new equipment - moving up to 10 gallons!!

Just wanted to share a couple things. First, I bought a bunch of stuff from a fella on hbt who posted his whole lot. He was getting out of brewing and wanted to unload. Well, I got a ton of stuff and it wouldn'tve happened without this site - thanks for that (and thanks, engineerbrew!).

Now I'm moving up to 10 gallons. I brewed about 20 5 gallon all grain batches using a turkey cooker, gott 5 gallon cooler, and immersion chiller. Got into kegging after about my 3rd AG. Good beers all around with some experimentation with homegrown hops and some yeast harvesting that I threw out eventually - but learning a lot.

I'm going to go with a 3 tier ghetto system using a shelf in my garage, a prop for the burner/keggle, and a stand for the cfc so I can save my back. Whew, a keggle with 13 gallons of water is heavy as s%^t!

I'm planning on doing a cream ale/blonde ale/kolch thingy as my first brew to figure out my system. I'll have to lift several batches of strike water 5 gallons at a time up a small step ladder to hit my cooler MLT and again for batch sparge water but that should be it for lifting and it won't be boiling water at least. I'm going to try bag-hopping, whirlpooling, and using a pick up tube on the lower side of the keggle to remove all but maybe the last 0.5 to 1 gallon.

Will then be my first time with a cfc but it looks like it will work well. Pitch into 2 6.5 gallon carboys that I can carry into the fermentation area.

Whew! Thanks for letting me share.


cb

WOW! Congrats. Now get out there and brew!

Silly question but with the tiered systems, isn't there a pump to get the wort back up to the top?

Couldn't you save your back by putting the water in the kettle with the pump, then just fill that and pump it up to the top.

Would beat hauling water 5 gallons at a time up a ladder and risk falling...

Congrats though!!!

I'm going to go with a 3 tier ghetto system

Click to expand...

By that statement I assume upgrades to the stand are not on the horizon. By your "ladder with hot water" comments, I also assume this isn't a 3-tiered system.

Maybe some photos/more details about the configuration would be helpful here.

I would suggest heating your strike water at the highest point on the system and then letting gravity take over, especially since you don't have a pump. 150 deg. water can be an unwelcome shock too

Usually a stand, a table, and another stand will do the 3-tier thing pretty easily and without much more stuff required. There are other ways around it but we need to know how you are heating the strike water, etc before we can get into that.

OK, I finally joined so I can post pics and b/c I've used this site for info/help so much - and hope to continue to do so.

bull - get out and brew, I know - can't wait for my first 10G

BAd and its - yeah, i have serious pump envy. here's a pic of my system. i think it is 3 tier - I carry the water to the MLT but will be heating it (on another cooker - you can't see it in the pic). What you can see is the blue MLT which drains passively into the keggle which can drain passively (I've tried it w/water) through the CFC into the carboy(s). The step ladder I can use to carry up my 170 water to the MLT. Yeah, a pump would rule but I'm going to try it this way unless y'all have other ideas.

Thats a 2 tier... but thats besides the point.

When you say cooker are you talking a stove or another Bayou Classic -esque burner?

turkey cooker, you know the one from wal mart. I have 2 of those now. You can see one under the keggle. I guess it would be 3-tier if I had a pot above the MLT dripping my sparge in?


I guess the fermenter isn't a tier. Again, I'm just trying to use what I have and do as little lifting (excepting the carboys and strike water) as possible.

In looking at the pic I'm wondering if I might rig up my strike water cooker on the top shelf if I put some sheet metal flashing on the wall to keep the flame off...................hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

And we start hearing the dings!

I was trying to get an idea of what you had so I could throw suggestions your way to MAKE a 3 tier! You seem to be jumping ahead. I'm not sure if the whole burner thing is a great idea indoors next to a wall, but only you and your sheet metal would know for sure. I know it will cut your lifting in half if you could put your burner on that top tier and get gravity to cooperate.

My suggestion would be to run some tests with that full of water and get it boiling. Make sure that everything is safe from the heat and that the structure stays solid. Once you know how that works (and how well your pretty white wall holds up) you can start making some more decisions. But I throw my support behind the idea of making it a full 3-tier, your back will thank you!

Your situation sounds familiar.

Just get gravity working in your favor and you no need no stinking pump.


Water is heated in the smaller turkey fryer.
I use a sauce pot (on ladder step) to ladle hot water in to the cooler (tun).
Wort is drained to the kettle.
Kettle is cooled and batch is split into two 5-gallon buckets and carried downstairs.

(of course, I've since moved this process to the indoor brewshop so no need to carry anything...)

sounds good - thanks for the input. It's actually my garage (you can see the door trolly and driveway in the pic) so no HUGE loss if the wall gets discolored by the heat. I guess I'd have the brick on one side anyway......................


Yeah, I ran cold water through just to make sure it drained and to check the capacities but was thinking about doing hot/boil just to be sure.


cb

Hell if you really arent concerned with your garage wall, line the back of the wall with bricks and the side that isnt already brick with bricks and the bottom with bricks. That will shield everything from the heat and actually wont look too bad. Then you can hop on the gravity train to no heavy lifting

Edit: And we want updated pictures so we can either laugh or clap

OK, here's the new plan. I 'practiced' by heating 7 gal strike water to 170 in hot liquor tank (top tier) and shielded using flashing. Had the fire extinguisher just in case but it seemed fine. took about 30 minutes on low flame, don't know how much I can push it. Anyway, thanks for the suggestion. I'll still have to fill up my small hlt a couple of time for batch sparging big grain bills but one fill (7.5 gallons or so, have to measure) will be good for about 24 lb bills at 1.25 qt/lb. so 1 hlt worth will fill my mash. Then I can fill and heat sparge water for batch, only having to refill hlt with about 2-3 more gallons to get my whole batch sparge - hopefully this heat will be fast so I can stir, vhroulaf, and drain to keggle.

Hey biermuncher - just saw your reply. I like the ladling idea. Depending on how confident I am that i won't burn anything nor produce propane fumes I may go back to the first pic setup and ladle. I remember you talking about ladling in another post. Thanks for the support!

cb

The only reason I was straying you away from ladling was for time purposes. Having gravity do most of the hard work for you is the best always. Give each a shot, but if you are worried about the amount of WORK you have to do, the current modified setup will be the easiest for brewing.

brewed on 9/9 using the 3 tier HLT idea ('prece!). Had to batch twice but that's allright. Didn't use the cfc 'cuz trial runs w/water took 30 mins to gravity drain and that means lots of hot/warm wort sitting around. I used my old 25 ic and took about half hour but got the whole wort down at once.

Now I'm wondering. Is it worth using the cfc with a prechiller using the ic or is 30 mins still too long to leave hot wort in the keggle, even covered?????

cb