Anybody mash on their stovetop or in the oven? I’m in need of a photo for my NHC presentation. If you don’t mind your photo being used, please post it!
I almost always mash in the oven. Sorry to say I haven’t taken any pictures of it. I boil the mash water on the stove top, then add that to the grist in a 33 quart canning kettle, which was my original brew kettle. If I take the top oven rack out, and put the remaining rack on the bottom setting, it fits well. I usually set the oven to around 135 degrees to maintain my mash temp between 150-160 or so. It does a nice job. The hard part is carrying the whole thing down stairs to be sparged and boiled. I keep thinking the kettle handles will snap on me someday.
I took a picture of a decoction mash I did on my stovetop on Friday. I feel like that’s probably not what you are looking for, but you’re welcome to the picture if you want it.
dj99, I appreciate the description of your process…that’s really helpful!
narcout, I’ll take whatever you’ve got…thanks.
I amlmost always mash on the stove these days. I really like the direct heat for reaching the mash rests.
Kai
No. But I’m fixin’ to fry some crab cakes and I could take a picture of that if you want.
I should have mentioned that in my previous posts. The proximity of cold water and direct heat makes hitting the strike temp easy. I also should have added that preheating the oven to 135, more or less, helps to keep the mash at it the correct temperature. If the temp is set too high, the closeness of the kettle bottom to the heat source will overheat the mash.
I guess all this would change if I was to build a cooler based mash tun! It will happen someday. As a matter of fact, I started out using a too small cooler without a manifold and a pyrex measuring cup to scoop the mash into the sparge bucket. The oven mashing is a variation on that.
Would this work for you, Denny?
edit: and one of stovetop sparging: http://seanterrill.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/img_1929.jpg (might need to blur the logo)
Sean and narcout, thanks so much!
Denny,
I don’t have pictures but I stove top mash when I want to step mash. I have a 10 gallon polarware brew pot with a ball valve and a thermometer. I also have a false bottom for it but when I mash it it I don’t use the false bottom or the ball valve. I dough in at whatever temp and then I start to roll the mash with my long SS spoone before applying heat. Once the grits are rolling in the pot I then add gentle heat till I reach the next temp rest. I cover the pot and leave it. It does a decent job of maintain the temps as I hardly ever go over a half hour for each rest. After mash out, I take the whole mash and transfer it to my 10 gallong igloo cooler mashtun with false bottom and then either batch or fly sparge from there. Hope this helps you.
Richie
It helps a lot, Richie. I was just wondering about that method. I really appreciate your explanation.
I used to boil on the kitchen stove (2 or 3 pots) and could boil near 5 gallons.
Had to get a fryer and go outside because brewday would make it rain in the kitchen,
I have an electric stove and what i did was put a pot of water on it and turn the knob to different numbers (from 10 - High to 1 - Lo), starting at the lowest temperature and working my way up. I let the water sit on that temperature for two hours then took the temperature and write it down:
1 - 135 degrees
2 - 140 degrees
3 - 146 degrees
4 - 153 degrees
etc.
When i mash, i first heat it all up to the temperature i am shooting for then set it on the stove turned to the appropriate number. This way i know that in two hours, the mash will get no hotter than my measured temperature. So, if i am going Belgian, for example, i heat up the mash and set the stove for number 3 and let it warm up. When i hit my target temperature, i move the mash over to that pre-set coil and start my mash timer.
no pictures sorry.
You need a Spinal Tap stove…
…goes to 11 !! 
Used to do quite a bit of partial mashing on the stove, here is a shot of stirring while heating:
My sparge method was to move the grain to a colander over the brew kettle and slowly rinse with 168f water. I realize that this is inviting the dreaded HSA but I have 4 yr old bottles of strong ale that have no issues.
Thanks, lbrewski! That’s exactly the seat of the pants, down to earth method that I want to illustrate!
I boil my 2-3gal batches on the electric stove but mash in a 3gal water cooler with a braid. Except last night I actually mashed on the stove exactly like Sean’s pic, using a grain bag. I did a small 1gal batch and didn’t feel like breaking out the MLT for that.
I’ve stovetop mashed and used the oven, and I always had problems with temp fluctuations. Last night’s mash went pretty well though.