Mash stirring

After it hits the cooler, I don't mess with it for an hour. Like a lot of folks here, I'm worried about heat loss. Although it appears, here to be a case of, diffrent strokes for diffrent folks.

 

I stir it every 15 minutes - when I remember Seriously, I've been the master of the long mash recently (3 hours) because of family so I haven't been stirring. Not sure how fermentation is affected yet.

 

I stir when i dough in then dont touch it for the next hour (or more) I generally wont even lose a degree of temp over the hour and with a double batch sparge I get about 85% efficiency on my beers 1.065 and below.

 

I stir like crazy initially, make any temp adjustments, then put the lid on and don't touch it for the duration of the mash. I'm using a cooler as a tun so I don't see any stratification. I do monitor the temp throughout the mash and rarely lose more than 1 degree over an hour.

 

Why would a cooler prevent stratification?

 

One stir at the half-way point.
Not sure it does any good but it gives me something to do while waiting to sparge.

 

I do 60 min mash w/ a stir at 15, 30, and 45. If I see that my mash is done @ 45 I don't stir and start to vorlauf.

 

Maybe he doesn't see stratification because the cooler is opaque

 

Not worried about a heat source making part of the mash hotter than the rest, unless you built a heat source into your cooler.

As long as you stir enough after infusion you should have uniform temperature distribution. Without a heat source adding/maintaining heat you should keep roughly the same even temperature distribution.

 

Have you measured temps at the top and bottom of your tun? If not, I think you might be surprised.

 

I don't know, I don't have a degree in thermodynamics. If I had to take a stab at it I would say that if the mash is well stirred and all at the same temp in the beginning, and the mash is well insulated by the cooler, then heat loss is minimized and temperature differentials needed for stratification do not occur to any meaningful extent over the 60 or 90 minutes of mashing. I do have a cooler mash tun, and I do take regular temp readings at different points in the tun at different times during the mash. I do not see any stratification, all my temps are within 0.1 degree F. I do not direct fire my mash tun, nor do I do step mashes, so I am not adding any heat either. I dough in, stir, adjust temps if needed, and lid it up. Maybe it isn't the cooler, but I don't have the problem some others speak of.

 

“I do have a cooler mash tun, and I do take regular temp readings at different points in the tun at different times during the mash. I do not see any stratification, all my temps are within 0.1 degree F.” There is the answer right there! If you measure temperature at different levels within the cooler mash tun and they are essentially the same then stratification does not occur in your cooler mash tun.

Just goes to show that you don’t need a degree to know what you are talking about!

Cheers to you sir!

 

I've done both..stir like mad..or don't..doesn't seem to make any real difference except to keep me busy and satisfy my desire to "peek"

 

I stir at the beginning then pour rough to mix the sparge water in when I batch sparge. No stirring during though.

 

All of your measurements are within one tenth of one degree? Okay.

 

Ditto, ditto, ditto, and ditto

 

Since using a cooler mash tun, I stir to mash in, cover wait 10 min for grain to absorb the water/heat then stir one more time, cover for 60/90 min, if using an un-insulated tun I'd stir more through the mash time maybe.

 

I started out stirring until hitting the mash temperature; then leaving it alone. But after hearing some advice on a podcast or something (I know... way to source it), I've started stirring every five or so throughout. It seems to have improved my efficiency by a few percentage points--at least according to my measurements and calculations, which of course are far from perfect.

Heat loss is the trade off; but generally, the conversion takes a lot less than 60 minutes--after which, you're basically just steeping, right?

 

Yes and no. Let me stumble through this and someone will probably correct me.But basically if you're doing a single infusion mash in a cooler, don't worry about this. When I was in that boat I'd go crazy trying to raise the temps w/boiling water.

Let say for your typical grist, conversion in the sense of you have reduced the starches into something that Saccharomyces can eat and not leave starches for any nasties to eat later, then yes. But enzymes work best at different temperature ranges. In for instance a higher temp range you favor an enzyme that can reduce complex sugars further. Leaving a molecule that the other enzyme can now reduce making a more fermentable wort.

Here:

http://thebrewingnetwork.com/shows/Brew-Strong/Brew-Strong-10-13-08-Enzymes

http://braukaiser.com/wiki/index.php?title=The_Science_of_Mashing