The problem: I have a gravity fed keggle setup with a pump that is giving me some troubles when mashing particularly with temps as well as with circulating the wort.
Equipment Detail:
I often do 10 gallon batches (fills more headspace) and a 90 minute mashes just to make SURE it is converted. I am noticing that i am quickly losing temps when mashing which really concerns me. What can I do to hold these temps? I often start up the burner trying to get the temps up throughout the keg, but my concern is that I am denaturing the enzymes by heating them much higher than they should in order to bring the temps up. I feel like this is a poor practice.
Questions:
1. Should I just ignore the fact that I am losing temp and just get my strike right and let it ride since most conversion is done within about 30 -40 minutes?
2. Am I better off just keeping the flame on the mash the whole time but REALLY low?
3. Is my assumption about the heat denaturing the enzymes accurate and a large concern?
4. I have a thermometer at the false bottom but it never seems to show much of a temperature difference throughout the entire mash. It seems like it is insulated by the grains around it in the mash and not giving an accurate reading. How do you get around this. Even stirring it is tough to get a change in temps on the thermometer but the top of the mash tun seems to have cooled off a good bit.
5. What other recommendations do you have.
Equipment Detail:
- Keggle
- burner beneath it
- NOT HERMS (no coil inside)
- False bottom (2 gallons of liquid beneath false bottom)
- home made grain bag with bottom sitting right on the false bottom for better filtration
- thermometer JUST above the false bottom reaching 1/3 into keggle
- insulated lid from silver HVAC insulation material
I often do 10 gallon batches (fills more headspace) and a 90 minute mashes just to make SURE it is converted. I am noticing that i am quickly losing temps when mashing which really concerns me. What can I do to hold these temps? I often start up the burner trying to get the temps up throughout the keg, but my concern is that I am denaturing the enzymes by heating them much higher than they should in order to bring the temps up. I feel like this is a poor practice.
Questions:
1. Should I just ignore the fact that I am losing temp and just get my strike right and let it ride since most conversion is done within about 30 -40 minutes?
2. Am I better off just keeping the flame on the mash the whole time but REALLY low?
3. Is my assumption about the heat denaturing the enzymes accurate and a large concern?
4. I have a thermometer at the false bottom but it never seems to show much of a temperature difference throughout the entire mash. It seems like it is insulated by the grains around it in the mash and not giving an accurate reading. How do you get around this. Even stirring it is tough to get a change in temps on the thermometer but the top of the mash tun seems to have cooled off a good bit.
5. What other recommendations do you have.