ok this will sound really stupid but I keep seeing these beer brewing towers being built and i'm going to finaly make sure I understand the usage. I'm guessing the top one is to hear the water for your "tea" then drain it onto your grains inside a cooler and allow them to maintain at 155-160 for 30mins, then drain into the bottom kettle and bring to a boil and finish the brewing. Am I right at all?
3 tier beer brewing statio
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davesrose
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It's a method of all grain brewing that relies on fly sparging (instead of batch sparging and gravity (instead of a pump). This is the system I use actually....since I can assemble it on my deck, then easily store my coolers/brew pots in my garage. Your top container holds your hot water. Water then flows through a fly arm to spray hot water over your grain bed (which you've mashed and is now being sparged). You're also allowing your wort to drain from the mash tun to your brew kettle at the same time.
davesrose
Well-Known Member
Well from what I could understand what you were saying in your OP...you weren't totally right. First, we aren't trying to "hear" anything 
Second, a 3 tier system is used for sparging: that you've already mashed your grains at 153 degrees for 60 minutes. The next step in AG, after mashing your grains is sparging them. You first raise your mash to 168 degrees (to mash out...raise the temp to stop enzyme converting). Your sparge water, then, is a hoter temp to be able to keep the grains warm and help extract all the sugars that you created when you were mashing. The wort that's being drained to your brew kettle is being drained at the same rate as your fly sparger.
And again, this is all for the sparge: the mash happens before...and is just happening in your mash tun.
Second, a 3 tier system is used for sparging: that you've already mashed your grains at 153 degrees for 60 minutes. The next step in AG, after mashing your grains is sparging them. You first raise your mash to 168 degrees (to mash out...raise the temp to stop enzyme converting). Your sparge water, then, is a hoter temp to be able to keep the grains warm and help extract all the sugars that you created when you were mashing. The wort that's being drained to your brew kettle is being drained at the same rate as your fly sparger.And again, this is all for the sparge: the mash happens before...and is just happening in your mash tun.
phillc
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You are pretty much there.
Top Vessesl = HLT (Hot Liquor Tun) and is used to heat water for both the mash and the sparge (rinse) of the grains. You could use either batch sparging or fly sparging with this configuration. Batch sparging means draining all of the liquid from the mash once into the boil kettle, adding more hot water and stirring it up, and then draining it again. Some repeat this process more than once. Fly sparging is continually rinsing the grains by adding hot water to the top of the mash whilst simultaneously draining from the bottom of the mash into the boil kettle at an even rate.
Middle Vessel = MLT (Mash Lauter Tun) and is used to hold the hot water and grains during the mash and sparge processes. A typical mash takes about 60 minutes while sparge time varies. My fly sparge with this same system takes 20-30 minutes. There is some debate on how slow/fast to do this.
Bottom Vessel = Boil Kettle and is where the sweet wort (pronounced wert) from the mash is boiled along with any top off water, adjuncts, and hop additions. A typical boil time is 60 minutes, although some prefer 90 or more. I get good results with 60 minutes. Hop additions at different times during the boil have different affects. Early hop additions contribute to bitterness. Mid boil hop additions contribute to some bitterness, some aroma, and some flavor. Late hop additions contribute no bitterness, lots of aroma, and some flavor. Adjuncts vary wildly, but common ones are additional sugar to boost ABV (Alcohol By Volume) and Irish Moss or similar to improve wort clarity.
After the boil is complete, the wort is run through some sort of cooling process to bring it down to yeast pitching temperatures (~75 degrees F) as quickly as possible. There are different methods to do this. Ice baths and various forms of chillers (immersion, counterflow, plate) are common. Once cooled the wort is put into the fermenter and the yeast is added.
After fermentation is complete, the beer is either bottled or kegged and the appropriate method is used to carbonate. Usuall bottle conditioning is used when bottling which involves adding the appropriate amount of sugar and then capping so that the remaining yeast in the beer produces a minor amount of ethanol and more importantly, CO2 which makes its way into suspension due to being under pressure in the sealed vessel. Natural conditioning may also be used when kegging, but most choose to force carbonate using an external source of CO2 an pressurizing the keg with the appropriate pressure and the appropriate temperature.
