Brewing Technique

[Nosybear]

I wanted to share a brewing technique I've developed (but doubt is unique). I wanted to "move up" from extract brewing but still didn't have the space or equipment to go all-grain. To get as close as I can to all-grain and still have a stovetop-brewable beer, I came up with the following procedure:

Mash grain (the majority of the fermentables in most cases) in a 10-gal cooler with a valve and false bottom installed. I do mashes up to 8 pounds using a single infusion, a batch sparge recently changed to 167° for 5 mins due to some slight astringency at higher temps, boil the mash, add sugars and syrups at the end of the boil and let pasteurize at 170° or above for ten minutes before chilling and diluting in the fermenter. I can get some very pale worts out of this with limited browning because of the very dilute wort. I also save on hops, although that's not the intent of the procedure. So far it's produced good beers.

So my question: Does anyone else use a similar procedure and if so, what kind of results are you getting?

 

[sbaclimber]

Does anyone else use a similar procedure and if so, what kind of results are you getting?

If I understand what you have described correctly, yes, I do something *similar*.
...and the results are fairly good. My efficiency isn't too flash @ ~65%, but otherwise I have no troubles.

What I don't quite understand, is why you don't think you can do all-grain with a 10-gal cooler as a mash tun.
I am using a 25l electric canner (actual capacity is something closer to 30l) as a mash tun and a 20l pot for boiling (<- this I wish was a bit bigger...), for ~20l batches of all-grain.

Of course, if you are doing 10+ gallon batches, then yeah, I can see where a 10-gal cooler might be a bit small...

 

[Altbier bitte]

Are you saying you boil your entire mash, grain and all? Like a whole batch decoction? How does it save you on hops?

 

[Nosybear]

Mash tun isn't the problem, the kitchen is! I'm cooking on a stovetop so I'm still using a small (3.5 Gal) boil. I could do a 1.055 mash in the cooler but between the pot and the stovetop, boiling it would be problematic, hence the "mutt" process. And as to boiling the whole mash, sorry for the confusion. I'm boiling the runnings only, not the mash.

Thanks for the replies!