Why brewing with your own equipment can be so important...

[RighteousFire]

So we had a gathering of local homebrewers this past weekend and I decided to brew a couple batches on a buddies system, an IPA and Dusseldorf Altbier.

He has a two tier system, all keggles with their own burners. HLT gravity fed into a fly sparge mashtun. The wort is recirculated and transferred to the brew kettle with a march pump. He does 10 gallon batches and normally achieves 75% efficiency. His beers are very good.

I have a 5 gallon cooler with a stainless braid, one propane burner, a 7.5 gallon aluminum kettle, a 5 and 4 gallon pot for heating water on my stove (getting a second burner soon hopefully). I vorlauf manually and do double batch sparges and never get any lower than 80% efficiency. My beers are tasty, too.

I grind my own grain. He gets his ground at the LHBS.

I had 2 stuck mashes, clogged up his pump system, was off by about half a gallon less on both batches as well as had low efficiencies. I also clogged the filter on his brew kettle both times.

The only time I ever get a stuck mash is when there's lots of wheat and I forget to get rice hulls.

Needless to say, it was a bad brew day. On the bright side I'm sure they will still taste fantastic and are both happily bubbling away in my garage.

My point is that this was a prime example of how important nailing down the brewing process with your own system can be. My style works with my system and his with his, but not vice versa.

Also, I'll never make beer on his system my way again. We are planning on doing a 10 gallon RIS to split between us in the near future though.

 

[Pappers_]

Simplicity is my friend

 

[LakewoodBrew]

Since we all tend to invent our our equipment it takes more than a good knowledge of brewing science to be able to run a system. I wouldn't expect anyone to be able to run my single tier two vessel without me standing there with them.

 

[LarMoeCur]

This is the number 1 reason I haven't built a Brutus 10. Even with my 3 year break from brewing, I'm still pretty darn good with my basic setup. It took me awhile to get good but I like my setup and it makes great beer. I do not miss the old days of missing SGs and boil volumes.

I guess if I built a new system I'd be familar with it, but is seems like there is just to much to go wrong. Pumps, hoses, more fire, ect..ect for what? Does it brew faster? Better beer maybe? Not sure on that one. I do know it will cost me a lot more money!

 

[CidahMastah]

I have been experiencing this myself. From extract, to BIAB to traditional AG. I hear you on the missing of the gravity and how that can be annoying. But my buddy is building a tier system for our now shared setup (stored at my house ). I can't wait to iron it all out - but that is part of the fun for me. We spent neat the entire day monkeying around with his new pot and a new method. But I bet we will more than half that or better the next time around.

I know when we get it set, we won't complain, but changing systems and methods kind gave me insight and let me adapt new processes, which is leading to great time saving ideas. That of course leads to more mini projects and gadgets to ease things.

All good stuff.

 

[rico567]

Since we all tend to invent our our equipment it takes more than a good knowledge of brewing science to be able to run a system. I wouldn't expect anyone to be able to run my single tier two vessel without me standing there with them.

I never thought of it this way, but, for homebrewing, it's pretty much correct. There are enough of us that there's probably somebody out there who has an identical system, but the point in the OP is made. Brew with what you know. Personally, I'm strictly a K.I.S.S. brewer: plastic buckets, cooler conversion, 12 oz. longnecks, and I have no plans to change.

 

[RighteousFire]

The only thing I have changed recently is I now have kegging equipment. I have no plans to go to a huge system, just another burner for heating water. I like 5 gallon batches because it lets me have a bunch of beers around at the same time.

 

[LakewoodBrew]

I've chaged my setup substatially over time, always to either improve repeatabilty (quality), shorten cycle time, or expand the capacity. And I've done something for all of that. I plan on making additional changes in the future as well, but each time it creates challenges that I had never encountered before.

BIAB is probably the simplest method I ever used, but I couldn't do the large volumes of big beers I wanted to do.

 

[RighteousFire]

I do plan on changing my SS Braid to a copper manifold for durability.

 

[LakewoodBrew]

I looking at turning my electric strike/sparge water heater into a closed loop heater running through my counterflow chiller to make a HERMS.

 

[jjones17]

So we had a gathering of local homebrewers this past weekend and I decided to brew a couple batches on a buddies system, an IPA and Dusseldorf Altbier.

