Mashing in Kettle

I do brew in a bag, so I mash my grains on the stove or burner in something like 7 gallons of water. I have a stainless steel colander that I flip upside down and put on the bottom of the kettle when I'm heating it on my propane burner, that keeps everything off the very bottom of the kettle to avoid scorching (or melting my brew bag). You'll definitely lose more heat than you would in a cooler, but exactly how much will depend a lot on the ambient temperature and how windy it is. I typically check my mash temp every 30 minutes or so, and most of the time it falls between 2-4 degrees Farenheit in that time. Don't know what level of precision you're looking for. My plan is to eventually build an insulator for the kettle out of reflective bubble wrap, which should help it maintain temperature a bit better, but I haven't gotten around to it yet.

 

Your kettle should hold the temperature fairly well, and the false bottom will help to avoid scorching, especially if you recirculate. I'd mash in as you normally would, only this time, in your kettle. Then all you would have to do is step up using the propane burner.
Or, you could step up using boiling water from a pot on your stove, if you start with a thicker mash.
Or, even a mixture of boiling water+propane burner if you're really worried about scorching and don't trust your propane burner skills.

It's really up to you which way you wanna do it. Just give it a shot and then you'll be able to determine if a step mash is worth it to you.

 

I never cared for doing stepped decoction mashes, but if you choose to go that route, you could still mash in your normal cooler. Just pull a portion of the mash out into your kettle for each step. It's a little messy, but it's really not that hard. You just need to do your homework and pull out the appropriate amount for each step you'd like to do. It sounds like you'd really like to get more out of those recipes. So I suggest you try it, only you can determine if it's worth it to you. And I'm sure you will get used to doing a step decoction for those beers, if you feel it's necessary.

 

http://www.franklinbrew.org/tools/decoction2.html

I've never used that specific calculator before, but I'm sure you could find more if you search. No need to do the equations yourself anymore. Also, if you wanted to save time, you wouldn't be homebrewing. I hope you give it a shot, it always gets easier after the first time you try a new technique.
And don't worry too much about the Ph, especially if you hit the appropriate Ph during your initial mash in. And generally, as you raise the mash temp the enzymes that are working at higher temps also work better at a slightly higher Ph. So, if you're getting a slowly rising Ph during your steps, that will be fine, as long as it stays in the optimal range.
As you can see, for some reason I want you to give this a shot, I don't know why. At the very least, you'll have a greater appreciation for a different brewing technique.

 

Good luck, hopefully it works out well, and have fun.

 

Decoction mashing is quite easy once you've done it a couple of times and is a fairly forgiving technique if you go in with a game plan. I found that when I do 5 gallon mashes in a cooler that if I pull twice what beersmith tells me for the decoctions then I hit my temps perfectly. You can always pull a bigger decoction and add incrementally more back to the main mash as you check the temps. If you hit your target just hold back the rest of the decoction until it cools to target temp. I like two decoctions, one to go from around 144 to 158 and another to mashout. Then if I want a protein rest I usually want the temp in that range for a very short time and use an infusion to go to the sacch rest.

 

My next batch will be a single infusion in the tun. I have been doing stepped mashes in the kettle (no false bottom) and achieving "correct" OG. However, I do not achieve correct FG. I have ruled out problems with yeast and just about everything else. It seems that I'm extracting the starches, but screwing up the conversion by overheating at the bottom of the kettle, stir as I may. Hence, I end up with un-convertable stuff in the wort. Still tastes good, but can't get the ABV I should.

 

I've been mashing in the kettle, then dumping into my tun to drain, followed by sparging.

 

It's not odd that overheating some of the mash would produce a less fermentable wort. But it doesn't sound like @redgorillabreath is getting unconverted starches, because he is getting his expected OGs. That at least implies full conversion from starches to sugars/dextrins. So what he's getting may be a larger proportion of unfermentable dextrins and/or maltotriose.

 

That would be the idea.

I was commenting on @redgorillabreath's comment. I don't think he was talking about decoctions.