Mashing in a fermentation bucket?

Any hardware used for mashing, fermenting or aging.

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Ferthy
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Mashing in a fermentation bucket?

Post by Ferthy »

Hello
I have been distilling for a bit over a year now. I’m looking to try going all grain this year or maybe next year. The problem researching is half the battle. I have past experience with home brewing. Only ever did partial mash beers but I understand the process and frankly making an all grain mash for distilling seems a bit easier than for beer. Less steps involved especially if you ferment on grain.

The other problem is telling the wife I will be needing more time, money, space etc.

My question is could I just mash my grains in a fermentation bucket? If I ferment on the grain I feel that would be easier. I might have to cook corn, if I use it, in my brew pot. But my brew pot would only be big enough to make one charge if I used it as my mashing tun. If I could mash in buckets and use blankets etc to insulate them during the conversion process a mashing tun is one less thing I would have to make and find a place to store in our already small house. And I could make multiple mashes at once.

Probably a newb question. But I have looked through recipes and have only really seen a couple people talking about using them and didn’t know if I would be shooting myself in the foot or if I should factor making a mashing tun into my proposal as I already have the buckets.
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fizzix
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Re: Mashing in a fermentation bucket?

Post by fizzix »

It's what I do.
I cook the corn in a stainless pot on a propane burner.
When that's done, I dump it hot into the ferment bucket with an Inkbird electronic temperature alarm that alerts me
when it drops to 155°F. Then I pour in the enzymes and malts and insulate with blankets for 90 minutes.
When that's done, I top off with cold water, let mash cool and pitch yeast and let it bubble away.

There's more often than not 3 of these ferments going at once.
Ferthy
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Re: Mashing in a fermentation bucket?

Post by Ferthy »

See that is what I’m thinking. If I did it this way I could easily make 2 batches in one run. If I had a whole day I could get 4 done. Saves time. If I reuse the grain to make a sugar wash it’s more economical. So the way I’m seeing it I would be saving time and money. My wife would almost have to say yes right?
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fizzix
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Re: Mashing in a fermentation bucket?

Post by fizzix »

Or you can do what I did and weasel one bucket at a time over a few weeks
and it's practically financially invisible.
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ShineonCrazyDiamond
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Re: Mashing in a fermentation bucket?

Post by ShineonCrazyDiamond »

This is my mashing process.

That link shows how to do a 50 gallon mash (with corn!) with only a 15 gallon BOP. It can be scaled down, though.

Before I got into the bigger batches, I used the same process with a 5 gallon pot, and (3) 5 gallon buckets. I would boil a pot full, dump it in the first bucket, then boil the second pot full, dump it in the second, etc. It's the easiest way to mash. :thumbup:
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Twisted Brick
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Re: Mashing in a fermentation bucket?

Post by Twisted Brick »

I mash in my keggle ending up with 12gallons of water/backset and 24lbs of corn/wheat/barley. Once conversion is complete I use my copper wort chiller from my brewing days to drop the temp to 110F. Rinsing the outside of the keg with a hose while stirring brings the temp down to 85F in an hour or so. I then pitch a one gallon yeast starter while aerating and cover. Roll into the garage and go have a drink.

I firmly believe a newbie can achieve perfectly acceptable results first time out of the gate because it happened to me (I think). This should help with soldering.

I like SCD's setup, tho.
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Ferthy
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Re: Mashing in a fermentation bucket?

Post by Ferthy »

SCD I like your method it is sort of along the line of what I was thinking. I think I will give it a go here pretty soon.
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Re: Mashing in a fermentation bucket?

Post by Blackdirt Cowboy »

SCD, that’s my exact process. I put half of my corn in a 55 gallon barrel then boil half the water and dump it in. I boil the other half of the water and then dump it and the rest of the corn in the barrel. Wrap it in blankets and let it cook over night. The next morning the temp will had dropped to near 160°. A quick stir with my drill and paint mixer drops it to 149° and I mix in the barley/wheat/rye. Wrap in blankets and let stand until that night. Then I add cold water to bring the specific gravity down to 1.065. By then it’s cool enough to pitch the yeast. So I have a 45 gallon wash cooked, mashed, and fermented using only a barrel and a 20 gallon pot. That gives me 2 charges in my 20 gallon pot still.
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Re: Mashing in a fermentation bucket?

Post by badflash »

I've been playing around with this:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01N9 ... UTF8&psc=1" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow
Not as good as the 2 step process with alpha and beta enzymes, and it takes a few weeks to finish at fermenting temperatures, but it supplies the yeast with a continuous supply of sugar as it converts.

I don't like fermenting on the grain as it takes a lot of time to sort out the mess at the end.
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