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Mash Profiles and Seperate Sparge Vessels

bspisak

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For stovetop partial mashes (as described in Zainasheff & Palmer, "Brewing Classic Styles" and elsewhere), I'm using a preheated quantity of water in a mash tun, then adding the grains in a grain bag.  BeerSmith allows me to calculate the volume and strike temp of the mash water no problem. I simply uncheck adjusting for equipment (or set the temp of the mash tun to be the temp of the mash water.)

I then heat a separate vessel with sparge water and transfer the grains from the mash tun to the sparge water.  BeerSmith isn't set up to handle this situation.

I can set the % mash tun to use for batch sparge to something like 300% and it will then give me the amount of sparge water to use, but I can't calculate what my sparge strike temp should be.  I realize this would require knowing what the heat loss to ambient would be and the time you let the grains drain....

Perhaps more importantly, it would be better to show allow adding a separate Sparge step to the profile that supports this situation. Right now, the Mash Profiles assume use of a single vessel and all additional steps are either additional infusions, decoctions or heatings. 

Brian
 
bspisak said:
I then heat a separate vessel with sparge water and transfer the grains from the mash tun to the sparge water.  BeerSmith isn't set up to handle this situation.Brian

When I was doing this in kitchen I'd move the mash to a large pasta strainer, suspended over a 5-gal pot, and then manually pour sparge water thru that to collect run-off.  Sounds like you're moving grains from a saach rest pot to a sparge temp pot?  Is that correct?  How many pounds of grain are you mashing?  If it is usually under 4# of grain, would a 2-gallon cooler work?  They are $11 at WMT. 

http://www.byo.com/component/resource/article/511-countertop-partial-mashing
 
Sure, a cooler would work, but that's a different process than I'm using.

I have the inexpensive 5 gallon PolarWare pot (from when I was doing extract) and can mash 10# of grain at a ratio of 1.3 qts/#.  I heat the mash water to strike temp on the stove, add the grain in a bag, stir and put in a preheated oven. This pot just fits my oven and holds temp the entire 60 minutes.

Meanwhile, I use my boil kettle to heat the remaining single batch sparge water. When the mash is complete, I remove the bag from the mash pot, let it drain a few minutes, then transfer it to the sparge pot where it gets stirred and rests for another 15-20 minutes with the occaissonal stir. Remove, drain again, combine "runnings" from pots and boil.

I collect ~2.5 gallons from the mash and another ~4 from the sparge. My mash efficiencies have been 70-75%.  If I miss my target boil gravity, or if the recipe calls for more than 10# of gain, I make it up with DME.

Anyway, this basic method is described as a "Stovetop Partial Mash" in Appendix C of "Brewing Classic Styles". One can find it described elsewhere on the web and there was a particularly good write up on HomeBrewTalk.com.

Cheers.
 
Man, that sounds much easier than what I was doing.  And cheaper than what I'm now doing. 

Does the ~150F wet bag reduce the temp of ~4 gallons of 168F sparge water very much?  I would think not very much, so you could use ~170 and adjust from there until you dialed it in.  Since conversion is done, as long as you maintained ~168 to 170F, you'd be good. 

Is there any rinsing, or is it just the two soaks?  If you're getting 72% EE% with no rinsing that is great.  Using bags, you could crush more finely and not risk a stuck sparge......Two pots and a nice nylon mesh bag and anyone could do all-grain.  Pretty neat.
 
The last batch I used 170F and the grains dropped it to 163F.  The grains came out of a 153F mash and then were drained for a minute or two.  This was indoors with ambient temp ~68F.  I was surprised to see such a high drop as well. I just started using this method so it will take a few more batches to dial it in.

No rinsing, just a single batch sparge with an some stirring.
 
Since you're not rinsing, the chance of stripping tannins is reduced, so you could probably try 175F and see if that hits 168F. 
 
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