I’m doing kind of a hybrid method. What I’m supposed to do is pull the grains out of the wort at the end of the mash. The grain basket sits on top of the kettle, and I pour a gallon at a time over the grains until boil volume is achieved. I turn up the thermostat, and by the time it’s boiling, the grains are done dripping. That’s the Mash & Boil way.
With my hybrid method, I run my sparge water slowly from my bottling bucket over the top of the grains, without pulling the grain basket up. I decided to disturb the grains as little as possible. At the same time, the M & B kettle is draining slowly into my old kettle. When the lauter tun is empty, I opened the M & B valve all the way. When the slow drain to the collecting vessel is reduced to a drip, I close the valve, pull the grain basket, dump the collected work back into the M & B, and let the grains continue to drip into the kettle from above. It’ll take almost an hour to reach a boil.
I think what I’m doing is better than their directions, but not as good as a 3 vessel setup. But it’s a process I can easily wrap my head around, and I’m happy with it. Provided that I can consistently achieve predicted volume and gravity. Today went well with volume. I ended up about a quart or two shy of what I wanted. I’ve already added that water, and I’m waiting for the boil. I’ll post gravity results later.
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