As we speak I have grain mashing in my bag/kettle. One of the sides of the bag came loose and a descent chunk of grain fell into the pot. My plan is to take the bag out when I am done mashing and set it aside in a bucket. Than I am going to pour the wort through my strainer into another pot. Maybe even re-strain back through to the original brew kettle to catch all of the grain that fell out of the kettle. That got me thinking. What if i just didn't use a bag at all, heated up the water, doughed in, and than strained the grains out of the wort using the method described above?
Problems I might see would be that it might work for a very small amount of grains but a regular batch of grains might make this difficult. Also I may be wrong but scorching of the grains may occur if you add heat this way like in doing a step mash or just to keep the pot warm in the winter time. Oh and of course it may be dangerous handling that amount of hot water. Thinking about it now keeping it safe might be the biggest obstacle.
Benefits would be even less equipment. No bag draining. And no hated temp differences between inside the bag and outside the bag.
Post #2 made 14 years ago
OK...My strainer was not large enough to sit on the kettle and not fall in. I used a piece of voile that I clipped over the top of the pot and strained the wort through collecting the grains. I than poured the wort clear of grains back into the original kettle, and put the grains back into the grain bag. The wort is now being heated to mash out temps, when it gets there I am going to put the bag of grains back in the kettle, mash out, and keep truckin'.
The pot was hot and cumbersome to handle but not too much so with some care. Might be a very useful idea for batches made in a smaller pot. There was some wort draining from the grains that I strained out of the wort once I balled up the piece of voile and picked it up. So maybe you would still get better efficiency with the bag because of the ability to squeeze and strain it.
Hopefully this all makes sense.
The pot was hot and cumbersome to handle but not too much so with some care. Might be a very useful idea for batches made in a smaller pot. There was some wort draining from the grains that I strained out of the wort once I balled up the piece of voile and picked it up. So maybe you would still get better efficiency with the bag because of the ability to squeeze and strain it.
Hopefully this all makes sense.
Post #3 made 14 years ago
All makes perfect sense jrodie. Sounds like a lot of mucking about, I'd just stitch up a new bag for your next brew.
Glad to hear you managed to get through your brew day
Glad to hear you managed to get through your brew day
"It's beer Jim, but not as we know it."
Post #4 made 14 years ago
First time I tried (and failed miserably) to do a partial mash 10 years ago was with multiple pots and a strainer. That sucked.
Fermenting: -
Cubed: -
Stirplate: -
On Tap: NS Summer Ale III (WY1272), Landlord III (WY1469), Fighter's 70/- II (WY1272), Roast Porter (WY1028), Cider, Soda
Next: Munich Helles III
5/7/12
Cubed: -
Stirplate: -
On Tap: NS Summer Ale III (WY1272), Landlord III (WY1469), Fighter's 70/- II (WY1272), Roast Porter (WY1028), Cider, Soda
Next: Munich Helles III
5/7/12
