[Joe Sr.]

Yes.  Thought that was part of the keeping out DO.

Maybe I'm a goof.

I did not find any dough balls or dry malt when I dumped the grain, but I also wasn't checking for it.

[Big Monk]

Yes.  Thought that was part of the keeping out DO.

Maybe I'm a goof.

I did not find any dough balls or dry malt when I dumped the grain, but I also wasn't checking for it.

You can definitely stir. A gentle stir during mash in and another gentle stir when you sparge.

If you are implementing a mash cap and underletting, you'll have plenty of margin left with your Mash and Sparge additions of NaMeta to keep you out of trouble with O2.

[Joe Sr.]

Good to know.  The mash cap I planned to use (pot lid) didn't fit like I hoped so I abandoned it.  Need to take some time and make one.  But time is precious for me these days.

I had plenty of mishaps throughout the day, including dumping a bunch of grain on the ground when I went to mill it.  Oh well.  The beer is fermenting.  The BDSA will be more like a dubbel.  The saison will be fine, I think.  I added some sugar to bump the OG.

Next time will be more better.

[The Beerery]

I did my boil mostly covered yesterday as well.  I had to have the burner down so low the flame went out  couple times, but it was a little windy too.

Pre-boiling pretty much offset any propane savings though.  And added hugely to the length of the brew day.

Anyway, I implemented what I could for reducing DO.  We'll see how the beer comes out.

I had miserable conversion with the underlet undisturbed mash.  Maybe I need to crush finer...

Joe, I have used a bucket heater on a timer for years, that gets the water up to normal strike temp when I get up in the morning. For a LODO brew I light the fire, and as the water is getting to the boil, I grind the malt and do other prep jobs. It adds a little time, but not a lot.

I do the same.  I get water in the HLT, get it heating, weigh and condition grains, get water salts and scavengers ready, hoses ready etc. Overall it maybe adds 15-20min to my day.  I just did a brew Friday that was a pretty standard day for me... preboil, hochkurz mash (30/30/10) all ramps and whatnot at 1c/min. 60 minute boil, whirlpool chill to 50f, then a 40 minute cold break seperation, and cleanup.  From lights on in the brewery to lights out it was 5hrs 30 minutes. I don't really know how this compares to folks, but it takes what it takes to produce what I want to produce! 


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[natebrews]

Joe, for my mash cap and kettle cap (during chilling) I'm using disposable pizza pans from the super market.  They work nicely as a floating lid, and it is easy enough to shape them to whatever your exact needs are.  I would prefer to have a piece of food grade silicone foam for it but I'm not up to dropping the cash on that right now. 

[Joe Sr.]

Nice.  Pizza pans might work.  I have a bunch of old pie plates, but they're way to small.

As far as pre-boiling, I fired up the kettle while I did the weighing of grains, etc.  It was in the 20s yesterday and I was overly generous on the amount of water, but it took a LONG time to boil and then also took awhile for the temp to drop so I could mash in.  It wasn't really a problem, but if I do it again I'll boil 2/3 the amount of water.  It just made for a long day.  I may have had the burner on too low.  But whatever.  It gave me time to smoke a cigar and light a fire so the kids could make s'mores.

[natebrews]

One thing with those pizza pans is that you need to weigh it down a bit because it is so light, otherwise you can get a air gap under it in places.

[brewinhard]

I fashioned my mash cap out of some thin styrofoam cut and shaved to size and covered generously with aluminum foil. Worked great and had a real tight fit.

I only employ one on the mash though and should probably consider one for the kettle when chilling, but my SS chiller kind of gets in the way.

[Philbrew]

I fashioned my mash cap out of some thin styrofoam cut and shaved to size and covered generously with aluminum foil. Worked great and had a real tight fit.

I only employ one on the mash though and should probably consider one for the kettle when chilling, but my SS chiller kind of gets in the way.

I made one for the kettle during chilling but I read earlier in this thread to keep the wort uncovered during chill to let DMS escape.

[natebrews]

If my memory serves, the DMS formation stops at about 140F, and I suspect you aren't getting much of it evolving once you get below 170 or so, but that is a total guess.  With my chilling method, I get down below 140 in about a minute I am not worrying about it for my setup.

[stpug]

Yes.  Thought that was part of the keeping out DO [not stirring].

Maybe I'm a goof.

I did not find any dough balls or dry malt when I dumped the grain, but I also wasn't checking for it.

I did the same thing with one of my first low oxygen batches last summer (i.e. no stirring), and the results were identical to yours (very poor conversion/extraction).  Since then, I ensure I get good mixing of grains with water with focus on minimal aeration (basically this means just gentle stirring without a whole lot of effort).

[dilluh98]

Yes.  Thought that was part of the keeping out DO [not stirring].

Maybe I'm a goof.

I did not find any dough balls or dry malt when I dumped the grain, but I also wasn't checking for it.

I did the same thing with one of my first low oxygen batches last summer (i.e. no stirring), and the results were identical to yours (very poor conversion/extraction).  Since then, I ensure I get good mixing of grains with water with focus on minimal aeration (basically this means just gentle stirring without a whole lot of effort).

Me too. I haven't noticed any harm in some gentle stirring. Just don't whisk it like an egg.

[natebrews]

As another data point:

I just ran off a mash for the Scottish 60/- I'm doing today and did no sparge, underlet, one gentle stir after all the liquor was in, 156F, pH 5.25.  I got 74% mash efficiency (calculated from pre-boil gravity using beersmith).  My first one with no stirring also came out at ~50%, though I couldn't find any dough balls in there.

My dough in time was about 8-10 minutes, which was based on what Bryan said.  If I go faster I find that it doesn't seem to work so well as the grain starts to float up on the water. 

[HoosierBrew]

Yes.  Thought that was part of the keeping out DO [not stirring].

Maybe I'm a goof.

I did not find any dough balls or dry malt when I dumped the grain, but I also wasn't checking for it.

I did the same thing with one of my first low oxygen batches last summer (i.e. no stirring), and the results were identical to yours (very poor conversion/extraction).  Since then, I ensure I get good mixing of grains with water with focus on minimal aeration (basically this means just gentle stirring without a whole lot of effort).

Me too. I haven't noticed any harm in some gentle stirring. Just don't whisk it like an egg.

Same here.

[tommymorris]

One thing with those pizza pans is that you need to weigh it down a bit because it is so light, otherwise you can get a air gap under it in places.

LODO also keeps your coffee warm.