BeerBorg

Yesterday was the first use of my new mash tun and I have to say that it was fun.


It totally changed up my brew day and made me think about things I hadn't though of before. How was I going to pour in my sparge water since I don't have a true HLT? Was I going to change my mind about batch sparging (versus fly sparging? What type of efficiency would I get? Would I get the water volumes right? Would I remember to vorlauf?

What was nice was not having to worry about wrapping my pot in towels, etc. to keep my mash temp. The cooler insulated things perfectly.

After my 60-minute mash, I DID remember to vorlauf and then I drained the mash tun into my 8G pot. Wow, so much easier to open a ball valve than it is to lift 14lbs of grains in a bag and squeeze them! This is the first run off.


I then used a 1/2G glass measuring cup to pour in about 1/2 of my sparge water from the 5G pot I was using as a HLT (which is the pot I use for boiling smaller batches). I let that sit for 10 minutes while I started to heat my wort and then wondered....would my stovetop bring 7G of wort to boil? I've only ever used my turkey fryer outdoor for 5G batches in the past.


When it was time to drain my mash tun again I ran into a minor roadblock. How would I drain this into my pot now? I put a towel on the floor to handle the hot pot then let it drain again. After this was done, I put the pot back on the stove and went about adding the rest of my mash water. There is likely a better way to do this so I will be looking into how I can raise my mash tun next time to avoid having to pick up the pot full of wort a few times. Maybe on top of my fridge....

After running a second sparge I had collected nearly 7G of wort and was crossing my fingers that I could boil it inside. It took only a bit longer to come to a boil than the 5G or so I usually do so I Was pleased with that. I had planned on 1G boil off and about 1/2G loss to cooling and trub. In the end I only boiled off about 3/4G and didn't want to extend my boil time as it would have thrown off what was my 15-minute hop addition.

It then took me longer to cool than normal because:
1) I forgot that a larger batch takes longer to cool - d'uh!
2) My tap water wasn't as cold as it should be in Feb. It was 78 yesterday - WTF?!?!
3) I didn't have as much ice handy as I should have because of #2

In the end, I ended up putting 5.25G in the fermenter and leaving a good 1/2G in the pot. Had I boiled longer and chilled a bit longer I would have had a bit higher gravity and less trub but I'm happy with where I ended up. I was a bit over on volume and ended up 2pts lower on gravity than I was targeting (1.064 versus 1.066). The sample was super clear and I was really happy with that!




I'll make a few adjustments next time like:
1) Adjusting for less boil off indoors
2) Letting my sparge(s) sit a bit longer before draining them
3) Have enough ice on hand to chill quicker/completely
4) Raise my mash tun to drain into my pot without having to lift the hot pot full of wort (not that big of a deal, but want to avoid spots for potential problems)

Secretly, I was hoping for higher efficiency, but I ended up at about 72% so I can't complain much. That's where I was with BIAB and for the first time through the new process I have no complaints. I found that this minor change somewhat invigorated my brewing and I'm glad I made the change. I'll learn more as I go and keep asking for help here on things that I need advice on, too.

Now Beer-lord can't yell at me for having so much empty space in my fermenter! [emoji14]

And a pic of the grains...just for fun:


I didn't get a pic of the inside of the mash tun, but this is what the false bottom looks like:



Tubing goes from the nipple shown to the nipple inside the cooler. The drain sucks from below the screen but as you can see the actual tubing is above the screen.

Sweet!

Nice work Ron, congrats!

A second smaller pot is handy to use after you collect your first runnings. Flame on and begin to heat the wort you've collected while still sparging for more.

Thanks BigPapaG!

Pudge, good idea. I already have 2 (boil kettle plus the one heating my sparge water) plus my cooler so I'm not sure my little kitchen space will support a third but I may try that. Otherwise I may put the mash tun on the fridge and let it drain into the boil kettle while it's heating up.


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I would say overall things went pretty well for your first time with the new gear. Glad everything went well and thanks for sharing.

Mas tun-ing.

Mas is Spanish for more, right?

Mash tun pro tip:
Place a piece of foil (or SS lid) atop the grain bed to reduce heat loss into the dead space during the mash.

Vorlauf pro tip:
Place a piece of foil atop the grain bed to prevent gouging when the wort is returned to the tun.

HerbMeowing wrote:Mash tun pro tip:
Place a piece of foil (or SS lid) atop the grain bed to reduce heat loss into the dead space during the mash.

