8-22-09 Brew Day - Pumpkin Ale

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jcdillin

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Location
Miami, FL
Well it was time to take the BT for another spin as I needed to get my pumpkin ale ready for this holiday season.

Overall, the system preformed perfectly. I only had a couple display glitches but never any loss of control or reboots. The new smart herms with the HLT tracking is the ticket. The mash stayed right where it needed to be.

It was also the first run for the new e-kettle which also worked really really well. My homebrew hop stopper did a great job of keeping the pellet hops from going through my plate chiller.

I also used Arnie's BTRemote program to log the entire brew and I was able to watch the brew from my office in the other part of the house. Just not having to run back and forth to check temps is worth it in itself.

All in total the brew day took 4 hours, which for me is the quickest i've ever brewed an all grain batch.

Onto the pictures

System all setup and preheating

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Preheat

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New sparge ring I built

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Screenshot of preheat

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Computer doing the monitoring and uploading to the web

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Recirculating

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Cloudy at the beginning

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Clear now

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First runnings into kettle

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Here you can see my hop stopper, i'm sure it won't stand up to something like an IPA, but for my brews it'll do just fine.

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Heating up to boil

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Mmm, boiling malty goodness

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Hop stopper did it's job very well

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Batch safely in the fermenter

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Apple cider in the fermentation fridge that will keep this batch company

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Hit with oxygen and some notty and this batch is done

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I have been thinking of doing a similar sparge arm but the myth/concerns of HSA have stopped me. Have you noticed any issues. Nice looking system. You clear section of plastic is a nice idea. I have a large section of plastic sight glass tube left and I think I will construct something similar.
 
Thanks :)

I think HSA is a myth and so far I haven't found any reason to think that it's true.

For my sight glass I used a thick piece of pyrex glass tubing from mcmaster. That way I didn't have to worry about it getting too hot. I still need to buy a couple more to see the wort in other places.
 
Thanks :)

I think HSA is a myth and so far I haven't found any reason to think that it's true.

For my sight glass I used a thick piece of pyrex glass tubing from mcmaster. That way I didn't have to worry about it getting too hot. I still need to buy a couple more to see the wort in other places.

"Brew Strong" on The Brewing Network interviewed a professor at UC Davis and he believes that HSA plays a very small role in beer "freshness". He thinks that homebrewers should focus on packaging and keeping beer cold in the package to prevent oxidation.

Eric
 
Would you mind if I took your rig out on a date Friday night, I promise to have her home early :rockin:

Hop Stopper.... please explain??
 
I also used Arnie's BTRemote program to log the entire brew and I was able to watch the brew from my office in the other part of the house. Just not having to run back and forth to check temps is worth it in itself.

So you spent that time running back and forth to take pictures instead, huh? :D:D

Really, that is great! I've like the looks of the BT and the BCS-460, alas I cannot afford such a system at this point in time. With the BT Remote program, can you control the BrewTroller as well as monitor it? Say, start your boil from your couch?
 
Would you mind if I took your rig out on a date Friday night, I promise to have her home early :rockin:

Hop Stopper.... please explain??

Well since my boil kettle drains from the bottom I can't really do a whirlpool to keep the hops out of my chiller. So I took a sheet of stainless mesh and using stainless wire I sewed it into a cylinder shape. Then I made a hole in it and screwed it onto the weldless fitting in the bottom of the kettle.

I can take some more pictures of it if you like.
 
So you spent that time running back and forth to take pictures instead, huh? :D:D

Really, that is great! I've like the looks of the BT and the BCS-460, alas I cannot afford such a system at this point in time. With the BT Remote program, can you control the BrewTroller as well as monitor it? Say, start your boil from your couch?

Thats right, now I can take pictures without rushing around :) guess the next step is cameras mounted all over that take pictures automatically :D

The guy that is writing the BTRemote software is working up to that right now. The first step was just to be able to monitor, the next step is remote control and then after that he wants to make it so you can import Beersmith or BTP files directly into the controller. That way it will configure your brew for you.
 
thats some nice software if you don't mind whats the rough price of your setup with software.
 
Thanks :)

I checked the beer yesterday and it was down to 1.030 which seems awfully slow for Nottingham. It still has to sit 2 more weeks before I keg it so i'm not really concerned at this point.
 
Gotta love punkin' ale! And that is a very awesome set-up, incredibly organized and just clean looking!

Prost!
 
Hey you're in Miami, very nice setup you got going there.
Curious to where you sourced your kegs from if local? I'm looking to getting 1 or 2 for some upgrades.
 
The ones I saw on craigslist were a bit overpriced last time I checked a few months ago. I'll let you know if anything, thanks. :mug:
 
Yeah it took a few want ads to finally get all I needed. No worries let me know they aren't going anywhere.
 
bumping back up.
Any chance you can tell me what you're using on the bottom of the mash tun? The pic of your sparge ring just aaaaaalmost lets me see through the water. It looks like a false bottom.

I'm putting bottom drains into my MLT and am bouncing back and forth between a false bottom and a copper manifold.
 
Yup it's a false bottom from morebeer, it was one of the few I could find that folded up with hinges and was designed for bottom draining.
 
Yup it's a false bottom from morebeer, it was one of the few I could find that folded up with hinges and was designed for bottom draining.

Thanks much.

I've got a simple 3-sankey keg, gravity draining setup.
When I first built it, I was inexperienced and put my ball valve on all 3 kegs about 2" from the bottom weld. This means I have about 2.5 gallons of dead space in the mash tun because I batch sparge with a stainless braid and don't have it setup to pull a true siphon.

Before I weld a union in the bottom, are there any tips you have? Anything you'd have done differently?
 
Nope, if I did it again I would do it exactly the same way. Except that I would learn how to TIG weld and do that instead of using all weldless stuff :D

When I upgrade to my 55 gallon setup I will be doing it exactly the same way.
 
Your pictures are really inspiring!

I am building a RIMS system using a bottom draining tanks like yours. I would be interested to see more pictures of your BK bottom, filter and filter attachment if you have time to take more pictures to share.

Thanks!
 
Thanks :)

I had an issue with it handling large volumes of pellet hops so i'm in the process of building an inline hop strainer. I'd be happy to take pictures of my through hole setup on the bottom of the kegs though.
 
The idea of an inline hop filter is exciting! I though about it but could not really find a easy/cheap way to do it. What do you have in mind?
 
Well I was looking at the inline tri-clamp strainers from st-pats and they were way too expensive.

So I just searched ebay for a stainless filter housing, i'm currently working on sewing up a stainless mesh basket that will go inside it.
 
Interesting, I have never had such a filter housing in mind. How do you plan to make it to seal at the top?
 
Well the filter housing I purchased has two notches in the top that the old filter cartridge twisted into, so i'll just make something to snap into those notches that will hold my new basket in place.
 
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