Best Way to Move Hot Wort to Fermenting Keg?

[Clint Yeastwood]

My Braumeister is limited to 6 kg of grain, but I decided to try 6.1, including wheat, to see if it worked. If not, I would know to do BIAB next time. If it did work, I would know I could get away with it in the future.

1 # sugar (during boil)
5 # American wheat
4 # 2-row Pilsner
2 # 2-row pale
1.5 # 60L crystal
1 # Munich

I did not use rice hulls because I didn't think there was room, and I have had good results with wheat and no rice hulls in smaller beers.

I was shooting for 1.084 and got 1.069. Time to break out the DME.

My plan is to go BIAB next time. Problem: I don't know how people move hot wort to a fermenter these days. What's the best method?

I put my beers in Torpedo kegs and cool them in my pool, and I am not going back to a wort chiller, so I have to move hot wort.

 

[Somesaymybeerisdrinkable]

Silicone tubing is heat tolerant.

 

[Clint Yeastwood]

I'm thinking I'll either get a stainless racking cane or use a sanitized pitcher.

 

[Bramling Cross]

There's a reason why chillers are fundamental pieces of brewing kit, rather than swimming pools. Wort chillers of all stripes serve a critical function and they tend to do it in a transparent manner.

Rather than optimizing your swimming pool, maybe we can look at what went wrong with your prior attempts to use a wort chiller?

 

[Clint Yeastwood]

I'm sticking with the pool, but thanks.

 

[Bramling Cross]

Okey doke. That said, you have a very nice rig with a spigot. Just hook up a silicon hose and run off into the vessel of your choice.

Regarding wheat, don't beat yourself up about getting lower efficiency with wheat. That's pretty common.

Wheat is significantly smaller than barley, so it's often necessary to first crush your barely at the normal mill setting, then tighten up your mill and run your wheat through to gain proper efficiency. It's inconvenient, but if you want to brew wheat beers with any degree of efficiency, you need to mill the wheat separately.

Personally, since wheat doesn't have a husk, I like to run my mill really, really tight--there's no reason not to. A couple of handfuls of rice hulls solves everything. You don't need a 1/4lb of hulls.

I buy a pound of rice hulls every four years or so.

 

[Clint Yeastwood]

I have a spigot on the Braumeister, but I'm going to BIAB next time in order to avoid the efficiency problem. It seems pretty clear the limited capacity of the Braumeister is the issue. I have no problems with wheat in a smaller beer. Maybe rice hulls would help, but I don't want to keep experimenting when I can just make the beer in a bag and get it done.

I don't crush my own grain. Apart from this brew, I've gotten fine results letting my vendor crush everything, so I'm trying to avoid adding to my troubles. They crush everything for nothing and put each recipe in its own labeled bag. The grain is cheap, too. At least compared to outfits like Morebeer. It's pretty cool.

I used to have a mill back when I brewed 20 years ago. I think it was a Barley Crusher. I ended up throwing it out when I quit.

It turns out my gravity was 1.074, not 1.069. Something is going on with my refractometer. Works fine with water but it's all over the place with wort.