CrankyFrankie

As mentioned., the main book I use is Miller’s “Brewing the World’s Great Beers”. His mashing steps are among the simplest and I have had great success. He advises to heat the mash water to 11F over the mash temp. Then add the grain and stir it in. My grain loads vary from 7 to 10 lbs. and in every case the temp settles right at the point the recipe calls for. I use one of those aeration paddles for a lot of things including stirring mash. I use Taylor analog food service thermometers which I calibrate frequently. I keep a couple of high temp range ones and a couple of low temp range ones. I never mix them. I use boiling water to calibrate the high temps and I use ice water to calibrate the low temps (212F is the boiling point as I am at sea level here). People like to criticize the low temp calibration method but the freezing point and the thawing point is 32, so a glass packed with ice and a little water will give you 32 and you can set your thermometer off that. Anyway, these analogs are only accurate to within +/- 2-3 degrees. I occasionally check them against digitals of a variety of manufacture and I use two at the same time sometimes. I guess the bottom line is that I always get a good mash….or at least one I am satisfied with.

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