can find. I squeeze my BIAB bag-o-grains like it owes me money. My beers consistently score upper 30s and low 40s with no mention of tannins yet.

FedoraDave wrote: ... had to top off the pre-boil volume with water to get it where I wanted it, and I know I didn't collect all the runnings I usually do from the mash tun.

Whenever I come up short on pre-boil volume ... I do a mini-3rd sparge. More better than plain water ... IMO.

Even when the pre-boil volume doesn't come up short ... a mini-3rd sparge produces wort -- in addition to the pre- and post boil hydro-samples -- for the next starter. Why buy starter DME when you get the starter wort for free?

Whamolagan wrote:

Dane wrote:I've been putting off the urge to upgrade to a 10 gallon mash tun for years. I can do 13 pounds of grain in my 5 gallon which gets me through most brews so I've not been able to justify going to a larger one. Instead I cheat with sugar or malt extract when doing high gravity brews. How do normal sized mashes work in the larger tun? Any trouble with heat loss?

As far as squeezing your sack that's a mechanical process and personal thing. I've always thought of tannin extraction as being more dependant on ph and temperature and I'm undecided if gravity has an effect. Squeeze your grain sack all you want. It may cause blindness but I don't think you can squeeze hard enough to extract tannins.

I have not had any loss of temperature loss with a 10 gallon mash tun. I always preheat the cooler with a gallon of water before I start the mashing in process.

I don't even do that and I have never had any temperature loss issues. And I mash outside on some pretty cold days.