Mini Mashing Strategy
As I posted before I am going to attempt to make 4 or 6 one gallon batches of base malt only beer at the same time. I originally was looking to do the following: American 2-row, German Pils, English Pale Malt, Munich Malt, 50/50 Wheat/2-row and a specialty malt called ESB malt (I saw it at my LHBS and got curious).
The more I think about the process though, I think I may parse it back the first 4 instead. The main reason is that I got the green light to do this on the kitchen stove. With 4 burners and 4 stock pots I should be able to do this relatively faster than if I was to do it on my two burners in the garage. My plan is straight forward. Mash 2lbs of each malt in 2.5 qts water (164F strike temp, 1.25qt/lb). I hope to hit a mash temp somewhere in the 154F range. I’ll do the mashes simply in stock pots, and store them in a warmed oven for 60 minutes to hold the temp. This method will help ensure that they all are subject to the same general temp and temp swings for the duration of the mash.
I’ll sparge each one over a stainless steel mesh colander that I have used in the past for mini-mashing and steeping grains. I’ll rinse each mash through the colander with enough 168F water to get me to 1.5 gallons total. Then I’ll boil each one for 60 minutes with a single Magnum charge of hops. Sounds straight forward. I might use the big pot and propane cooker to fire up the strike and sparge water, just for convenience and speed. But next thing I need to do is borrow a couple 2 gallon stock pots…
BREW ON!

