BtotheG
Well-Known Member
Hi all, I'm moving this weekend and it has really opened my eyes to the amount of brewing junk I have. It's too late for this move (which is going to be rough), but I'd like to take some measures to descrease my brewing footprint.
I'm wondering if it's possible to make a two vessel BIAB system in the following manner using a lot of equipment I already have:
* Keggle with a big mesh bag
* 5 gallon cooler heat exchanger with a 1/2" copper HERMS coil/Immersion chiller and a 1500w 120v immersion heater/PID combo.
* Pump
* Burner
I already have keggles, coolers, burners, and immersion heater/PID combo, so my only investment for this would be the bag, pump, 1/2" copper immersion chiller, and necessary connections/tubing.
I'd like to use a burner for strike water and the boil, but then recirculate through the heat exchanger to maintain mash temps and possibly raise the temp to 168 for when I remove the grain bag, but I guess I could just turn on the burner too.
A few questions for all you knowledgeable experts out there:
* Is the heater I have powerful enough to maintain mash temps? I know it can maintain the temp of the volume of water in the exchanger. I'm guessing it probably won't be able to step mash.
* How long do you need to recirculate before the mash reaches the heat exchanger water temp?
* How fast can you recirculate the mash? ie. are stuck sparges a problem? I assume you'd want to go kind of slow to maxmize the heat exchange.
* Does it matter how you return the recirculated wort to the mash?
Thanks in advance everyone!!
I'm wondering if it's possible to make a two vessel BIAB system in the following manner using a lot of equipment I already have:
* Keggle with a big mesh bag
* 5 gallon cooler heat exchanger with a 1/2" copper HERMS coil/Immersion chiller and a 1500w 120v immersion heater/PID combo.
* Pump
* Burner
I already have keggles, coolers, burners, and immersion heater/PID combo, so my only investment for this would be the bag, pump, 1/2" copper immersion chiller, and necessary connections/tubing.
I'd like to use a burner for strike water and the boil, but then recirculate through the heat exchanger to maintain mash temps and possibly raise the temp to 168 for when I remove the grain bag, but I guess I could just turn on the burner too.
A few questions for all you knowledgeable experts out there:
* Is the heater I have powerful enough to maintain mash temps? I know it can maintain the temp of the volume of water in the exchanger. I'm guessing it probably won't be able to step mash.
* How long do you need to recirculate before the mash reaches the heat exchanger water temp?
* How fast can you recirculate the mash? ie. are stuck sparges a problem? I assume you'd want to go kind of slow to maxmize the heat exchange.
* Does it matter how you return the recirculated wort to the mash?
Thanks in advance everyone!!