Am I the only one who doesn't worry about aeration at this point? I mean after my mash and sparge are done I put my wort into my boiling kettle and it rolls around for 60+ minutes. Am I wrong in thinking that boiling forces most of the oxygen out of my wort anyway? Then, when the boil is done and I have chilled the wort and pitched the yeast I try my best to get as much aeration as possible to give the yeast a nice environment to do their thing. Am I completely off base here???
Stay where you're at! Simple is better IMO. I've been around the world from where you're at, to a Brutus 10 setup, to a 50L Braumeister and back again. I love the simplicity of a basic system like you (and I once again) have. It makes great beer and there is much less to clean at the end of a brew day.
I am apartment AG brewing on an electric stove. Here's my process.
1. Heat strike water in 10 gal BK
2. Start mash in Igloo MLT and start heating mash out water in BK
3. Simultaneously start heating sparge water in a cheap lobster pot
4. Add mash out water and collect first runnings in BK
5. Start boiling first running in BK
6. Add sparge water from lobster pot, collect second runnings, and dump into BK on the stove.
EDIT: Although my BK does have a ball valve, I only use it for transferring the wort to the fermenter. I just dump the water into the MLT.
Normally I don't brew inside but it was really cold that day. I have another 8 gallon pot that I heat my sparge water in. I hook that to the pump and transfer the sparge water at a high rate into the mash tun via the sparge arm. Stir, recirculate and then drain to the bk.
Brewfist said:My fascination is endless for seeing other's setup! May I ask:
[*]Is your march pump just laying on the floor?
[*]Are you heating with propane indoors?
[*]Is that a BCS controller?
Looks like a nice, tight configuration!
Normally I don't brew inside but it was really cold that day. I have another 8 gallon pot that I heat my sparge water in. I hook that to the pump and transfer the sparge water at a high rate into the mash tun via the sparge arm. Stir, recirculate and then drain to the bk.
Eddiebosox said:HA. the only thing i thought of when I saw that picture was how quickly my wife would kill me if she came home and saw that...
This.
Nope, you're not off base at all.
Here's my setup:
The cooler usually sits on the sawhorses, but this pic was taken after I had cleaned it out and the boil had commenced.
It was REALLY cold out that day. Plus, she loves beer more than I do, so all I had to do was ask and clean up my mess. And get this, while I was brewing, she cleaned the whole house and didn't even ask me to help
WhiteDog87 said:Sounds like the definition of a "keeper" to me!
Heh i use very similar system (look post #20) and love the benefits you mentioned
Been Quite happy with this setup. Holds all my brew day gear. I don't have to disassemble anything and just roll it out of the way when not in use.
Where do you purchase that shelving? I've seen it before. Is it Home Depot? Is it sturdy?
Where do you purchase that shelving? I've seen it before. Is it Home Depot? Is it sturdy?
If you collect wort in a bucket, use a bottling bucket. This way you can slap some tubing on the spigot and gravity drain the wort into your kettle to avoid excessive aeration.
Ramping up is fun and exciting .... On that note it is expensive and time consuming, I have spent 3 months and countless dollars putting together the dream brew system ...
"Puddlethumper" take it a piece at a time and you will get there with little $ and little time and have a perfectly managable system.
I think nowadays with the great access to great grain doing step mashes is overated, My opinion only.
Thanks for your comments. You have a beautiful system! Hope it works as good for you as it looks!
I like to build stuff and don't mind spending a few bucks if I need to, but hate to spend the same money twice. So your suggestion to take it slow is good council. I like the Costco rack on wheels some of the guys here have built and I'm noodling the idea of something along those lines with natural gas burners under the mash tun and brew kettle.
Was watching a tv show about brewing the other evening and the guy from Budweiser said they brew with step mashes (he didn't call it that cause the show was aimed at non-brewers). Palmer describes it and gives a nod to its value in his book. Made me think it was probably a place I'll want to get to at some point. ith that in mind I didn't want to "spend the same money twice" by making an Igloo cooler mash/lauter tun, but rather go ahead and spend the bucks on a decent SS kettle with ball valve, thermometer, etc.
Your thoughts on that move?
I have spent 3 months and countless dollars putting together the dream brew system .
I using propane and 32 jet, Jet burners. For my smaller system (15.5 gallon brew pot) I use the 12.5" banjo burner from Boyou classics, this burner is awsome and can be fitted for natural gas.What kind of burners are you using? Propane, natural gas or electric?
Yes HomeBrew Finds is bookmarked in my beer folder and I go there daily,That is a smoking deal! Should serve as a brew kettle or mash tun. I gotta go count my shekels!
I using propane and 32 jet, Jet burners. For my smaller system (15.5 gallon brew pot) I use the 12.5" banjo burner from Boyou classics, this burner is awsome and can be fitted for natural gas.
Great info. Fitment to natural gas seems to be an issue with most of the burners I've seen. I'm glad to know about that banjo.
Puddlethumper said:Thanks for the link. That would make a really good brew kettle. They kinda ding it for the fitment of the lid so it might not be such a good fit as a mash/lauter tun.
I've about decided to install a weldless ball valve setup in my old and funky SS 5 gal. kettle. That, with the addition of another burner, would make a really good hot liquor tank. With the heat source it would hold the temp as long as I want. And that, with a little creative soldering of some copper pipe will open the door to fly sparges in my existing picnic cooler mash tun.
This combination of moves adds up to about $90 and gives me a good use for an otherwise marginally useful SS kettle + another burner to be available for various applications + the ability to do fly sparges.
Am I missing something here?
Puddlethumper said:So when are you thinking of opening your nano-brewery? And, btw, what the heck is a nano-brewery?
How much beer is in a barrel? Do you sell the beer to a local brewery or other outlet?
I am looking forward to my first AG brew next week and had a question about batch sparging.
My setup is basically a 9gal brew kettle and a cooler mash tun. My question is: what is your hardware and process for batch sparging?
My initial thoughts was that I would be fine with a single kettle and MLT, but it seems I will need an extra vessel for either boiling water OR collecting the wort between batches.
I was thinking of using a plastic pail to collect the wort, but I would be worried about aerating the wort when putting it back in the BK. Now I am thinking of just getting another large kettle for boiling water, I was just hoping to avoid that expense.
Thoughts? What do you do?
Been Quite happy with this setup. Holds all my brew day gear. I don't have to disassemble anything and just roll it out of the way when not in use.
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