Mixing ingredients - best practice?

[jpd1009]

Hi,

I have made a few coopers recipes, fermenting in a S/S keg king conical fermentor.

The ingredients always consist of the syrup concentrate, dry ingredients, i.e. dextrose, dry malt, etc, and water.

I have always struggled to get my head around just dumping the ingredients into the fermentor then giving it a stir. Doing this the syrup will never really mix through as it will head to the bottom and into the outlet pipe and sit undisturbed.
In addition that dry ingredients with all the lumps!

I have been been mixing everything together in a regular pot to insure no lumps and all the water & syrup us mixed. Then transfer into the fermentor.

I would love to dump it all in the fermentor.

Looking for some assurances or some tips.

Thanks in advance.

 

[yankinoz]

What's the temperature of the liquid in the fermenter?

 

[jpd1009]

No idea. I am talking about mixing ingredients, pre fermentation.

 

[djebel]

In a flat bottomed fermenter, I'd say just dump it all in and stir. Your problem is going to be getting any sort of agitation/mixing going in the cone section.

I'd just keep doing what you're doing. It's only one extra pot to wash, and large pots are fairly easy to clean, especially as you aren't cooking anything in it, just mixing so there's no risk of burnt bit sticking to the sides/bottom.

 

[yankinoz]

The hotter the water, the more readily the extracts and sugar dissolve. But hot wort would have to cool before pitching yeast. So djebel is right that cleaning the extra pot is a small price to pay. .

Regarding using water straight from the tap without boiling, here's a good source: Can You Use Tap Water for Homebrew? (Pros, Cons, and Watch Outs!) - Learning to Homebrew

 

[Brewed_Force]

I add hot water to the liquid malt extract to dissolve it, then add the other ingredients, then top up with cold water to the required volume, then stir like crazy and pitch the yeast. Never had a problem with the ingredients not mixing properly.

 

[Hangover68]

Stick the can in a pot of boiling water and let it sit for 15 mins, then add to a few litres of hot water in the fermenter.