Once kegging/bottling is complete, the beer should be aged the common view is for a minumum of 2 weeks. It really depends on the beer and you, though. I generally age my bottled beer for much longer. A month or more. Darker beers and beers with a higer ABV respond well to even longer aging processes. Sometimes many months. Some people subscribe to this same process for kegging, some tap that beautiful nectar in as few as 2 days. It really depends on the beer and your taste buds.
I hope that answered your question and I didn't ramble too much.
Beyond this, this forum is an unbelievable tool for both beginning and advanced brewers. You will find an wealth of information and helpful people. Remember: The search feature is your friend.
Have a good one! Phill.
Top Vessesl = HLT (Hot Liquor Tun) and is used to heat water for both the mash and the sparge (rinse) of the grains. You could use either batch sparging or fly sparging with this configuration. Batch sparging means draining all of the liquid from the mash once into the boil kettle, adding more hot water and stirring it up, and then draining it again. Some repeat this process more than once. Fly sparging is continually rinsing the grains by adding hot water to the top of the mash whilst simultaneously draining from the bottom of the mash into the boil kettle at an even rate.
Middle Vessel = MLT (Mash Lauter Tun) and is used to hold the hot water and grains during the mash and sparge processes. A typical mash takes about 60 minutes while sparge time varies. My fly sparge with this same system takes 20-30 minutes. There is some debate on how slow/fast to do this.
Bottom Vessel = Boil Kettle and is where the sweet wort (pronounced wert) from the mash is boiled along with any top off water, adjuncts, and hop additions. A typical boil time is 60 minutes, although some prefer 90 or more. I get good results with 60 minutes. Hop additions at different times during the boil have different affects. Early hop additions contribute to bitterness. Mid boil hop additions contribute to some bitterness, some aroma, and some flavor. Late hop additions contribute no bitterness, lots of aroma, and some flavor. Adjuncts vary wildly, but common ones are additional sugar to boost ABV (Alcohol By Volume) and Irish Moss or similar to improve wort clarity.
After the boil is complete, the wort is run through some sort of cooling process to bring it down to yeast pitching temperatures (~75 degrees F) as quickly as possible. There are different methods to do this. Ice baths and various forms of chillers (immersion, counterflow, plate) are common. Once cooled the wort is put into the fermenter and the yeast is added.
After fermentation is complete, the beer is either bottled or kegged and the appropriate method is used to carbonate. Usuall bottle conditioning is used when bottling which involves adding the appropriate amount of sugar and then capping so that the remaining yeast in the beer produces a minor amount of ethanol and more importantly, CO2 which makes its way into suspension due to being under pressure in the sealed vessel. Natural conditioning may also be used when kegging, but most choose to force carbonate using an external source of CO2 an pressurizing the keg with the appropriate pressure and the appropriate temperature.
Once kegging/bottling is complete, the beer should be aged the common view is for a minumum of 2 weeks. It really depends on the beer and you, though. I generally age my bottled beer for much longer. A month or more. Darker beers and beers with a higer ABV respond well to even longer aging processes. Sometimes many months. Some people subscribe to this same process for kegging, some tap that beautiful nectar in as few as 2 days. It really depends on the beer and your taste buds.
I hope that answered your question and I didn't ramble too much.
Beyond this, this forum is an unbelievable tool for both beginning and advanced brewers. You will find an wealth of information and helpful people. Remember: The search feature is your friend.
Have a good one! Phill.
davesrose
Well-Known Member
If you're just thinking about getting into AG...I'd really only recommend a 3 tier system if you want to get into fly sparging. For batch sparging, a lot of people just have two tiers (mash tun up top, boil kettle down below). With most home AG brewing, you're using a seperate boil kettle for heating water for your mashing and sparging, and you can just transfer the hot water by hand (I keep my propane burner planted firmly on the deck, and just hoist up a cooler for my hot water tank during my fly sparge). The main thing about any setup is that you don't want to disturb your mash tun while you're sparging....and you're using gravity to drain off your sweet liquid from mash tun to a boil kettle. The main oposing system is a single tier system: where a hot water tank, mash tun, boil kettle...they're all at the same height and you have a pump doing the transfering: 3 tier mainly means it's gravity doing the work.
If you're new to beer brewing in general, you can start with extract. It's got a cheaper upfront cost, and your ingredients have already been mashed (so you just go straight to boil).
If you're new to beer brewing in general, you can start with extract. It's got a cheaper upfront cost, and your ingredients have already been mashed (so you just go straight to boil).