He has a two tier system, all keggles with their own burners. HLT gravity fed into a fly sparge mashtun. The wort is recirculated and transferred to the brew kettle with a march pump. He does 10 gallon batches and normally achieves 75% efficiency. His beers are very good.

I have a 5 gallon cooler with a stainless braid, one propane burner, a 7.5 gallon aluminum kettle, a 5 and 4 gallon pot for heating water on my stove (getting a second burner soon hopefully). I vorlauf manually and do double batch sparges and never get any lower than 80% efficiency. My beers are tasty, too.

I grind my own grain. He gets his ground at the LHBS.

I had 2 stuck mashes, clogged up his pump system, was off by about half a gallon less on both batches as well as had low efficiencies. I also clogged the filter on his brew kettle both times.

The only time I ever get a stuck mash is when there's lots of wheat and I forget to get rice hulls.

Needless to say, it was a bad brew day. On the bright side I'm sure they will still taste fantastic and are both happily bubbling away in my garage.

My point is that this was a prime example of how important nailing down the brewing process with your own system can be. My style works with my system and his with his, but not vice versa.

Also, I'll never make beer on his system my way again. We are planning on doing a 10 gallon RIS to split between us in the near future though.

Excuses do not make a failure right. What you need to do is try again.

Did the greatest boxer in the world, when he lost in a ring outside his hometown say "Wahhhhhhh I lost because I boxed in a ring that was not my own. I will only box in my own ring from now on." ? No... he did not. He learned from his mistakes and tried again until he could win away matches.

Crappy example, but that is what you are saying here. Get to know your own system? How about being good at every system you use providing its a decent one.

That would be worth posting about.

 

[CidahMastah]

I agree - part of the growth is from system to system.

Flex your brew skills!!

edit: though a little harsh on the guy... must admit

 

[Pappers_]

excuses do not make a failure right. What you need to do is try again.

Did the greatest boxer in the world, when he lost in a ring outside his hometown say "wahhhhhhh i lost because i boxed in a ring that was not my own. I will only box in my own ring from now on." ? No... He did not. He learned from his mistakes and tried again until he could win away matches.

Crappy example, but that is what you are saying here. Get to know your own system? How about being good at every system you use providing its a decent one.

That would be worth posting about.

-1

I appreciated the OP very much and his point.

 

[buzzkill]

I do indoor 5 gal brews in winter,10 gal outdoors in warm weather. and I just broke out my outdoor set up and it always takes a few brews to get volumes nailed down. and this fall when I go back to the indoor set up it will be the same at first.

 

[wildwest450]

Excuses do not make a failure right. What you need to do is try again.

Did the greatest boxer in the world, when he lost in a ring outside his hometown say "Wahhhhhhh I lost because I boxed in a ring that was not my own. I will only box in my own ring from now on." ? No... he did not. He learned from his mistakes and tried again until he could win away matches.

Crappy example, but that is what you are saying here. Get to know your own system? How about being good at every system you use providing its a decent one.

That would be worth posting about.

-2

 

[LakewoodBrew]

Excuses do not make a failure right. What you need to do is try again.

Did the greatest boxer in the world, when he lost in a ring outside his hometown say "Wahhhhhhh I lost because I boxed in a ring that was not my own. I will only box in my own ring from now on." ? No... he did not. He learned from his mistakes and tried again until he could win away matches.

Crappy example, but that is what you are saying here. Get to know your own system? How about being good at every system you use providing its a decent one.

That would be worth posting about.

Says ale pale joe
-3

 

[kanzimonson]

On a similar note, I can't believe how your efficiency improves as you become more and more familiar with your own system... I haven't changed a thing in the last 10 batches I've done, but my efficiency seems to rise 1% every time! (Or at least, I haven't consciously changed anything)

 

[LakewoodBrew]

On a similar note, I can't believe how your efficiency improves as you become more and more familiar with your own system... I haven't changed a thing in the last 10 batches I've done, but my efficiency seems to rise 1% every time! (Or at least, I haven't consciously changed anything)

Let us know when you hit 110%, cause that's what coach expects.

 

[kanzimonson]

Awesome. I wish in high school I had said to a coach that realistically you can expect me to get 75-80% for most of the game... for a few brief seconds I'll give 100%.