RazzBarlow
Well-Known Member
I have drank my first homebrew that I made myself and I am hooked!
I have learned a lot by lurking around here, learning from other's experience and mistakes.
I plan on building a Brutus style brew sculpture and I am still watching everyone else's builds to steal all their good ideas, but that's a topic for another thread.
I am asking questions now about what to do in the meantime...
I could just stick to doing extract batches until I get my Brutus build done, but where's the fun in that?
I was fortunate to find 5 ball-lock corny kegs on Craigslist at a fantastic price, and I just bought a 15.5 gallon Sanke keg for $40 that I plan on turning into a boil kettle. I can easily do a cooler conversion for a Mash Tun.
I have this to use until the Brutus is built:
I have started work on a fermentation chamber using a window a/c unit. (Summer's coming and it gets triple digits at my house)
I'm still in planning stages for a keezer, until then it's all about the party tap!
I have several glass carboys for fermentation.
OK, long intro.
But here are the questions.
Can I use one keggle for HLT and boil kettle? I realize this means cleaning in the middle of my sparge, which could get hectic. Or should I just go ahead and get another keg to convert?
What size false bottom should I use for the keggle?
How important is it to whirlpool my wort? I realize it gets a lot of the trub out before fermentation, but that's one more fitting to solder/weld on the keggle.
I am thinking of putting a plate chiller on the Brutus, but that forces the issue of needing to buy a pump, correct? I guess I would have to do that eventually anyway.
What other pitfalls am I not seeing?
I have learned a lot by lurking around here, learning from other's experience and mistakes.
I plan on building a Brutus style brew sculpture and I am still watching everyone else's builds to steal all their good ideas, but that's a topic for another thread.
I am asking questions now about what to do in the meantime...
I could just stick to doing extract batches until I get my Brutus build done, but where's the fun in that?
I was fortunate to find 5 ball-lock corny kegs on Craigslist at a fantastic price, and I just bought a 15.5 gallon Sanke keg for $40 that I plan on turning into a boil kettle. I can easily do a cooler conversion for a Mash Tun.
I have this to use until the Brutus is built:
I have started work on a fermentation chamber using a window a/c unit. (Summer's coming and it gets triple digits at my house)
I'm still in planning stages for a keezer, until then it's all about the party tap!
I have several glass carboys for fermentation.
OK, long intro.
But here are the questions.
Can I use one keggle for HLT and boil kettle? I realize this means cleaning in the middle of my sparge, which could get hectic. Or should I just go ahead and get another keg to convert?
What size false bottom should I use for the keggle?
How important is it to whirlpool my wort? I realize it gets a lot of the trub out before fermentation, but that's one more fitting to solder/weld on the keggle.
I am thinking of putting a plate chiller on the Brutus, but that forces the issue of needing to buy a pump, correct? I guess I would have to do that eventually anyway.
What other pitfalls am I not seeing?