Next time I brew 10 gallons I'll make a party out of it.

So I don't have any kind of sculpture. Just my trusty turkey fryer and a 6' table. When I fill my mash tun I have to bring it to the ground then pick up my huge pot, dump in my mash/sparge water, then hoist it back up to the table.

I usually do 5 gallon batches, but since I started at the LHBS I get great discounts, so what the hell. I've only done 1 other 10 gallon batch, but other people were there to help. Not today. Everything was ok until it was time for my 10 gallon sparge with 23 pounds of grain. Now, I'm 25 and I'm in pretty good shape. But for a couple minutes there I thought I was going to have to call off brew day because I could't get the damn mash tun off the ground and back up to the table. Everytime I tried I could get it about waste high while it was sloshing 180F water on me and simply could not raise it any higher. So I drug a chair over, summoned the strength to lift it up to that. Alright, half way there. I took a second and walked around holding my back like an 80 year old man or a pregnant woman would, you know, fingers pointed in towards my spine and my elbow sticking out to side. Slapped my self in the face a couple times to get me amped up and lifted it to the table. I felt so weak. But alas, I overcame.

Later while trying to grab some wort for my starter 15 minutes into the boil I got hosed across both hands with boiling wort. 2nd weekend in a row I got burned brewing. Last weekend I using my lighter and some fluid leaked out and ran down my thumb, the flame soon followed it's path.

So all in all, it was a rough brew day, but ... 10 gallons of IPA in the fermenter and WLP007 swirling away in my new erlenmeyer flask.

Now it's time to start drinking and watch either Mystery Science Theater or Reefer Madness.

Sounds brutal! Any chance there's video of this fiasco?

MST3K FTW!

-Steve

SavageSteve said:

Sounds brutal! Any chance there's video of this fiasco?

MST3K FTW!

-Steve

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Well of course there's no video, there was no one there to film it. And because I left the camera outside while I was brewing one day and it started pouring.

And yes, MST3K FTW indeed. I've been watching that stuff since I was in elementary school.

I feel your pain.
Just brewed the 1st 10 gal batch. Lifting that d@mn cooler full of hot water plus grain is back breaking. I ended up getting my cooler on top of a fridge on wheels " my new ferm chamber" and with a few burns everything ended up well

Planing ahead is key!!!!

At least you finished and didnt quit like some would have. May be the
best batch ever.

Why don't you just use a jug to scoop water out of the pot and dump it into the tun?

I use a bucket to transfer my mash and sparge water personally. Your method sounds difficult

You could try a manual pump like the one Denny uses...
http://hbd.org/clubs/cascade/public_html/dennybrew/equipcloseup.jpg



all kidding aside, I bought a plastic gallon pitcher, one gallon at a time makes easy work of even the largest grain bills. Once on an oversized batch, I even sanitized the pitcher, and used it to move chilled wort to the fermenters.

I brew my 10 gal batches on the deck, this way I can create a 3-tier gravity system without a pump and it is easy to carry wort back up to the keggle. I do only continuous sparging, so I don't have to carry all that hot water.
When sparging, the keggle is siting on the deck up on the burner, and the water goes from the keggle down to the mash tun (a cooler) sitting on the deck floor, and then down to the fermenting buckets sitting on the ground. Then I carry the wort back up to the keggle in buckets 3-4 gallons at a time, so it's easier. After the boil I use the same gravity system to cool the wort with my counter flow chiller.

akaryrye said:

I use a bucket to transfer my mash and sparge water personally. Your method sounds difficult

Click to expand...

Exactly. Leave the tun on the tall table and ladle the water in. you're working too damned hard.

And why do you need to pull wort out in the middle of the boil? Makes no sense to me.

Bernie Brewer said:

Exactly. Leave the tun on the tall table and ladle the water in. you're working too damned hard.

And why do you need to pull wort out in the middle of the boil? Makes no sense to me.

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I no chill so I make real wort starters. There were no hop additions at this time so I just boiled wort for 15 minutes, just like you would DME. Works well, starter was at high krausen this morning and I'll pitch tonight.