Mashing With A Bruheat."How to brew beers like those......"

[Wort Went Wong]

Just a few questions for you experts.

1/ I have just received a copy of 'How To Brew Beers Like Those You Buy'. Dave Line explains that it is fine to use a Bruheat to mash before the boil. What is the best method of using a sparging bag during the mash in a bruheat and preventing it touching the hot element?

2/ If you are creating space in the bruheat to allow for the element. In other words, so the sparging bag does not touch, will this affect the water to grain ratio he recommends?
E.g... If you lower the sparging bag so it is a few cm above the element, you would have about 5 litres of water sitting at the bottom of the bruheat resulting in a tighter mash in the bag.

3/ The amount of Grain in the mash that Dave recommends is minimal compared to the 6+kg you guys are using. In many recipes he is recommending no more than 3kg of grain! He also fails to mention strike temperatures but recommends taking the mash temp from a low 45oC, then raising the temp to 55oC.
The question..... is the book 'Brewing Beers Like Those You Buy' out of date and following old fashioned methods that don’t get even close to what the modern home brewer can achieve?

Regards
Pete

 

[tubthumper]

if you try and mash in a bruheat boiler you will probably never do it again.the grain bag is a PITA to clean afterwards. also sparging means an extra bucket and puring in and out after the grainbag is quite heavy and unwieldly after wards and you need to have a plan on whee you will keep it aftert the mash. it will be too hot to add to the compost bin for quite a while ( you will kill off the worms who do most of the work in the compost).much better to use a coolbox or bucket in bucket for mashing , lots of people have detailed how to do this, bucket in bucket seems to getting favourable results of late.
as for the book try and see if you think the recipies are like the beers ( you are the only one who can tell if your palet can taste the difference).

so try the bruheat as a mash tun but you wont like it much as I have done it and will never do it again and only use my electim mash tun for a HLT . the thermostate wont give you anything reliable .

the strike temp would be the 45 he suggests and you just keep raising the temp till you get the temp he want you to, so heat boiler to 45 and then dough in then raise temp.
if you worried about the water under the grain bag you can allways recirculte the wort by drawing some off the bottom and pouring it back in over the grains, this will also help regulate the temp a little bit.


as for the amount of grain it all depends on the finished volume . as for old fashioned I read the book but was in the 80's and cant remember much of his recipies other than adding cornflakes ( as substitute for maize) in a bud clone.
we have much better ingredients now days and will get better results with modern kit. the bruheat boiler really should be used as a boiler not a mash tun.

 

[Aleman]

Just a few questions for you experts.

1/ I have just received a copy of 'How To Brew Beers Like Those You Buy'. Dave Line explains that it is fine to use a Bruheat to mash before the boil. What is the best method of using a sparging bag during the mash in a bruheat and preventing it touching the hot element?

Insulate it with camping mats and don't use the heater when mashing or you end up with charred grain.

3/ The amount of Grain in the mash that Dave recommends is minimal compared to the 6+kg you guys are using. In many recipes he is recommending no more than 3kg of grain! He also fails to mention strike temperatures but recommends taking the mash temp from a low 45oC, then raising the temp to 55oC.
The question..... is the book 'Brewing Beers Like Those You Buy' out of date and following old fashioned methods that don’t get even close to what the modern home brewer can achieve?

Dave was notorious for overestimating mash efficiency basing his resipes on 97% . . . a good average is around 75% . . . so you need to use 20% more grain than suggested in the recipe.

Personally If I was to use a bruheat to mash in. I would heat the liquor in an insulated bruheat to strike heat (68C), then add the grain (with no grain bag) and allow it to mash for 90 minutes) . . . Then Tip the mash into another bucket containing the grain bag nd sparge in that.

 

[A T]

Personally If I was to use a bruheat to mash in. I would heat the liquor in an insulated bruheat to strike heat (68C), then add the grain (with no grain bag) and allow it to mash for 90 minutes)

[/quote]

I think Aleman means 78C and then add the grain

 

[Aleman]

Uh Uh . . . If you are heating the mash liquor in the mash tun the loss to the grain is pretty minimal . . . Might be more like 70-72 than 68 though

 

[A T]

Yep, was just testing you