(the links are to Dropbox photos and product pages as appropriate)
I finally got my system locked in earlier this year. Two 15.5 gallon keggles (mash and boil), a 9 gallon cooler for sparge water (HLT), one propane burner and a cross-flow chiller. I found my mash limit (36 pounds of grain) and managed to squeeze out two beers over 10% ABV, both of which won medals at my first competitions, and used extra DME/LME to hit higher gravities. Using BeerSmith, I was getting pretty consistent efficiency in the low 70s.
Then after adding two 10 gallon oak/spirit barrels and corny keg equipment, I discovered that my now standard 10 gallon batches (8-9 at bottling) were not giving me enough end product after bottling for friends, entering competitions, pouring for "people's choice" and drinking ourselves. I have also started to make some "base" beers I can sour and age in various ways for blending down the road.
Then around Thanksgiving I found an amazing deal on a 41 gallon steel pot for $199, which set this upgrade in motion. My LHBS added a ball valve and a dip tube made by bending a standard steel racking cane, which costs an extra $75 or so. I picked up restaurant grade stainless steel scrubbers (less than $1 each) to place around the dip tube as a filter, as I have heard others doing this successfully instead of expensive false bottoms. Having wanted a second burner for a while, I settled on the low-profile Bayou Classic KAB6 which thanks to Amazon Prime, arrived two days later ready to use. Aside from putting out a ton of heat, the burner supports up to 160 quart stainless stockpots.
I was not interested in doing back-to-back mash and sparge cycles to get enough wort for a larger batch. My brewday is long enough as is! Conveniently we had a 120 quart Igloo cooler (ours is 12 years old) which keeps ice cold for 5 days, which should good enough to keep mash at temp. I decided to add another 1/2" ball valve with rubber gaskets threaded onto a 3" brass nipple, and brought over my bazooka screen (and coupler) from my original boil kettle, which will now serve as my HLT. Having used a false bottom in my keggle, I knew this would be a big change in process, not to mention the jump back to infusion vs temperature mashing!
Next, I started thinking about what my options were beyond 5 and 6 gallon glass fermenters. Large stainless steel fermenters were out of the question and I started exploring HDPE (plastic). I considered the Ss half-barrel chronical but felt that even 17.5 gallon fermenter was too small, as my mash tun and boil kettle can produce much more wort. Almost immediately I found the Spiedel 120L (31.7 gallon) HDPE fermenter on sale and pulled the trigger on it.
So today I finally got to put this new configuration to work. I planned a 20 gallon batch of Belgian Page Ale in BeerSmith (recipe), guessing at the overall efficiency, evaporation rate, specific heat of the cooler and deadspace. I knew this was a ton of variables to work with but wanted to get a feel for how the process went.
BeerSmith calculated a strike temp of 170 which seemed about right to hit a mash temp of 152. After a few minutes doughing in and stirring with the help of my wife, the mash settled at 147 (uh-oh, time to improvise). I calculated an intermediate infusion mash step to try and hit my target temp. Having not heated up extra water, it took me 15 minutes before I had 7 quarts (1.75g) up to 185 degrees and ready to add to the mash. The remaining 45 minutes mashed at 153 degrees. A quick iodine test confirmed that the conversion was complete. It took another 15 minutes beyond the end of my mash before I could add the mash out infusion (15 gallons at 190). The water should probably have been over 200 and I think I miscalculated. Oh well.
The sparge water was up to temp and I fly sparged as usual, though I was nowhere near the target of 168. I greatly underestimated the deadspace and/or grain absorption as I came 2 gallons shy of my pre-boil volume and 5 points below my target pre-boil gravity! I think I can solve those problems by lowering my total efficiency and adding 2 gallons of tun deadspace to my equipment profile. The 90 minute boil revealed a shocking 3 gallon/hour boil-off (I had guessed half as much) so although my mash efficiency was low, I made up for it by over reducing my wort. I had been hoping for 20 gallons into my new fermenter at 1.060 and got just shy of 16 gallons at 1.064. A quick gallon of cold distilled water brought the OG down to 1.060 and helped get me to pitch temperature faster, much better than waiting 4 or 5 hours for it to cool off. I pitched a giant starter (slurry only) from 4 packs of Wyeast Belgian Schelde which theoretically grew to just over a trillion cells. I used this yeast because it has a lower starting temp range (60 vs 65) and is one of their "private collection" strains available through the end of this month. Thankfully my O2 tank has a long enough tube to reach the wort through the top opening of the fermenter so I oxygenated for 90 seconds and "rocked" it enough to get a big splash or two. At over 120 pounds, this fermenter doesn't move around easily!
If anyone has advice on further tweaks I should make in respect to the cooler mashing and overall efficiency, I would love to hear it! I'm hoping to not lose considerable quality by introducing two new plastic components into my "brewhouse". Hopefully I can get it "dialed in" within 4 or 5 batches so I can scale up my previously successful recipes.
