Ghetto Mash Tun

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PostModern

Iron Wolf Brewery
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I've been brewing with extract + steeped specialty grains + hops for a while now and am about to take the next baby-step into minimashes. I don't want to go full on with huge mash volumes and the resulting full wort boils etc. Basically I want to mash about a kilo and a half of pale or munich malts along with the crystals and caramels I know and love, then make up the bulk of the fermentables with extract.

So looking about the kitchen, I see my pasta pot with removable strainer. Basically it's like a bucket in a bucket setup except the holes in the strainer are quite large. Anyway my idea is this:

Put the strainer in the pot, 3/4 fill with water (about 7 litres) and raise the water to strike temp (80 deg C or so) then turn off the heat. Line the strainer with a clean linen towel and gently add the malts. Then put the lid on and maintain temp as necessary for an hour. After the hour, raise the strainer, towel and grains gently out of the pot, avoiding nasty hot side aeration dribbles back into the wort.

I'd then just bring to the boil, add extracts, return to boil and hop as per usual.

Can anyone see any problems with this method?
 
PM
i did my first partial mash the same way as this.
a couple of this i did differently
the grain bed seem to bind together and not much went thru the pasta strainer. the grains that did i poured back thru the grain bed again to filter it before sparging. (requires a second smaller pot)
i also wrapped the pot in bubble wrap and an old bath towel for insulation. worked a treat, after 45min just gently added a bit of boiling water to increase the temp back to the mark. not much water required.
i got great efficency with this.
give it a go
even a stuff up tastes better than kit & kilo. (my opinoin)

crackers
 
Thanks, crackers. How did you sparge? I was thinking I'd tie off the top of the cloth and put the grain bed into another pot of sparge water then ladle this back into the main boil.

My main worry with regard to a stuff up is hot side aeration. I guess that comes down to a matter of technique in removing the grains from the pot and combining the sparge with the first runnings.

Another issue would be grain particles sneaking thru the towel, but a cheesecloth should have small enough pores to prevent much worry and the smaller parts might precipitate out during the chill without doing anything too nasty in the boil... I hope.

Well, I'll be giving this a go within the next few weeks. I'll report back with results. In the meantime, other comments would still be appreciated. I might end up making a small mash tun anyway.
 
pm
i lifted the strainer above the pot, rested on the edge of 2 chopping boards i think, and ladled the sparge water, from another pot, over the grain bed.
the grain bed compacted itself together that no grains fell through. the hole on my pasta strainer were 3mm on the bottom and 4mm on the sides and i didnt have a problem.
i used a kit that came from grumpys, it was the guinness clone.
if your worried about getting all the grains out , after sparging, filter the wort before boiling. not to sure how this would be done without to much chance of infections.
from what ive read, not many worry about hsa, just do it with care and avoid splashing as much as possible.

good luck & have fun
its easier that it sounds i found.
crackers
 
If I filter before boiling, infections will be killed in the boil. Filtering cold wort would have more risk I think. In any case, I was going to mash with the grains in a tea towel, so they'd be filtered before and during the sparge.

Thanks again, I think I will proceed with this plan.
 
I've been loant a deprecated mini-mash tun by a friend, so I won't be doing this after all.

Still, I'd be curious to hear from others that have tried this.
 
I started off partial mashing the same way, but used a large grain bag I bought at the brewshop. After a while I found I was getting more and more adventurous and mashing larger amounts of grain, which became too cumbersome with the collander and bag method. I then built a mash tun out of an old 15L esky and some copper tubing and a tap and voila - I'm half way to full mashing!

By the way I never noticed any problems from HSA with the colander method, but then again my crude pallet probably wouldn't pick up oxidation flaws anyway, unless they were totally rank.

Cheers - Snow.
 
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