2 Vessel Apartment All Grain (pics)

Ok, so here's the idea that I'm currently working on. Looking for input on ways to be more efficient. One caveat, this is for 3 gallon batches.

I live in a tiny apartment, so I'm constantly fighting the space issue. In short, I plan on mashing, boiling, AND fermenting in only two vessels. Batch sparge, no pumps, on an electric range. Here we go:


I will heat the mash water in a 5 gallon pot with a bazooka screen and ball valve. When I get up to dough in temps, I'll mix in the grain, put a lid on it, and stir till I'm down to mash temps. I will have a thermometer with an alarm on it to let me know when the temps decrease. If they do, I will put my burner on very low, and stir to bring the temp back up. If I need to, I'll leave the burner on to maintain mash temps.


I will then sparge out into my second vessel, another pot with a ball valve and a racking arm. I'll use my regular pasta pot to heat the sparge water up to 180 for the mash out.


Now here's the tricky part: When the mash is complete, I will dump the spent grains out of Pot A, clean it, and return it to the burner. The collected wort in Pot B will be dumped BACK into Pot A (stay with me, there's a reason). Boil will proceed as normal. The bazooka screen will act as a hop filter when running out. I will use a normal immersion wort chiller to cool.


When the wort is cooled I will run it off BACK into Pot B, now converted into a fermentor and sanitized. The gasket will be cut from a large silicon baking sheet. I like the idea of fermenting in metal, and being able to rack through the ball valve.

Whew. Ok, what do you all think?

I think use a hop bag and boil in pot B, then leave it there for fermentation. Racking back and forth does not make sense to me. More risk of infection for almost zero gain.

Boerderij_Kabouter said:

I think use a hop bag and boil in pot B, then leave it there for fermentation. Racking back and forth does not make sense to me. More risk of infection for almost zero gain.

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I dunno, not sure I want all that hot break material sitting in my fermentation. As far as infection, there shouldn't be any, the wort is going straight from the boil into the fermentor as usual, I just happen to be using an unconventional fermentor

Boerderij_Kabouter said:

I think use a hop bag and boil in pot B, then leave it there for fermentation. Racking back and forth does not make sense to me. More risk of infection for almost zero gain.

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Plus one to this. There is zero harm in having hot/cold break in the fermenter. The boiling santizes your fermenter for you. Just chill the wort, slap on the lid and airlock. Less stuff to clean.

Lonni Mac has won several HB awards for light lagers, golden ales and the like using his boil pot as his fermenter.

You don't have to do it this way, but I think it would be better than transferring around. Especially considering that I am sure that ball valve has threads etc. Boiling for an hour will be a MUCH better sanitizer than starsan etc ever could be.

Got to admit, I've never heard of fermenting a beer without getting it off the trub. Also, I never really thought of using boiling wort as a sanitizer. I guess the key is using the hop bag, and having a long racking arm to get above the (much larger) layer of trub after fermentation.

I'm starting to warm to this idea. How does the gasketed lid idea look though? Any one had experience with that? Looking for tips.

If you have a bigger pot, you could do BIAB and get it down to one pot, no transfers. With only 3 gallon batches, lifting the grain bag out wouldn't be that hard. Let it drain through a colander or baking rack.

Personally, I wouldn't want to lose my BK for fermentation time in your setup though. I brew too much. Buckets are cheap and easy.

Check out alenuts.com. Lonni describes his fermentation there. IIRC, he just sets the pot lid on and ferments under that.

BIAB would be a good option too.

Thanks for the heads up on Lonni, that's good info. I've done BIAB before, but it was a little messy for me (maybe I'm doing it wrong). I also used to use a cooler and line it with a bag (no manifold or braid) and simply ran the wort out the spigot, but I was getting efficiency problems with that, and cleaning the bag was a PITA

I have been fermenting in my stainless kettle for a while now with good results, just usually chill and pitch dry yeast. If I am repitching a slurry, I will aerate. I usually do a 10 - 14 day primary and then rack to a keg. I would not leave it in a kettle "open" style for any extended period.

Sometimes I use a plastic bag over the top of the kettle w/ a string wrapped and tied securely and it seals up pretty well. I agree, all this transferring is a hassle and increases the likelyhood of nasties.

No need to have a gasket on the fermenter. It doesn't need to be sealed, just covered from things falling down into it. You won't get airlock activity but that's just because the co2 will escape around the edges instead. No big deal.

MikeRLynch - are you building this in addition to the nanobrewery???? My wife would kill me!

pickles said:

MikeRLynch - are you building this in addition to the nanobrewery???? My wife would kill me!

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Hehe, luckily the nanobrewery is in a seperate building, far away from the house and the wife. As far as this little kitchen setup, I basically do all the cooking anyway, so the kitchen is my domain. Only issue she has is the smell while I'm brewing. She usually crinkles her nose and heads for the door