Back To Basics

[mac_1103]

"I really don't wish I was young again. When I was young, I couldn't pay my rent."

 

[Broken Crow]

My spine and CNS are messed up, so lifting a basket or using a pulley are pretty much out for me. I'm slowly building my 3V system with the assumption that the tilting platform for the mash tun will give me the accessibilty I need for clean up. Also, I'm brewing to have better beer than I can afford, so working to a price-point means having at least one more temp-controlled vessel on hand for sparging just for efficiency. I have been wondering though if I'm being too naive in my planning...?

 

[tracer bullet]

I love my Anvil Foundry. It is somewhat back to basics for me. Waking up to heated mash water, set and forget mash temp control, predictable boil-off volumes.

Maybe that's not back to basics but it's so much more simple. I'm certainly converted. I still propane brew a few times a year and it's far more work.

 

[OakIslandBrewery]

My spine and CNS are messed up, so lifting a basket or using a pulley are pretty much out for me. I'm slowly building my 3V system with the assumption that the tilting platform for the mash tun will give me the accessibilty I need for clean up. Also, I'm brewing to have better beer than I can afford, so working to a price-point means having at least one more temp-controlled vessel on hand for sparging just for efficiency. I have been wondering though if I'm being too naive in my planning...?

I think your plan is spot on. Many brewers including myself are older and not able to handle heavy loads as easy anymore. Using pumps makes some tasks easier but dealing with spent grain is a challenge.

I've been experimenting with ways to make easier for me but I still find scooping it out of the cooler mash tun and into a muck tub the best way. Afterwards I haul it outside to dump in the woods. For Broken Crow I know that wouldn't work so not much help.

 

[Broken Crow]

I think your plan is spot on. Many brewers including myself are older and not able to handle heavy loads as easy anymore. Using pumps makes some tasks easier but dealing with spent grain is a challenge.

I've been experimenting with ways to make easier for me but I still find scooping it out of the cooler mash tun and into a muck tub the best way. Afterwards I haul it outside to dump in the woods. For Broken Crow I know that wouldn't work so not much help.

That is a lot of help actually, Thanks for the re-affirmation! My biggest issues are with reaching up or bending down..I figure with the tippy-tun I can sit on a low stool and scoop the cooler mash tun out to a bucket to wait for a friend of mine to come pick up for her chickens. (minus what I use to make cookies..which; yes..do leave husks stuck in my teeth but hey; they're delicious!)

 

[OakIslandBrewery]

That is a lot of help actually, Thanks for the re-affirmation! My biggest issues are with reaching up or bending down..I figure with the tippy-tun I can sit on a low stool and scoop the cooler mash tun out to a bucket to wait for a friend of mine to come pick up for her chickens. (minus what I use to make cookies..which; yes..do leave husks stuck in my teeth but hey; they're delicious!)

Here's an idea I was toying with. My cooler is large and is placed on a movable rack. The bottom of the rack has storage. I thought of mounting the cooler on a plate that's hinged on one end so I can tip it into the the muck tub. You could probably do the same. Right now I tip it but sometimes its a balancing act trying to scoop out the grain and hold the other end.

 

[Broken Crow]

The hinge or pivot has to be placed about 1/3 or more to the center of gravity to lessen the load while tipping. I was planning for a support that it could rest horizantally on while scooping.
Thanks again!

 

[Deadalus]

I agree with what @OakIslandBrewery is saying about tipping the MT to scoop into a muck bucket. For many brews I was hauling my MT down to the compost bin at the back of my yard. A keggle for usually 6 gallon brews, occasionally 10 gallons. Freakin' heavy! Now I position a bucket on the floor and scoop with a rectangular mash paddle. A bit of a balancing act with one hand on the rim and one hand scooping. Keggles are a bit messy to pour out of due to the typical rim. My heaviest vessel is actually my keggle with HERMS coil. I would recommend against keggles in general as far as weight considerations. If you can build a tipping method, that would alleviate a lot strain. A wheeled table could get you over to the sink in some situations. You can reduce the height of a SS table by correctly cutting the proper end of the table legs, meaning not the part the wheel attaches to unless the wheel attachment piece is movable.

As far as the OP, I immediately disliked using a cooler for all grain due to not having a way to regulate temperature well. I started all grain brewing on a stove and mashed on the stove. I don't exactly long for a 3 vessel gas setup, although I have considered building one for funsies. I also have no interest in having a rig that needs to be physically arranged prior to initiating the brew. Even wheeling my electric system on its table outside prior to ventilation was a chore as the garage isn't always neat. I do miss the occasional outside brew on a pretty day but hated dealing with rain! Cold winter days weren't horrible but cleanup could be more challenging.

