Kit's Low-tech Electric Brewery

[Kit_B]

Here is a photo of my 6x8 electric brewery.
It's nothing special...
5500W electric kettle
Cooler tun
March pump
Plate chiller
Induction plate, for rare decoctions or other prep.
Tools
And, a sink.

It's home.

[caedus]

Would you mind explaining your process for step mashing?

That is my biggest concern right now, I have an awesome cooler with a custom false bottom, but in order to step mash I would have to add boiling water, which would

1.) Leave the first rest with 2 gallons of headspace
2.) make SMB addition difficult to the water addition (boil, smb, boil again?)

[Kit_B]

The easiest way I've found is to do a multiple infusion & no sparge.

[Owenbräu]

Nice, Kit.

[caedus]

So you just pump in boiling water into the cooler?

[ajk]

I'm doing this right now for the first time. This is my first batch since reading the paper.

My mash tun is a cooler, and I made a mash cap out of 2” foam board and foil tape. (I've been using the mash cap for a while to retain temperature, but since reading the paper, I figure it ought to help with DO as well.)

Decoction was my standard approach before reading some of the comments about it on this forum. I never much cared for step infusions (decoctions are just easier and more fun with my system), but I'm trying one for my first attempt at lodo.

[Roachbrau]

I shed a tear for my decoctions when I finally realized they were harming the beer, and there wasn't any way to employ them with low o2 without causing a loss. Kit was a decocter too, I bet he feels the same

[mpietropaoli]

[artemicion]

I was thinking using a setup like yours, but doing step mashes with a cooler as a mash tun and RIMS Tube. My only concern is the recirculating of the mash will add oxygen to the wort., what do you guys think?

[Brandon]

I direct fire my mash tun and recirculate during the entire mash. Keep a mash cap of some kind on it and minimize splashing/rolling exposure of wort to the air. Get started...look at every obvious air infusion point and think about a way to close it. Try it, refine it. This is no different than any food processing plant has to go through for quality management. Keep the SMB levels in line with recommendations as a buffer/oxygen scrubber, and go for it.