- I boil up my water to get it to around 75-78°C as adding it to the cold cooler and then adding the cold grains will drop the temperature a bit
- I then basically pour the water from my large pot into the cooler
- I lower my grain bag into the hot water inside the cooler and then slowly start adding the grain and gently stirring it
- Once all the grain is added I tie up the grain bag and stick the thermometer in the concoction so it will be easily legible if I just slightly open the lid and I want to check the temps
- Then I close the lid, set the oven timer for 60min and I can basically forget about it for the next hour
Go ahead and try it out, if you buy a big cooler now like I did it will eventually also work for the big mashes you will need to do for 20ltr all grain brews later in your homebrew endeavors, but a smaller cooler will work just as well to mash out your 1.2 to 1.5kg of grain for now.
Happy hunting!