Floating Mash Tun

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jaquiss2005

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Looking at having a go at an all grain brew - have done partial mash and interested in moving up. Current have a 45 litre boiler (with no thermostat) and on reading an article in Dave Line's "Brewing Beers like those you Buy" seems like I could use this with a plastic fermenting bucket with a tap as a floating mash tun. I would need to increase the insulation with good bubble wrap and keep an eye on the temperature, using boiling water to keep at the required temperature. Firstly, is this correct?

Then goes on to talk about putting grain into a grain bag in the fermenting bucket, with water to make a "porridge" - no indication as to how much water though? Does this need to be stirred??

Once this part of the process is complete, looks like I then have to take the heavy grain bag out of the fermenting bucket, remove the bucket and hold the grain bag over the boiler and allow the liquid to drain through into the boiler (with additional hot water being poured into the bag to extract maximum benefit from the grain). Then top up the boiler with water to continue with addition of hops.

Am I on the right track??
 
The way I did my 1st mash was heat the water in your boiler to 75 degree's then put a grain bag in your fv which will need insulating I used an old hot Water jacket add your grains to the fv then add water which should drop in temp to about 66 degree's wot need 1.5 ltr of water per kilo of grain bag then cover and leave for 90 min then refill boiler reheat to 75 degree wot then need to sparge the grains with the water running the wort into another fv then once wot have the required amount of wort transfer into your empty boiler bring to the boil then add hops and boil for 90 min
 
as 31bb3 said, and yes stir the grain and water. stir when you first put in to the mash tun to ensure it is all mixed with out any lumps, and maybe if needed give a stir at about half an hour in to ensure ever temperature distribution, however I never did the second stir cos I didn't want to loose heat.
 
I used DL's "Floating Mash Tun" method for many years, very sucessfully.
He explains it step by step in his "Big Book of Brewing".
Basically you place the Mash Tun into the HLT, which is still at "Strike" temperature, and only add more heat when the temperature drops to 66 degs (back to Strike temp).
 
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