mash tun

[beermonster1985]

im pretty new to homebrew having done 5 brews in my girlfriends parents BIG aluminium pots and siphoning out the wort i feel i should put a tap (false bottom) in the pot to make my life easier, just a few questions, how to fit the tap? can i solder it or will that be poisenus? also reading about mash and lautering, i have just been mashing for a certain time then boiling the wort for an hourand thats it but whats all this lautering and sparging all about when it allseemed so simple or am i the simple 1?cheers

 

[Token]

Watch this series of videos. (they are each less than 4 minutes) This helped me A LOT!

Good luck!

 

[beermonster1985]

ok thanks, iv seen all these videos, they show what to do but not what they are and why? like what is the metal tubing thing he puts in the wort for?sorry if these questions are stupid but i dont know much about it..

 

[whale]

are you doing all grain or partial mash??
all grain is where you start with just grain, no extract (syrup).
mash= soaking of the grain in hot water
lautering= filtering out the grain to get the wort
sparging = washing the grain to get whats left of the wort.

it is pretty simple. terms makes you think little.

as for copper coil thing.
looks like you never cooled the wort after boiling. is that because you were adding it to cold water?? as for all grain, we end up with wort thats the full amount. we dont add it to water. thats why we need the coil to cool the wort. running cold water in the coil thats placed in hot wort, cools the wort down to pitching temp.

unless you are pumping the wort or CFC(another way to cool the wort) you really dont need to put a tap on your pot. I just scoop it out of the pot.

 

[beermonster1985]

ah so itss just the words that are confusing me, i have been mashing in 1 pot then siphoning the mash to another pot (getting 95% of wort) theen boiling then cooling in ice bath, so i have been doing ok, i have been lautering and whatever just confuseed by words, thanks whale!

 

[beermonster1985]

o and that copper thing to cool the wort that looks like just another way to contaminate the wort

 

[malkore]

o and that copper thing to cool the wort that looks like just another way to contaminate the wort

not really. you put the copper immersion chiller in at 15 minutes left in the boil. That sanitizes the exterior very thoroughly.

Otherwise you'll wait 24 hours for 5gallons of wort to cool to pitching temps, vs 20-30 mins with an immersion chiller. you can even collect the spent water and use it for cleanup.