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i've been brewing for a while now, using a beer kit, but replacing the sugar with spraymalt and boiling the lot with hops in a large pan, rinsing it off into the fermentation bin, etc etc, a bit like half the brewing process if you like. i want to move to the mash stage but i'm unsure what is the best process. i have a cool box, but i'm unsure of the best way to heat the mash. i also have an electric boiler (burco type) what process have others used? i'm doing it in the kitchen. cheers
Brew in a bag works for me, and would work well in your burco.
Stand a stainless steel cake stand over the element to avoid burning the bag and fill with the full volume of water plus a bit extra. voile bag inside, bring the water up to strike temperature, usually about 70-72 degC.
Add the grain, stirring to prevent clumping. By the time you've done this, temp will be about right for the mash. Lid on, heat off and wrap in towels or blankets. Let the mash do it's thing according to the recipe, then remove the bag and let it drain into a clean fermenting bin. Use some of the wort from the burco to sparge the grains in the bag. A colander will help support the bag full of hot wet grains. Add this liquid back to the burco and bring up to the boil. When boiling, add your hops and boil for the required time.
Ten minutes from the end of boil, add any aroma hops and 3g of Irish moss - this will help it clear. If you have a wort chiller, add this too but don't set it going until the boil time is up.
Drain off the wort when cool into your fermenting bin, add yeast and wait as normal
This method does nor require a separate mash tun, so all you'll need that you don't already have is a cake rack and the bag, which us about £8.
"is" about £8 - it's a "mashing & Sparging bag"
also have a look at www.jimsbeerkit.co.uk - they have a forum too.
also, you might want to download "BrewMate" software from www.brewmate.net. It's free, there's a user community with their own recipes, and has both "traditional" and "brew in a bag (BIAB)" methods.
If you have a recipe book, eg Graham Wheeler's "Brew Your Own British Real Ale", set BrewMate default settings to "All Grain", select the grains & hops & enter the amounts & brew length, then switch to "BIAB" mode. Now click on the "Brew Day" button and it'll tell you how much water you need in your burco.
The beauty with BIAB is that's all the water you'll need - no faffing with mash tuns or sparging (ok, I've mentioned it above, after a fashion). Downside is you're limited in batch size to how much heavy wet hot grain you can lift out of your burco...
ha ha brilliant, i like the dogs face at 7.46 " why does he call me a rat all the time?" (makes doggy eyes) thanks a lot, never thought to look at youtube