Preparing for a sleepover

Great tip. This seems like one of those reasons to play around with the often berated carapils if working on a beer in which crystal malt sweetness is undesirable.

 

I assume what you are doing here is using the volume of liquid to buffer against heat exchange. Greater thermal mass relative to radiative surface means slower heat loss. For the same reason, would it make sense to mash-in thinner to increase thermal mass?

 

Good to know. I'd always heard that extended mashes had problems from not stopping the enzymes.

 

This is why I do no sparge mashes for anything under 10 gallon batches.

 

Exactly for that reason. If I am doing a larger mash I lower my strike volume (thicker mash) to accomodate for the volume in my MLT, if I am doing a smaller mash I raise it (thinner mash) for the same reason.