OP
OP
First, my ghetto rig was solid enough to work without dumping the keggle on myself, but keep in mind I'm running natural gas so those stands would do me no good. I'm also in the planning stages of a real brew stand so those would just be a waste of money for a stopgap solution. I'd be more prone to garbage picking an old grill and ripping the top off for my next brew (hey, that's a pretty good idea).
Did I mention I was also in and out of the house "watching" my daughter for about 3 hours in the middle of the brew session so I wasn't overwatching the brew.
I totally agree on getting a water supply to work with in the garage. I already piped the line into the garage to run a bib out in the driveway. The only problem is that I didn't tap into the hot line. I plan to run another line off the hot side and put a basement sink type faucet right in the garage so I can quickly go from chilling to hot water clean up without leaving the garage.
So maybe my process needs tweaking:
1. Build ghetto brewstand, clamp burner to the ladder, shim the keg up higher, connect hose to Nat gas. (haha, yeah, working on fixing this step.
2. Mill grain per recipe.
3. Fill keg with gallon of sanitizer, bring to boil and drain through CFC, then add total amount of mash/sparge water and heat to 190F.
4. Drain mash water into bucket (measuring marks on side) and dump in MLT.
5. Wait for temp to drop to 170F (3 minutes last time) and drop the grain in, stir and verify mash temp.
6. Get remaining keg water up to about 195 to account for losses in the transfer to bucket then MLT. Transfer remaining water to bucket and close keggle valve (important LOL).
7. Vorlauf first runnings, then drain into keg (flame on), grab a sample for gravity and sit it in ice water.
8. Dump now 180ish water into MLT for batch sparge, mix well and let sit for 10 minutes. Read first runnings gravity.
9. Vorlauf, drain into keg, sample for second running grav. If I end up with too little in the kettle, I can run in the house and quickly bring a gallon or so up to temp on the stove.
10. Normal brew session boil schedule.
I think the process is pretty sound. Maybe I'll replace this HLT "bucket" system with a cooler if I find a great deal.
Did I mention I was also in and out of the house "watching" my daughter for about 3 hours in the middle of the brew session so I wasn't overwatching the brew.
I totally agree on getting a water supply to work with in the garage. I already piped the line into the garage to run a bib out in the driveway. The only problem is that I didn't tap into the hot line. I plan to run another line off the hot side and put a basement sink type faucet right in the garage so I can quickly go from chilling to hot water clean up without leaving the garage.
So maybe my process needs tweaking:
1. Build ghetto brewstand, clamp burner to the ladder, shim the keg up higher, connect hose to Nat gas. (haha, yeah, working on fixing this step.
2. Mill grain per recipe.
3. Fill keg with gallon of sanitizer, bring to boil and drain through CFC, then add total amount of mash/sparge water and heat to 190F.
4. Drain mash water into bucket (measuring marks on side) and dump in MLT.
5. Wait for temp to drop to 170F (3 minutes last time) and drop the grain in, stir and verify mash temp.
6. Get remaining keg water up to about 195 to account for losses in the transfer to bucket then MLT. Transfer remaining water to bucket and close keggle valve (important LOL).
7. Vorlauf first runnings, then drain into keg (flame on), grab a sample for gravity and sit it in ice water.
8. Dump now 180ish water into MLT for batch sparge, mix well and let sit for 10 minutes. Read first runnings gravity.
9. Vorlauf, drain into keg, sample for second running grav. If I end up with too little in the kettle, I can run in the house and quickly bring a gallon or so up to temp on the stove.
10. Normal brew session boil schedule.
I think the process is pretty sound. Maybe I'll replace this HLT "bucket" system with a cooler if I find a great deal.
