After brewing for the past three months I feel that it's time for me to save money and go AG. I've been researching everything I can and getting info that would make a normal person's head spin. I know most of you get tons of questions all the time here, and I hate to make another thread, but I feel like there's a few questions that haven't been answered yet.
First off, I'm brewing a honey hefe (7lbs two row american malt, 5lbs white american wheat) with some orange. This seems like a very simple recipe to start with, so that's why I'm using it. Keep it simple, right?
A few questions I have is: I'm using a 10 gallon rubbermaid drink cooler as my mash tun, seems like the best thing to use. I've asked everyone and they suggest using a hose screen rather than a false bottom, that's what I'm going with. I have a big enough brew kettle, so I'm not too worried about brew size. Does anyone suggest anything different for the filter system?
Also, I'm getting a ton of different info about batch sparging and getting good conversion. Most people say use the same amount of sparge water as you would with strike water. Some folks say that you can up your sparge water and boil down the wort to get the right volume, would that help out? Some folks say use less sparge water, but that seems counter intuitive. Am I wrong in thinking that using a far larger volume of water would actually get more sugars out of the grains and then you can just boil down the wort to get your proper volume? Does it matter how long I boil down my wort to reach the volume I'm looking for?
I haven't started building my mash tun yet, I'm still looking for the best setup I can. If any of you awesome brewers have a 10 gallon drink cooler setup they'd like to link me to, that would be much appreciated.
Cheers guys!
First off, I'm brewing a honey hefe (7lbs two row american malt, 5lbs white american wheat) with some orange. This seems like a very simple recipe to start with, so that's why I'm using it. Keep it simple, right?
A few questions I have is: I'm using a 10 gallon rubbermaid drink cooler as my mash tun, seems like the best thing to use. I've asked everyone and they suggest using a hose screen rather than a false bottom, that's what I'm going with. I have a big enough brew kettle, so I'm not too worried about brew size. Does anyone suggest anything different for the filter system?
Also, I'm getting a ton of different info about batch sparging and getting good conversion. Most people say use the same amount of sparge water as you would with strike water. Some folks say that you can up your sparge water and boil down the wort to get the right volume, would that help out? Some folks say use less sparge water, but that seems counter intuitive. Am I wrong in thinking that using a far larger volume of water would actually get more sugars out of the grains and then you can just boil down the wort to get your proper volume? Does it matter how long I boil down my wort to reach the volume I'm looking for?
I haven't started building my mash tun yet, I'm still looking for the best setup I can. If any of you awesome brewers have a 10 gallon drink cooler setup they'd like to link me to, that would be much appreciated.
Cheers guys!