Mini-Mash Instructions PDF Print E-mail

1). Add 1.25 gallon of water and heat to 170º F. Add gypsum if called for in the recipe. As the water is heating place your 24x24 grain sack in the bucket.

2). Take the 5 LBS of malt mix (not the malt-extract, the malted grains) and stir them into the water producing a thick, oatmeal like consistency, called mash.

3). Take the mash and pour it into the bucket with the bag. Cover with the lid and maintain the temperature between 145-160º F. You might want to wrap the bucket with a blanket or sleeping bag for insulation. Since this is a mini-mash and not a full blown mash it's not that imperative if the temperature gradually drops out of this range as the main bulk of the fermentable sugar will come from the 5-8 lbs of malt extract included with your kit or recipe.

4). Let the mash sit for 45 minutes. During this time the enzymes are activated by the heat and convert starches to sugar. This process is called mashing.

5). Clean out your pot while the mash is going clean and heat 2 gallons of water to 175º F that you will use for sparging.

6). After 45 minutes of mashing and the sparge water is at 175º F uncover your bucket and using an insulated cup or PYREX measuring cup carefully scoop the 175º F water out of the pot and gently pour it onto the top of the grain bed. Repeat this process until you have about 2" of water on top of the grain bed in the bucket.

7). Place the insulated cup underneath the spigot and slowly open the valve to fill the cup. The liquid running out of the bucket is called sweet wort. Dump the first cup of sweet wort back on top of the grain. Repeat this process for a total of three times. This is to filter out any grain particles that may have slipped through the bag and is called recirculation.

8). After you are finished with recirculation, attach a piece of 3/8" ID tubing onto the spigot on the bottom of the bucket. Drain the wort into a vessel that is large enough to collect 3 gallons of liquid called the collection vessel. The collection vessel needs to be placed below the mashing bucket. A good way to do this is to have the sparge water on your stove, the mashing bucket on a chair next to your stove, and the collection vessel on the floor.

9). Let the wort slowly run out by opening the valve on the bottom of the mashing bucket. Adjust the flow so that you are collecting 1/3 cup of sweet wort every 20 seconds. At this rate of 1/3 cup every 20 seconds, the sparge should last around 40 minutes. Sparging rinses out the sugars that were created during mashing. The sparging process should last for about 30-60 minutes. The longer the grain is in contact with the hot water the more the malt sugars are dissolved into solution and flowing out of the mashing bucket into the collection vessel. After about 60 minutes the time is not worth the amount of extra sugar collected so a good rule of thumb is to sparge for around 45 minutes.

10). Keep 1-2" of hot water on the top of the grain until you run out of hot water so that the draw of the water through the grain is even. Do not pour water directly onto the grain as it would channel through the grain and we would leave too much sugar behind.

11). After all of the wort has been collected, take your cup and scoop out enough wort for a hydrometer sample and allow to cool. Transfer the wort your boiling kettle.

12) If you are using a larger 7.5 gallon or 9 gallon kettle add water until you get six gallons.

13) From here on out follow the instructions for a normal malt extract batch. Heat the sweet wort to a boil, turn off the heat, and add your malt extract as called for in the recipe.

14) Take a specific gravity reading from the sample of the mini-mash wort collected in step 11 and write that down on your recipe sheet. When you are done you can dump the wort back into the boil kettle. The hydrometer reading of the mini mash is an optional step, but it is useful to see just how much sugar you got out of the grains. You still should do a hydrometer reading after the batch is complete.