I finally got my system locked in earlier this year. Two 15.5 gallon keggles (mash and boil), a 9 gallon cooler for sparge water (HLT), one propane burner and a cross-flow chiller. I found my mash limit (36 pounds of grain) and managed to squeeze out two beers over 10% ABV, both of which won medals at my first competitions, and used extra DME/LME to hit higher gravities. Using BeerSmith, I was getting pretty consistent efficiency in the low 70s.
Then after adding two 10 gallon oak/spirit barrels and corny keg equipment, I discovered that my now standard 10 gallon batches (8-9 at bottling) were not giving me enough end product after bottling for friends, entering competitions, pouring for "people's choice" and drinking ourselves. I have also started to make some "base" beers I can sour and age in various ways for blending down the road.
Then around Thanksgiving I found an amazing deal on a 41 gallon steel pot for $199, which set this upgrade in motion. My LHBS added a ball valve and a dip tube made by bending a standard steel racking cane, which costs an extra $75 or so. I picked up restaurant grade stainless steel scrubbers (less than $1 each) to place around the dip tube as a filter, as I have heard others doing this successfully instead of expensive false bottoms. Having wanted a second burner for a while, I settled on the low-profile Bayou Classic KAB6 which thanks to Amazon Prime, arrived two days later ready to use. Aside from putting out a ton of heat, the burner supports up to 160 quart stainless stockpots.
I was not interested in doing back-to-back mash and sparge cycles to get enough wort for a larger batch. My brewday is long enough as is! Conveniently we had a 120 quart Igloo cooler (ours is 12 years old) which keeps ice cold for 5 days, which should good enough to keep mash at temp. I decided to add another 1/2" ball valve with rubber gaskets threaded onto a 3" brass nipple, and brought over my bazooka screen (and coupler) from my original boil kettle, which will now serve as my HLT. Having used a false bottom in my keggle, I knew this would be a big change in process, not to mention the jump back to infusion vs temperature mashing!
Next, I started thinking about what my options were beyond 5 and 6 gallon glass fermenters. Large stainless steel fermenters were out of the question and I started exploring HDPE (plastic). I considered the Ss half-barrel chronical but felt that even 17.5 gallon fermenter was too small, as my mash tun and boil kettle can produce much more wort. Almost immediately I found the Spiedel 120L (31.7 gallon) HDPE fermenter on sale and pulled the trigger on it.
So today I finally got to put this new configuration to work. I planned a 20 gallon batch of Belgian Page Ale in BeerSmith (recipe), guessing at the overall efficiency, evaporation rate, specific heat of the cooler and deadspace. I knew this was a ton of variables to work with but wanted to get a feel for how the process went.
BeerSmith calculated a strike temp of 170 which seemed about right to hit a mash temp of 152. After a few minutes doughing in and stirring with the help of my wife, the mash settled at 147 (uh-oh, time to improvise). I calculated an intermediate infusion mash step to try and hit my target temp. Having not heated up extra water, it took me 15 minutes before I had 7 quarts (1.75g) up to 185 degrees and ready to add to the mash. The remaining 45 minutes mashed at 153 degrees. A quick iodine test confirmed that the conversion was complete. It took another 15 minutes beyond the end of my mash before I could add the mash out infusion (15 gallons at 190). The water should probably have been over 200 and I think I miscalculated. Oh well.
The sparge water was up to temp and I fly sparged as usual, though I was nowhere near the target of 168. I greatly underestimated the deadspace and/or grain absorption as I came 2 gallons shy of my pre-boil volume and 5 points below my target pre-boil gravity! I think I can solve those problems by lowering my total efficiency and adding 2 gallons of tun deadspace to my equipment profile. The 90 minute boil revealed a shocking 3 gallon/hour boil-off (I had guessed half as much) so although my mash efficiency was low, I made up for it by over reducing my wort. I had been hoping for 20 gallons into my new fermenter at 1.060 and got just shy of 16 gallons at 1.064. A quick gallon of cold distilled water brought the OG down to 1.060 and helped get me to pitch temperature faster, much better than waiting 4 or 5 hours for it to cool off. I pitched a giant starter (slurry only) from 4 packs of Wyeast Belgian Schelde which theoretically grew to just over a trillion cells. I used this yeast because it has a lower starting temp range (60 vs 65) and is one of their "private collection" strains available through the end of this month. Thankfully my O2 tank has a long enough tube to reach the wort through the top opening of the fermenter so I oxygenated for 90 seconds and "rocked" it enough to get a big splash or two. At over 120 pounds, this fermenter doesn't move around easily!
If anyone has advice on further tweaks I should make in respect to the cooler mashing and overall efficiency, I would love to hear it! I'm hoping to not lose considerable quality by introducing two new plastic components into my "brewhouse". Hopefully I can get it "dialed in" within 4 or 5 batches so I can scale up my previously successful recipes.
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