beer brewed 0, brewstands built 1

Jpnaeve · Nov 27, 2011

Hello all,

I have never in my life brewed a single ounce of beer but i have however built a brewstand, built and modified burners so they are more stable. also i have built my own mash tun. I plan to brew in the near future Please tell me your thoughts and concerns with this sculpture, mash tun, and any thing else that i could improve on or fix before I really get into it. Also this is all I have. I still need to get the rest of the stuff. like plastic buckets and hoses and all that jazz. any help or input on what and how much of that stuff i would need will be greatly appreciated.

Thank you,
J

Skagdog · Nov 27, 2011

I am not an expert but I think you may want to be able to disassemble the manifold in your mash tun for cleaning purposes. Those manifolds will have lots of sweet, sticky wort flowing through and it's only a matter of time before some or all of the holes are gummed up and you have a stuck sparge. I could be way off, maybe a more experienced brewer will chime in...

That is a nice looking stand, lemme know how it functions, I'm one brew deep and the wife wants me out of the kitchen.......

Mongrel · Nov 27, 2011

Your kegs could use a few more holes in them, and the manifold seems to be missing the slits, but you're well on your way to a much nicer brew stand than I have. A couple ball valves, a few feet of silicone tubing, 2 sight glasses, and some thermometers and you're golden.

OHIOSTEVE · Nov 27, 2011

IF I were being nit picky, I would think that you may get some channeling with your drain tube attached where it is. I believe you might pull the sweet wort down through the grains right at that point. IF I were to give a suggestion it would be to run a cross piece in the center between the two middle lines and attach a "T" with your drain tube coming off of the "T". No slits or holes in the drain tube or the cross piece. I cannot tell from the pics but keep the manifold away from the edges a bit also to prevent channeling. Like a half inch or more all the way around. Otherwise your stuff looks better than mine.

Bobby_M · Nov 27, 2011

A good place to start would be to replace the galvanized washer in that tun with a stainless one.

emjay · Nov 27, 2011

OHIOSTEVE said:
IF I were being nit picky, I would think that you may get some channeling with your drain tube attached where it is. I believe you might pull the sweet wort down through the grains right at that point. IF I were to give a suggestion it would be to run a cross piece in the center between the two middle lines and attach a "T" with your drain tube coming off of the "T". No slits or holes in the drain tube or the cross piece. I cannot tell from the pics but keep the manifold away from the edges a bit also to prevent channeling. Like a half inch or more all the way around. Otherwise your stuff looks better than mine.

What makes you think he is even fly sparging?

mikeysab · Nov 27, 2011

Wnee did anyone say they thought he was fly sparging?

Is that thing portable? I dont see wheels on it, and it looks like its got some weight to it. Youre not plannin on running those propane burners in the house, are you?

emjay · Nov 27, 2011

mikeysab said:
Wnee did anyone say they thought he was fly sparging?

Is that thing portable? I dont see wheels on it, and it looks like its got some weight to it. Youre not plannin on running those propane burners in the house, are you?

It was implied when suggesting that channeling might be an issue...

LandoLincoln · Nov 27, 2011

emjay said:
What makes you think he is even fly sparging?

If he's not, then he wasted a lot of money on all that copper.

If this were my rig, I'd install a sheet of steel below the burner, just to act as a heat shield to protect the wood from catching fire.

emjay · Nov 27, 2011

LandoLincoln said:
If he's not, then he wasted a lot of money on all that copper.

While SS braids are, IMO, a better choice for batch/no sparge, copper manifolds aren't really *that* expensive (it's not like 50' of pipe for a chiller), and I've seen plenty of batch spargers decide to go with manifolds.

OHIOSTEVE · Nov 27, 2011

emjay said:
What makes you think he is even fly sparging?

channeling is not an issue with batch sparging? well then ignore my previous post. mea culpa

OHIOSTEVE · Nov 27, 2011

BTW I use a copper manifold and I batch sparge. Why is that a waste?

mikeysab · Nov 27, 2011

emjay said:
It was implied when suggesting that channeling might be an issue...

Isn't channeling a problem with batch sparging as well? I thought it was the speed of runoff that caused channeling. Glad if its not, so I dont have to worry about it anymore

neovox · Nov 27, 2011

I'd brew and extract batch while you're tweaking your AG rig.

infection · Nov 27, 2011

Bobby_M said:
A good place to start would be to replace the galvanized washer in that tun with a stainless one.

+1 definitely switch out the galvanized washer with SS

OHIOSTEVE · Nov 27, 2011

Bobby_M said:
A good place to start would be to replace the galvanized washer in that tun with a stainless one.

nice catch!

Yooper · Nov 27, 2011

mikeysab said:
Isn't channeling a problem with batch sparging as well? I thought it was the speed of runoff that caused channeling. Glad if its not, so I dont have to worry about it anymore

No, channeling is not an issue with batch sparging. The beauty of batch sparging is that your stir like a crazy person, then drain quickly. There isn't any impact from channeling.

Pappers_ · Nov 27, 2011

neovox said:
I'd brew and extract batch while you're tweaking your AG rig.

This is good advice. There is so much more to brewing than creating wort - fermentation is tremendously important.

mikeysab · Nov 27, 2011

Yooper said:
No, channeling is not an issue with batch sparging. The beauty of batch sparging is that your stir like a crazy person, then drain quickly. There isn't any impact from channeling.

Thanks for that info. I've been draining my tun with the valve half open.

Pappers_ · Nov 27, 2011

mikeysab said:
Thanks for that info. I've been draining my tun with the valve half open.

You do run the risk of a stuck sparge with batch sparging, though. That's why some people are careful with how they drain the mash tun. For whatever reasons, I don't have that problem with my setup. I do, though, begin the runoff slowly and open it up over the first couple of minutes of the run off.

mikeysab · Nov 27, 2011

I never had a problem either. After vorlauf, I open it little by little to about halfway. Even at halfway open, I get good flow. Then again I dont use wheat or rye or anything notorious for getting gunked up, so maybe thats why.

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