Confused about Mash Tun

[reanimate]

*** Excuse my ignorance here, just reading up so have much to learn ***

It seems to me that the majority of Mash Tuns available are (to all intents and purposes) converted picnic chillers with a filter and tap. Am I right in thinking that hot hops is poured into the Mash Tun and the milled grain mixed in?
That being the case, from what I can understand, a Mash Tun needs to be brought up to differing temperatures in order to do it's job and without an element + control and a thermometer this can't happen?
Thanks,

Simon.

 

[BigYin]

A mash tun is an insulated vessel, with a grain filter in the bottom leading to a tap, and often a sparging arm near the top.

Some are made from cool boxes, mine is made from a plastic fermenter with foil covered bubblewrap as insulation. Others have insulated theirs with sleeping bags, domestic hot water tank jacket... etc!

The mash tun function is to hold a mix of hot water (called liquor) and the milled grain (called grist) - it holds this mixture, hopefully with minimal heatloss, usually over about 90 minutes, to dissolve the sugars out of the grain.

The hot water comes from your boiler or HLT (Hot liquor tank) .

At the end of the mash, the grain has settled into a 'bed' in the mash tun and we then run more hot water through it to extract as much of the sugars as we can. This brown sugary liquid is the wort.

The grain filter in the bottom of the tun allows the wort to run out through the tap, leaving the grain behind.

The sparge arm above the grain bed let's water trickle onto the grain bed without disturbing it.

Hope that helps clear it up a bit :thumb:

 

[Ceejay]

Hi mate,

Hops go into the boil, not the mash. 9 times out of 10, for an "single infusion mash", the mash tun is kept at a single temperature for the duration.

Have a read of this:

http://www.howtobrew.com

Should give you a pretty good idea :

 

[reanimate]

Sorry, that's what I meant yes.
Seems clearer now, I was reading http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mashing which details more complicated methods ...
Ta.

 

[simonranson]

This is a good one to read through, it's the AG how-to guide which explains what equipment does what....

http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=493