1st mash - efficiency?

[tomU]

Just ordered some MO to do a brew over the weekend - its going to be the first full mash i've done. Bought the cheapo coolbox from Lidl and I've tested it for heat retention - clad in a sleeping bag it dropped 4C over a hour so I'll top up with boiling water a couple of times. I havn't converted the box to have a tap and false bottom so I'll use a bucket in bucket lauter tun to sparge.

1st question: What is the most cost effective and efficient way to sparge?

2nd: What would anyone estimate my efficiency to be? Pretty low I'd imagine?

I think I'll use a good bit more malt than a recipe would call for - I guess its better to over do it than go too low?

One more question - Is the trauma of transferring mashed grains from one vessel to another going to cause extraction of excess tannins? If so would using a net sparging bag to move them be the answer?

Cheers in advance chaps, and apologies for boring you all with such novice questions...

[HG]

I would say the most effective sparging method is done with a sparge arm (Leyland Homebrew shop do one for £29.99 I believe)- or you could re - steep the grains in water of about 160-170 F but you risk disloging matter harmful to the brew.
For that same reason I would advise against transfering the grains after the mash.
You'd probably be surprised with your mashh efficiency and it could well be anything between 50 to 70 %. But like you say, a bit more malt wouldn't do much harm.

HG

[MightyMouth]

No way to tell what your efficency will be until after the fact, I would suggest estimating 75%. I wouldnt use any more malt than is called for, just record your efficency over several brews then once you start getting similar efficencies you can adjust the grain bill.

The efficency of my first brew was 59%, My second was much higher at 76% and my third was 69%. All taste great anyway so dont worry too much about it.

I suggest batch sparging as its easy and works fine.

[bigun]

IF YOU ARE GOING TO USE A BUCKET IN BUCKET TO SPARGE, WHY DON'T YOU JUST MASH IN THE BUCKETS, MOST PEOPLE I KNOW USE THIS METHOD, WITH GREAT RESULTS. IT JUST NEEDS TO BE WELL WRAPPED UP. I TEND NOT TO ARGUE WITH SOMEONE WHO HAS BEEN AG BREWING FOR FORTY YEARS.
I AND OTHERS IN OUR GROUP SPARGE SIMPLY WITH A PIPE WITH A WATERING CAN ROSE ON ATTACHED TO A HLT, WORKS FINE.

[MightyMouth]

IF YOU ARE GOING TO USE A BUCKET IN BUCKET TO SPARGE, WHY DON'T YOU JUST MASH IN THE BUCKETS, MOST PEOPLE I KNOW USE THIS METHOD, WITH GREAT RESULTS. IT JUST NEEDS TO BE WELL WRAPPED UP. I TEND NOT TO ARGUE WITH SOMEONE WHO HAS BEEN AG BREWING FOR FORTY YEARS.
I AND OTHERS IN OUR GROUP SPARGE SIMPLY WITH A PIPE WITH A WATERING CAN ROSE ON ATTACHED TO A HLT, WORKS FINE.

Do you all shout all the time too?

[baldyjason]

[booldawg]

Did you find yourself reading it out in your in head in a loud voice too?

[MightyMouth]

Did you find yourself reading it out in your in head in a loud voice too?

I found myself saying it in my head like Loud Howard from Dilbert

[Matt]

tomU, you could possibly reduce the heat loss in your MT by 'pre-heating' it using a kettle full of boiled water - put it in and close lid about 20 mins before you start your mash process (tip it out before you start the mash proper).

With a Hop and grape MT (the blue ones) I get 1 degree C loss over 2 hrs using this method plus the sleeping back wrap.

[mattmacleod]

+1 for mashing in the buckets.

I simply use a regular 5 gallon brewing bucket to which I've attached a tap and a copper slotted manifold for lautering. I wrap the mash tun in a fleece jacket that I got free as part of a promotion - its the warmest jacket I own! I get about 1-2 degrees heat loss over the hour mash.

[tomU]

Cheers for the feedback guys, especially that motivational 'hairdryer treatment' response from bigun .

I think I'll stick with the coolbox - I've bought it so I might as well use it. Cheers for the 'pre-heating' tip matt - I'll give that a go.
I'll make a sparging arm at some point but for now I want to keep everything as low cost as possible - I reckon the local 99p shop will have watering cans so I'll knock something up with one of those. Another question: Is it ok to use a plastic barrel as a HLT? Will it cope with the heat?
As for efficiency - I think I'll aim for a highish SG so if I do under hit with my efficiency I'll just produce a lighter beer without it being too light.

[Iank]

IF YOU ARE GOING TO USE A BUCKET IN BUCKET TO SPARGE, WHY DON'T YOU JUST MASH IN THE BUCKETS, MOST PEOPLE I KNOW USE THIS METHOD, WITH GREAT RESULTS. IT JUST NEEDS TO BE WELL WRAPPED UP. I TEND NOT TO ARGUE WITH SOMEONE WHO HAS BEEN AG BREWING FOR FORTY YEARS.
I AND OTHERS IN OUR GROUP SPARGE SIMPLY WITH A PIPE WITH A WATERING CAN ROSE ON ATTACHED TO A HLT, WORKS FINE.

Shhh...
We sparged with a watering-can rose connected via a tube to the hlt and found that very satisfactory. Given the runoff from our mash tun tends to be very slow we'd just turn it on and off intermittently to keep the water at the desirable level.

[Iank]

Did you find yourself reading it out in your in head in a loud voice too?

Perhaps we have a celebrity brewer in our midst?

[russt1969]

Did you find yourself reading it out in your in head in a loud voice too?

Perhaps we have a celebrity brewer in our midst?

[Jim]

IF YOU ARE GOING TO USE A BUCKET IN BUCKET TO SPARGE, WHY DON'T YOU JUST MASH IN THE BUCKETS, MOST PEOPLE I KNOW USE THIS METHOD, WITH GREAT RESULTS. IT JUST NEEDS TO BE WELL WRAPPED UP. I TEND NOT TO ARGUE WITH SOMEONE WHO HAS BEEN AG BREWING FOR FORTY YEARS.
I AND OTHERS IN OUR GROUP SPARGE SIMPLY WITH A PIPE WITH A WATERING CAN ROSE ON ATTACHED TO A HLT, WORKS FINE.

This isn't your group by any chance, is it?