[Wort-H.O.G.]

Orange rocks


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[Iliff Ave]

I mash in a red cooler.  Red coolers have it all over those pesky blue coolers.

My blue cooler would disagree

As would my orange cooler.

[dilluh98]

Another consideration for temperature stability is how full your cooler is for the mash. I have a 70 quart but never make beers that fill the thing completely, even when doing no-sparge. When I first started using it (Coleman Xtreme) I would get drops of ~5 F over an hour. I found what helped was to add water ~5 F over desired strike temp, close the lid and let it sit for 5-10 min to really get the whole cooler warmed up, stir until I hit strike temp (or add an ice cube or two if antsy), then add grains. Using this method I never see drops of more than 1-2 F over 60-75 min, no matter how much empty space is in the cooler.

[Stevie]

Another consideration for temperature stability is how full your cooler is for the mash. I have a 70 quart but never make beers that fill the thing completely, even when doing no-sparge. When I first started using it (Coleman Xtreme) I would get drops of ~5 F over an hour. I found what helped was to add water ~5 F over desired strike temp, close the lid and let it sit for 5-10 min to really get the whole cooler warmed up, stir until I hit strike temp (or add an ice cube or two if antsy), then add grains. Using this method I never see drops of more than 1-2 F over 60-75 min, no matter how much empty space is in the cooler.

Good call out. I have two tuns for this reason. 40 & 70. I'm considering adding a 20 for 2.5 gallon stove top batches.

[dilluh98]

Good call out. I have two tuns for this reason. 40 & 70. I'm considering adding a 20 for 2.5 gallon stove top batches.

Exactly my plan as well. I hate taking up the massive amount of countertop space in the kitchen the Coleman Xtreme requires to do 2.0 - 2.5 gallon batches on the stovetop. Another excuse for a bit more kit, too. Glad my wife enjoys my hobby!

[a10t2]

Didn't Kai or someone do a mash with declining temp and post a chart?  I'd look, but I'm too lazy.

Me, maybe, or not. It doesn't really answer the question either way. http://seanterrill.com/2011/10/15/reverse-mashing-2/

[JT]

Another consideration for temperature stability is how full your cooler is for the mash. I have a 70 quart but never make beers that fill the thing completely, even when doing no-sparge. When I first started using it (Coleman Xtreme) I would get drops of ~5 F over an hour. I found what helped was to add water ~5 F over desired strike temp, close the lid and let it sit for 5-10 min to really get the whole cooler warmed up, stir until I hit strike temp (or add an ice cube or two if antsy), then add grains. Using this method I never see drops of more than 1-2 F over 60-75 min, no matter how much empty space is in the cooler.

When I used a cooler, this worked for me as well.  I always needed to stir the grain into the water.  Adding water to the grain only has one benefit that I see and that is avoiding doughballs IF you can pump the water in from underneath the grain.  When hooking the drain spout up to my pump I was always amazed at how quickly I could pump water into the cooler without any clumps forming, but bummed by the heat loss that occurred as it was tough to account for.  So I went back to adding the water first, so that the water in the cooler was at least 5°F over strike temp, waiting a bit for the tun to preheat, stirring until it came down to strike temp, then adding grain.  Even now with my RIMS setup I basically do the same thing: add grain to already heated tun. 

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[Joe Sr.]

Didn't Kai or someone do a mash with declining temp and post a chart?  I'd look, but I'm too lazy.

Me, maybe, or not. It doesn't really answer the question either way. http://seanterrill.com/2011/10/15/reverse-mashing-2/

Thanks.  That's exactly what I was remembering.  Apologies I did not remember it was you.

Your results are interesting as I was recently hypothesizing that the declining mash temp on a recent batch is related to the lower attenuation I appear to be getting on that batch.  I also had lower conversion, which matches your trial.

I have been wondering if the poor conversion is correlated with lower attenuation. 

[erockrph]

Orange rocks

Sure does

[Wort-H.O.G.]

Orange rocks

Sure does

Nice!

[duboman]

mash indoors or outsoors with that cooler? i've never done a mash outside in cold temps, but as far as indoors, mine holds within couple degrees over 60-75 minutes

I've mashed in a 10gallon Rubbermaid Bev cooler in a 20 degree garage and never experienced anything greater than 1-2 degree drop over an hour and that's without any blanket or wrap around the cooler. Coolers really hold temps well

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[Steve Ruch]

Most conversion happens in the first 20 minutes or so and even a 6 degree drop over an hour would only be about 2 over the first 20 which wouldn't make all that big a difference.

[Jeffinn]

I've never experienced a big temp drop in coolers - I've used used the Coleman Extreme type coolers for years....

+1 to this.