So I recently did a big revamp on my system. HLT got a sightglass and thermometer. Did away with the cooler MT and went with a keg MT with a false bottom and thermometer built in. Toolbox pump system with all QD and nice silicone tubing. BK is still basic keggle with only the valve and diptube. The mash went awesome, tested it first with a 5 gallon batch and everything was great except my MT thermometer is too high and useless on a 5 gal batch. Then on to a 10 gallon batch and im loving it. The MT lost very little heat, I am able to recirculate while i throw a little heat under if it needs. Nailed my temps and even heated for a mashout. Double batch sparge with 7 gallons total. Clearest wort i ever had with the recirculation i was doing in the MT. Dont know how but i completely f'ed up the water calculation. Before the pump i would use a bucket to measure the runoff so i knew exactly how much to sparge. Thought I was at least close on this. But as I am filling my buckets at the end of boil I put 5 gal in one bucket, then started the next and ran out of wort at 3 gallons. Had to level the buckets out at 4 gallons each. Oh well, it was so dark out at this point that I just went with it, will be stronger that I planned, was going to be a 5.25% esb. It was dark and late and the mosquitos were coming out so I didnt even bother gravity readings. Itll still be beer.
But anyway lesson learned and Ill be ordering up a sight glass/thermometer kit from bobby for the BK and eliminate the guesswork.
But anyway lesson learned and Ill be ordering up a sight glass/thermometer kit from bobby for the BK and eliminate the guesswork.
