First all grain attempt - FAIL

[Portreath]

Having spent a good deal of time preparing for my first AG brew, a Midland Mild ale it's fallen at the first fence. The new electric mash bin I invested in hits 48c and trips out the electric in my house!! argh!! So the electric mash bin approach has gone tidsup!! Back to an earlier plan though. I now have a scaled down brew mashing in my 10ltr Buffalo hot water boiler. I'm also thinking doing a second 10ltr mash, would it be OK to save the combined wort until I can get a big pot tomorrow and start the boil then?

 

[Fil]

its a bit (teeney bit) risky what with airborne wild yeast, but any invaders will be in tiny numbers compared to what you would normally pitch post boil so i doubt you will loose much OG if any fingers crossed.. just keep it lidded

Lots of folk wil perform an overnight mash so its not that much different from that

anyway the brewgods tend to let 1st brews get by with a hell of a lot of cock ups, i know i did more wrong than right with brew #1.. And i still relished every last mouth puckering drop (i really screwed up with the bittering hops..)

Unwanted advice bit... your much better off with a simple heat retaining mash tun even if its just your burco or a bucket burred under a pile of laundry and coats.. than attempting to apply heat activly to the mash without constant stiring or at least recirculation, imho the risk of cooking the grain closest to the heat input is too great. and your probably gonna get better conversion and BHE from a heat retaining tun that drops 5C over 90 minutes than a heated tun floating around 67c as the grain near the element is almost certainly gonna get denatured (enzymes killed by heat)

just my view anyway..

welcome to the darkside byw

 

[Portreath]

Thanks for the advice, btw I'm an hour into the mash and the 10 ltr buffalo water heater is doing the trick, the smell of the liquer is amazing and almost toffee scented. so far so good :thumb:

 

[AlanHarper]

Hi Portreath,
If you are still having Mash Tun problems then may I suggest you modify a FV to do the same job. I had a go and posted how I did it on here (https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/threads/mash-tun-advice.74387/#post-716832) and it works pretty well. I get good conversion efficiency and it keeps the temperature well - good enough to loose only a couple of degrees over the whole mash time - just up the sparge temperature to about 80C and it will be fine. Have fun if you do it.

 

[Portreath]

Hi Alan

Thanks for the response and the link. The build looks awesome. With regards to my Electrim mashing bin, I managed to get it working, and I've now have two successful AG brews with the unit under my belt. The first is 10 days into the ferment, and the second is going well after 3 days in the FV. I will be posting some pics of the results.

 

[EddtheBrew]

Hi Portreath ,
Hope that the Brew turns out OK ,
Cheers
Edd