Doughing in alone?

[Deebee]

Hi all.

I have been lucky in having help for 3 of the 4 Ag brews i have made. this has made doughing in really easy as they sprinkled the grain into the mash water whilst i stired.

The one i did myelf was hard going though, so my question is in the case of being alone do you add the grain to the mash water or the mash water to the grain?

IF you add water to grain how do you manage to transfer all the water into the grain fast enough so as not to cause clumping of the grain?

Thanks

[Parva]

If I'm doing it myself I just add all of the grain to the water then stir like hell and squash the dough balls out. It's a bit of a pain but I get there in the end although we're only talking enough grain for a 23l batch, I'd imagine it would be more problematic with bigger grain bills.

[GARYSMIFF]

I stick in the grain then pour on water via newton's method.

I then do a kind of egg beating whisk thing with a long handled spoon, but not until all the water is in the Mash tun.

[dcq1974]

I mix in around a kg at a time with the water in the Tun. It can take normally around 15 minutes for a 10 gallon brew. Tough going on the arms but I noticed around a 5% increase in my efficiency doing it slowly and mixing as I add the grain with a whisk.

[escapizm]

I only do 5g brews and pour all grain into mash tun after I've filled it with mash water then stir for 3-4 mins ensuring no lumps are evident. I'd heard over stiring can cause a stuck mash my water logging grain. Should I be stiring longer?

[mentaldental]

I underlet (using a pump) which makes the mixing much easier. No balling/clumping. I have made a rather crude rake to do the mixing which is much easier than using a spoon!

[WishboneBrewery]

I have a 15L bucket under one arm that I tip grain from slowly and stir with the other hand with a plastic paddle.

[adm]

I use the lazy man's mashing in method....

I add the water to the mash tun, then dump all the grain in at once from a bucket and then I use a cordless electric drill with a paint stirrer attachment to mix it all together.

It works great, takes about 30 seconds at most, gets a really consistent mash with absolutely no dry bits or dough balls and best of all, I always get greater than 80% efficiency - sometimes creeping up into the 90s.... no stuck sparges either. Once the mash is done, I top it up, then give it another whizz with the drill. Same for the next batch of water.

I do keep a separate drill just for this (I also use it for aerating my wort after pitching) and once I'm done with the mash, I dump the paint stirrer bit into a sink full of steriliser with all my other bits that need sterilised so that it's perfectly clean for the aeration.

The paint stirrer thingy was £3.99 from B&Q. Much easier and faster than messing around hand stirring.

[dogchillibilly]

as above - cordless drill, though i use a standard white "home brew shop" spatula instead of a paint stirrer. It just about fits in the chuck.
makes life soooooooo much easier

[wetdog]

I use the underarm method, whole lot into the water but I might start using my cordless drill now. better get a new whisk though, the one I have is used for mixing plaster

[boingy]

Not sure I like the idea of the paint stirrer. They are not exactly food grade....

[Cheshire-cheese]

Sack of grain under left arm, left hand controlling the rate of flow of grain into the water. Right hand stirring.
No problem.

[adm]

Not sure I like the idea of the paint stirrer. They are not exactly food grade....

You can buy stainless ones!

[Fatgodzilla]

by mentaldental on Sun Sep 27, 2009 9:08 pm

I underlet (using a pump) which makes the mixing much easier. No balling/clumping. I have made a rather crude rake to do the mixing which is much easier than using a spoon!

I do similiar without a pump. Gravity fed through the false bottom. This allows a nice slow infusion of water to grain that rarely sees any clumping. The mash paddle is more for my fun than a necessary implement.

[boingy]

Not sure I like the idea of the paint stirrer. They are not exactly food grade....

You can buy stainless ones!

Yes you can, but probably not for £3.99.
I'd definitely avoid the painted ones.