markstache
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Jun 16, 2013
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After listening to Sean Wolfe's 2014 NHC presentation "Keeping it Safe! The Home Brewerys Safety Plan," I have identified three areas where I think I can decrease risks in my brew process. I'd like to get feed back on whether my solutions make sense to people with more experience in multi-vessel all-grain, pumps, and chillers.
For the last year and a half, I have been brewing 5 gallon BIAB batches. I've recently moved from the stove to a re-purposed turkey friar. I have chilled by carrying the pot to a cold water/ice bath in my bathtub.
All three of these issues would be exacerbated by moving to 10 gallon batches, and I'd like to have that option in the near future.
I recently won a $100 gift card to Great Fermentations,, and I'd like to spend it on a pump. In Wolfe's presentation, he calls out the single tier, pump driven system as the safest possible all grain arrangement. I agree and would like to build a system around the pump to mitigate the issues identified above.
From my BIAB experience, I'm quite comfortable with the idea of sparging with all or most of my hot liquor. I envisioning a two vessel system with a cooler mash tun and a BK/HLT. I'll heat the water in the BK and pump it into the cooler. I can either reserve water for a mash-out addition and pump it all in. When the mash is done, pump back to the BK. Rather than a manifold, I'll probably sew a big voile bag, like I use for BIAB, to act as the screen for the grain.
Since I already have a pump, I'm leaning towards a plate chiller over an immersion chiller. While a small immersion chiller is cheaper, I think a small plate chiller would be at least as effective as a moderately sized immersion chiller and is price competitive given that I am committed to buying the pump. One area of concern is keeping hops out of the chiller and the pump during re-circulation. I've seen that people use hop spiders for this. Does anyone use a bazooka screen in the kettle?
To better support my current and future pots, I'm planning to make a small uni-strut stand. There are many great designs to mimic here on HBT.
For connections for the pump, I'm planning on camlock quick disconnects. When I get this plan ironed out, I'll probably just email BobbyM and have him put together a parts list for me.
I'd like to get feedback from the community on whether this sounds like a reasonable plan or if it raises any red flags. I'd like to do this on a budget, so if there are places where I can spend less on fittings or valves, I'd be interested to hear it. At the same time, I'm a buy-once-cry-once kind of guy, so if there is an opportunity to avoid replacing cheap parts in the near future, I'm all ears.
Thanks for reading this long post.
For the last year and a half, I have been brewing 5 gallon BIAB batches. I've recently moved from the stove to a re-purposed turkey friar. I have chilled by carrying the pot to a cold water/ice bath in my bathtub.
- Obviously, carrying 5 gallons of boling liquid through my house is a clear opportunity to scald me or my children. Not to mention the mess.
- Lifting hot soaked grain out of the boil pot is not especially difficult, but lifting can always be a hazard, both to my back and in knocking over the pot. I've given some thought to hoists, but I'm still not happy with having a bunch of hot grain swinging around.
- The propane burner I use was designed for a narrow pot than I have, and the pot retntion ring causes my pot to sit at an angle.
All three of these issues would be exacerbated by moving to 10 gallon batches, and I'd like to have that option in the near future.
I recently won a $100 gift card to Great Fermentations,, and I'd like to spend it on a pump. In Wolfe's presentation, he calls out the single tier, pump driven system as the safest possible all grain arrangement. I agree and would like to build a system around the pump to mitigate the issues identified above.
From my BIAB experience, I'm quite comfortable with the idea of sparging with all or most of my hot liquor. I envisioning a two vessel system with a cooler mash tun and a BK/HLT. I'll heat the water in the BK and pump it into the cooler. I can either reserve water for a mash-out addition and pump it all in. When the mash is done, pump back to the BK. Rather than a manifold, I'll probably sew a big voile bag, like I use for BIAB, to act as the screen for the grain.
Since I already have a pump, I'm leaning towards a plate chiller over an immersion chiller. While a small immersion chiller is cheaper, I think a small plate chiller would be at least as effective as a moderately sized immersion chiller and is price competitive given that I am committed to buying the pump. One area of concern is keeping hops out of the chiller and the pump during re-circulation. I've seen that people use hop spiders for this. Does anyone use a bazooka screen in the kettle?
To better support my current and future pots, I'm planning to make a small uni-strut stand. There are many great designs to mimic here on HBT.
For connections for the pump, I'm planning on camlock quick disconnects. When I get this plan ironed out, I'll probably just email BobbyM and have him put together a parts list for me.
I'd like to get feedback from the community on whether this sounds like a reasonable plan or if it raises any red flags. I'd like to do this on a budget, so if there are places where I can spend less on fittings or valves, I'd be interested to hear it. At the same time, I'm a buy-once-cry-once kind of guy, so if there is an opportunity to avoid replacing cheap parts in the near future, I'm all ears.
Thanks for reading this long post.
