Three tricks for improving the Mash and Boil

This week’s blog post is from long-time Fifth Season customer and expert brewer, Eric Ginsberg, and includes a few hacks to improve the performance of the Brewer’s Edge Mash and Boil electric brewing system. 

-Eric Ginsburg-

I’ve had my Mash and Boil now for about 2 years, and I love what it has done for my brew day and for my brew quality and consistency. That said, I discovered several areas for improvement that I want to share with other users.

Grain Basket Feet – The original feet are three pieces of stainless steel, tack-welded to the bottom of the basket. Over time, I’ve found that they bend and eventually the welds pop loose. For a more permanent solution, I drilled three holes in the bottom of the basket and installed stainless steel bolts with the heads used as the feet, and locked in place with two nuts each (one inside and one outside the basket). 

Grain Basket Side Supports – When the mash is complete, the basket is raised and rotated so that the 4 side supports rest on the wire bracket atop the heating vessel. Unfortunately, I find that if I’m not careful, the basket can slip off the bracket and drop back into the hot wort. To minimize this, I simply reversed the bolts so that the heads are on the outside, and added 4 additional stainless steel nuts to lock them in place. Now the heads of the bolts hook over the wire supports, making it less likely for the basket to rotate or slip off them.

Circuit Breaker – This is mounted on the underside of the heating vessel, so that on the rare occasions when it trips, the only way to reset it is to tip the vessel of hot wort enough to reach underneath it. I addressed this by drilling a hole in the side of the base and installing a bathroom sink stopper to the switch so that it acts as a reset lever on the side.