Recent content by ch19

Think carefully about why you want to recirculate during the mash. I have a pump in my system but I’ve found my brewdays to be a lot more predictable, repeatable and easy if I don’t recirculate the mash. I use the pump while heating to strike temp and during the whirlpool and chilling and I’d...

I double crush but tighten the gap between passes on my cheap & cheerful, drill driven 2 roller mill. I only started doing this a couple of brews ago, but I’ve found that I can mill faster and finer with two passes instead of a single pass at a tighter setting. I hit 90% mash efficiency on the...

No regrets here. I run a DIY 2.4kW 240V system with a 15G kettle. Like Wilser said, don’t worry about RIMS for mash temperature, insulate and call it good. Between a fine crush and water chemistry, I regularly hit 80-85% mash efficiency with full volume/no-sparge mashes.

As Bobby_M says, dry firing your element is the most likely cause of element failure. Triclamp element enclosures offer the best of both worlds: TC for easy kettle cleanup and ability to swap out element in the event of a failure (or an upgrade to a more powerful element.)

Yup, there’s something to be said for simplicity!

Here’s the link to the US shop. It’s also available in the AUS shop if that’s closer to your part of the world. [emoji482] http://stilldragon.com/index.php/element-guard-kit.html

I went with the stilldragon enclosure. It’s very well built.

+1 for the Mark 2 pump. Brewshop.co.nz have you covered. At $120NZ + shipping and another $55NZ for the stainless head, it’s not in the same price range as the little brown pump, but its well worth it.

Hey Augiedoggy, do you have any links to the AliExpress baskets? Cheers!

I follow exactly the same process and regularly hit 80 - 83% mash efficiency for my 5G batches. Just pour slow and steady and break up and mix the grains to make sure your rinsing the whole grain bed.

Don't go for a smaller bag - as with many things in life, bigger is better! A bigger bag will allow your mash to make use of the full volume of your kettle. To contain the bag on removal, I use a stainless oven rack and a steamer basket from a smaller kettle. A colander would do the same job...

I didn't measure gravity until the end of the 60 minutes, so I don't know exactly how long it took to hit my target gravity. I have found in the past that it usually takes between 45 and 60 minutes to get to my target gravity.

Cheers! It's a bit of a Frankenstein since I added the second level, but it seems to work.

My first 2 vessel batch was a success! My efficiency dropped from the usual 83% to 73% probably due to oversparging and not squeezing the bag as much. However, I'm happy with the overall result and I know what I need to adjust next batch. The cooler held temperature nicely (dropped only a couple...

I've just added a cooler mash tun to my setup. I want in on this MIABIAC action!