I have an Anvil Foundry 10.5 that I purchased the day before the Biden/Trump election. Two days after the election (Thursday, November 5, 2020), we didn’t know who won the election, but at least my first all-in-one electric brewing system arrived on my porch.
I like step mashing, for now, but it’s difficult getting an even temperature throughout the mash when moving to the next step even if you open up the valve more during recirculation (I have a chugger with a valve instead of the Anvil pump system). Even the tea bagging method didn’t seem to cut it. So I decided to try something similar but different from tea bagging. I started doing a pseudo infusion step mash last summer.
Soooo…When it’s time to move to the next step, I pull the malt pipe so it can drain and set the controller power to 100% and the temp to 4-5°F above the next step. It’s surprising to me how long it takes to reach the temperature of the next step, but it makes sense. When it gets there, I carefully lower the malt pipe back into place (takes about a minute or so for the liquid to infiltrate the malt pipe and the BrewBag). I also lower the power to 50 or 60% and the temp to the actual correct temp of that step so it stays at the correct temperature. I use my 24″ whisk to stir the mash so the temperature is as uniform as possible throughout the mash.
I’m not sure if there’s really any benefit to what I’m doing. I started using this method because my goal was to get the mash out of the protein rest in a timely fashion before it negatively affects head retention.
I’m curious who else is doing this. I’m also curious if it actually benefits the end result. Maybe I’m wasting my time.