Vorlauf pro tip:
Place a piece of foil atop the grain bed to prevent gouging when the wort is returned to the tun.

@HerbMeowing, I noticed too that the screw on lids of the coolers are a major source of heat loss. You provided a good tip I wouldn't have though of. Instead I used 2 large beach towels to cover my mash tun, which really cut down on the heat loss.

Congrats on your first brew on the new setup. Looks like it's a winner, that hydro sample is beautiful. What did you brew?

IF* you are looking for a few more gravity points, here's a few things to consider:

1) What is your water to grain ratio?...I have found thinner mashes help efficiency some. That may do it for you.

2) Do you do a mashout before draining the first runnings?...The temp increase to 168* can give you a few more gravity points.

3) Are you at the stage of checking mash ph?...Getting your mash ph in the correct range 5.2-5.4 can lead in an increase in conversion.

Just a few things you can look at for a few more gravity points and lock in your system if you are looking to do so. But on the other hand you did do a double sparge if I read your post right, so you might not be able to get much more unless you look to your crush.

ScrewyBrewer wrote:

HerbMeowing wrote:Mash tun pro tip:
Place a piece of foil (or SS lid) atop the grain bed to reduce heat loss into the dead space during the mash.

Vorlauf pro tip:
Place a piece of foil atop the grain bed to prevent gouging when the wort is returned to the tun.

@HerbMeowing, I noticed too that the screw on lids of the coolers are a major source of heat loss. You provided a good tip I wouldn't have though of. Instead I used 2 large beach towels to cover my mash tun, which really cut down on the heat loss.

Really? How much heat are you losing? My cheapie 5 gallon cooler holds temp surprisingly well.

^I believe this to be an old Wilson trick.

The reason I went with the 7 gal cooler myself for my mashtun was to minimize headspace which will help me overall. I didn't want to go with a 10 gal cooler for that reason. I do believe thermal mass does play a part. I know others use a much larger cooler for a mashtun and like a lot of things I guess it all depends. I have the same cooler Kealia is breaking in and I tell ya it hold temps better than any cooler I have used before which was the reason I got it.

The foil is a good tip but probably not necessary based on his batch size. Also the grain bed is deep enough in a round cooler that pouring your vorlauf back into the mashtun shouldn't disturb your grain bed at all. I'm not trying to void the good tips, just talk about them in your situation.

I second the use of a smaller pot to collect the sparges. For the longest time I was draining everything into my 8g pot, then dead-lifting the thing (which probably weighed over 50 pounds at that point) onto the stove. I finally realized I didn't need to do that, since I already had a 3g pot and a 5g pot I use for my smaller batches. Since I store them all in my basement under my bottling bench, and they nest perfectly, they don't take up any more space than the single 8g pot.

As far as heat loss, I'm like Pudge; my cheap-o homemade Home Dopey cooler tun holds the heat very well, but YMMV.

FWIW, I do two 15-minute sparges, and I've dialed in my pre-boil volume pretty well. You'll quickly learn your rate of absorption and how much to expect from the first runnings. For me, I can pretty much count on getting half my liquid back. As far as your OG, given that your post-boil volume was higher than expected, I'd have to say you pretty much nailed it.

Welcome to the world of the mash tun!

I started using a bag in my mash cooler just for ease of cleaning, but found it is keeping more debris out of the boil kettle than before with just the manifold. Since you already have the bag it couldn't hurt to use it along with your false bottom, and could prevent stuck sparge.

I use a 10 gallon cooler with a plastic lid and have never lost more than 2 degrees over 90 minutes, and not even quite that much, and that was on a 40 degree day. Possibly it is due to less head space from doing a thinner mash (usually 1.75 to 2 qts per pound of grain). I started with the thinner mash to avoid stuck sparges with my false bottom system, but then found out that it also increased my efficiency dramatically. And now that I read this thread I think they must be aiding me in retaining heat by reducing dead space.

As far as the lifting my kettle sits on my burner as I fill it. I have my mash tun on a hydraulic table.


I bought it at Everything Chinese All the Time, otherwise known as Harbor Freight

I set a plastic plate in my tun to disperse the Vorlauf.

On a side note. I would be leary of doing a full boil inside my house. I might be way off base on this but my "When in doubt take the safest course of action" mentality kicks in here. That gallon to gallon and a half of boiled off water has to go somewhere. I would be afraid of warping cabinets or creating mildew somewhere.