Two plastic buckets with spigots
Two lengths of hose (roughly two feet each)
A 24 by 24-inch mesh bag
Your brew kettle
Mash paddle or long handled spoon
An old (but clean) heavy blanket
Step 1. Assemble equipment.
Place the 24"x24"grain bag in an
empty 6-gallon plastic food-grade bucket
that has a built-in spigot. Add the grains to the bag. Hook up a length of hose to the spigot on each bucket. The bucket used for the grain should be situated below the second bucket which will hold the hot water (sparge water) used to rinse the grain. This bucket could be referred to as a sparge water tank or hot liquor tank. The bucket with the grain bag will double as a mash and lauter tun. Position the brew kettle below the bucket with the grain (mash/lauter tun) in order to collect the wort and boil it later with added malt extract and hops. I put the hot liquor tank on top of an upside down pot on my counter; the mash lauter/tun sits on a chair and I put the brew kettle on the floor. (Any animals or small children need to be clear of the area.)
Step 2. Heat a quart of water per each pound of grain to 175 °F. Transfer the heated water to the bucket with the grain (mash/lauter tun.) Stir the grain and water mixture to blend. This becomes your mash. Allow the hot mash to sit at least 20 minutes to convert starch to sugar. Cover the bucket with a solid lid and drape a heavy blanket over the mash/lauter tun to maintain the temperature of the grain and water mixture.
Step 3.While mashing, heat one gallon of water for each pound of grain to 175 °F. After the mash has sat for at least 20 minutes, open the spigot on the sparge water bucket and let the water slowly drain through the hose into the mash/lauter tun. Be careful, as the hose is filled with hot water.
Step 5. Open the spigot slightly and sprinkle the grain with the hot water. I let the sparge sprinkle through a santized aluminum colander, but other fancy devices such as the metal sparging arm sold by Listerman Manufacturing probably work better. Again, the hose will probably be hot, so be careful. After half the water in the bucket is drained, open the spigot on the bucket with grain and collect the wort in the brewpot. You may need to lift the bag and/or stir the grain in order to facilitate drainage. This set should take about 20 minutes.
Step 6. After all the wort is collected in the brew pot, place the pot on stove and add the quantity of malt extract that you're using per the recipe. Once the work comes to boil add the hops. The rest of the process is the same as making a beer from extract.
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