Step Mashed Koelsh, Fingers Crossed!

[manticle]

Get yourself a grimwood - easy to pick up the extra few degrees if you dough in slightly under.

That ferulic acid rest should give plenty of delicious clove with the right yeast. Any decoctions in there?

I should possibly knock out a hefe before the weather becomes stupid.

 

[mje1980]

Will do a search for grimwood!. Definately need something. I maxed out my total water volume getting to 72c, so i'll skip the mashout. Was thinking heat stick or urn. Will look at grimwood now.

 

[manticle]

Just a brand of immersion stick element.

 

[mje1980]

Found it. Which model number? Do you mean a hand held one for stirring the mash??

I have one for my HLT, but it needs to be immersed, otherwise it glows very red and im sure it would trip out/burn out if not immersed.

 

[manticle]

Yeah hand held and yes it needs to stay immersed. I stir so that I don't burn the mash but it's made step mashing a breeze. Even single infusion, trying to dough in at an exact temp means I can be slightly off (cooler only obviously) and easily fix it with a minimum of stress.

 

[Bribie G]

No way knocking the OP's methods, just for any BIABers reading this thread for some hints, with BIAB in an urn / pot on gas whatever, if you get a curved roasting rack and rest the bag on it while doing temperature ramps, you can do stepped mashes easily by applying direct heat and pumping / stirring constantly whilst checking temp closely.

It's not as labour intensive as you might think, only takes me a matter of minutes to do each ramp and with a multi stage stepped mash even mashout happens surprisingly quickly as your'e already up in the 70s.
Also with the inherently thinner BIAB mash you can employ an over the side immersion heater to get there even quicker.

edit: As per la methode Manticliere mentioned above.


recycled:

 

[mje1980]

All good input bribie, anything that helps anyone interested in step mashing is good, regardless of method.

 

[mje1980]

Ended up 5 points short. For some reason, when i step mash i seem to end up oversparging, even though i don't add anymore water than normal. At worst, an extra litre to hit a temp, but i still end up collecting 3 or 4 spare litres from the mashtun extra. Not sure why. Next time i wont add in my Grain Absorption water and see how i go.