barside laundry
Well-Known Member
Help. I am frustrated.
Set up:
I use 2 Rubbermaid 10 gal coolers, one for HLT and one for Mashing. I boil in a 15 gallon keg with a 3500 watt element in the bottom. The HLT is equipped with a heating element controlled by a Ranco. The Mash Tun has a stainless steel braided hose laying around the perimeter that connects to a valve. That is my manifold. This system is solely run on gravity with the HLT at the top and the kettle at the bottom (although the kettle is high enough that the chiller and the carboy fit under it!)
The Problem(s):
My efficiencies are always lower than 70%. The target on my last batch was 1052 and I got 1040.
The other problem is that I use a counterflow chiller. This means there is no cold break happening in the kettle and no whirlpool action to seperate debris. This also means that I need to be careful if the recipe calls for a more than 3 ounces of hops because all of the trub will cause the wort to flow so slowly through the chiller that it usually stops flowing when there is about a gallon left in the kettle. I do have a Bazooka screen in the kettle that gets completely clogged so I have to keep scraping it with a spoon as the wort is making its way through it.
The process:
I fill (10 gallons) the HLT with 170 F water to sparge. I know that is more water than I need but I use it to clean with later.
I use Charlie Papazans chart for the about of water needed to mash. For the last batch (10 pounds of grain) I added 2.5 gallons of 172F to the mash tun. Then I stir in the grain, adjust temp with ice or boiling water to arrive at 153. Lid it and let it go for 60 minutes.
I remove the lid and place an aluminum pie pan with a lot of 1/16 holes in it on the grain bed. I then open the valve a little bit and fill a pitcher and recirculate. I use 2 pitchers so that I don't have to stop the flow. It flows at a rate of a pint every 10 seconds. I recirculate for about 25 minutes.
Without stopping the flow I put the hose in the kettle and then open the HLT valve the same amound. the sparge water flows into the pie pan and drains through the holes. There is always about an inch of water on top of the grain. I do NOT stir the grain. I sparge until one of two things happens:I reach 1010 or I reach 8 gallons in my kettle. during the last batch (1040 OG) I stopped sparging when I reached 1010 and that required about 5 gallons of sparge water (which is exactly what Papazians chart says). The problem was that I only had about 6.5 gallons in my kettle. I need at least 7.5 because remember that the little bit (.5-1gal) stays in the kettle (it is mostly debris anyway) and I lose a little more than a gallon due to evaporation. So I added about 1 gallon of water to the kettle (pre boil).
Boil for 60 minutes, open valve and let flow through chiller into carboy. I add my stone to the carboy and begin aeration right away. I aerate for the time it takes to fill the carboy (about 25 minutes...it flows that slowly through the chiller). This last time I ended up with 4.9 gallons in the carboy. The foam always runs out of the carboy and all over the floor.
Thanks ahead time guys.
Set up:
I use 2 Rubbermaid 10 gal coolers, one for HLT and one for Mashing. I boil in a 15 gallon keg with a 3500 watt element in the bottom. The HLT is equipped with a heating element controlled by a Ranco. The Mash Tun has a stainless steel braided hose laying around the perimeter that connects to a valve. That is my manifold. This system is solely run on gravity with the HLT at the top and the kettle at the bottom (although the kettle is high enough that the chiller and the carboy fit under it!)
The Problem(s):
My efficiencies are always lower than 70%. The target on my last batch was 1052 and I got 1040.
The other problem is that I use a counterflow chiller. This means there is no cold break happening in the kettle and no whirlpool action to seperate debris. This also means that I need to be careful if the recipe calls for a more than 3 ounces of hops because all of the trub will cause the wort to flow so slowly through the chiller that it usually stops flowing when there is about a gallon left in the kettle. I do have a Bazooka screen in the kettle that gets completely clogged so I have to keep scraping it with a spoon as the wort is making its way through it.
The process:
I fill (10 gallons) the HLT with 170 F water to sparge. I know that is more water than I need but I use it to clean with later.
I use Charlie Papazans chart for the about of water needed to mash. For the last batch (10 pounds of grain) I added 2.5 gallons of 172F to the mash tun. Then I stir in the grain, adjust temp with ice or boiling water to arrive at 153. Lid it and let it go for 60 minutes.
I remove the lid and place an aluminum pie pan with a lot of 1/16 holes in it on the grain bed. I then open the valve a little bit and fill a pitcher and recirculate. I use 2 pitchers so that I don't have to stop the flow. It flows at a rate of a pint every 10 seconds. I recirculate for about 25 minutes.
Without stopping the flow I put the hose in the kettle and then open the HLT valve the same amound. the sparge water flows into the pie pan and drains through the holes. There is always about an inch of water on top of the grain. I do NOT stir the grain. I sparge until one of two things happens:I reach 1010 or I reach 8 gallons in my kettle. during the last batch (1040 OG) I stopped sparging when I reached 1010 and that required about 5 gallons of sparge water (which is exactly what Papazians chart says). The problem was that I only had about 6.5 gallons in my kettle. I need at least 7.5 because remember that the little bit (.5-1gal) stays in the kettle (it is mostly debris anyway) and I lose a little more than a gallon due to evaporation. So I added about 1 gallon of water to the kettle (pre boil).
Boil for 60 minutes, open valve and let flow through chiller into carboy. I add my stone to the carboy and begin aeration right away. I aerate for the time it takes to fill the carboy (about 25 minutes...it flows that slowly through the chiller). This last time I ended up with 4.9 gallons in the carboy. The foam always runs out of the carboy and all over the floor.
Thanks ahead time guys.