 

[Malticulous]

I like my cooler. It holds temperature very well when it's full. The handles that makle it easy for me to carry to the compost.

 

[Yesfan]

For emptying the tun with a heavy grain load, a two wheeled dolly is very handy.

 

[Malticulous]

For emptying the tun with a heavy grain load, a two wheeled dolly is very handy.

Or a helper. That's always nice.

 

[Deadalus]

I like my cooler. It holds temperature very well when it's full. The handles that makle it easy for me to carry to the compost.

Pots and keggles have handles. They can be insulated too if you choose to. But carrying them vs scooping them out was more of a discussion for when there are physical limitations. There's also batch size considerations.

How do you apply heat if the temperature is off to begin with?

 

[Malticulous]

Pots and keggles have handles. They can be insulated too if you choose to. But carrying them vs scooping them out was more of a discussion for when there are physical limitations. There's also batch size considerations.

How do you apply heat if the temperature is off to begin with?

Brewers friend is close. I have decocted before because I was off. I guess I could fire up the propane.

Still the cooler is lighter than if it was full of beer and ice and it's meant to be carried. Full the brim I'd need two people. We're all different. My 80qt pot weighs more empty than the cooler.

 

[Somesaymybeerisdrinkable]

I wonder if someday I will miss controlling fermentation temperature with frozen water bottles instead of this chest freezer and inkbird that do all of the work for me.

I guess I did go back to basics since I started all grain with small batch stovetop BIAB, and now I brew the same way on my foundry. I gave up using the malt pipe and recirculating the wort and just use a Wilserbag instead.

Building a cooler mash tun does sound like a fun project, but I probably wouldn't use it more than a few times.

 

[Deadalus]

Brewers friend is close. I have decocted before because I was off. I guess I could fire up the propane.

Still the cooler is lighter than if it was full of beer and ice and it's meant to be carried. Full the brim I'd need two people. We're all different. My 80qt pot weighs more empty than the cooler.

Just my own personal opinion but I am happy to just set the temperature on the PID and I don't mind scooping it for the few minutes it takes to get it in the bucket. I thought it would more of a pain originally. The rim on the keggle is problematic but I could nail tipping a pot into a bucket, tote or even a cooler to get it to the composter. Something wide could work with the keggle like a tote or rectangular cooler but the bucket is already dirty from grinding grain.

I very often surf for used homebrewing equipment and many times see MT coolers as part of "Everything you need to homebrew" sales pitch. They are usually quitting, although to be fair, sometimes they may be getting an AIO or moving up. But I wonder if they are quitting, why quit then? And I don't have a solid answer. One answer though is they don't like their product. I think sometimes people quit because they are exasperated with being unable to produce anything they consider good. It can be hard to do that when you don't have as much control over the process. A cooler does make a perfectly fine MT in a HERMS. Hitting your mash temp perfectly though is hardly a given plus changing it for different schedules is also a concern.

A cooler doesn't shine like my MT either!

 

[OakIslandBrewery]

My 120 quart Coleman extreme works just fine for maintaining the mashing temp. If someone is having an issue with temp loss there's options to wrap it easy enough.

To haul out the spent grain, I bought a muck tub dolly that works great. After I dump the grain I also scoop out the scrap from the boil kettle and wipe everything down with paper towels. All the woodland critters don't mind those along with the other delights.

 

[Deadalus]

Yes ok, people keep saying "maintain" but what about changing the temperature when there are different steps in the schedule. I do know how to do that with infusions and decoction but you can miss too. I do see it is a little rosey in here. Software is great but I did start out all grain brewing when there wasn't software available in the late 90s although I did get a wonderful program not too far along that alleviated calculating by hand. It was still way easier to fix being off on the temperature stovetop vs a crappy 90s cooler. I'd rather not use two canning pots either, I still have them along with the scorch marks in the ripply bottoms. Sparging with a small bucket with holes in one hand while pouring water with the other is fun if you can rub your belly and pat your head but I do still like fly sparging with Phil's sparge arm better.

 

[Malticulous]

A cooler doesn't shine like my MT either!

Why is that important? Never mind.

I'll probably do a PID for my HLT. My homemade amazonian boil control is working fine though. I can watch a thermometer. I waste less time that way.

 

[Deadalus]

Why is that important? Never mind.

I'll probably do a PID for my HLT. My homemade amazonian boil control is working fine though. I can watch a thermometer. I waste less time that way.

It makes me happy like a sunny day.
A cooler as a MT on my EHERMS would be out of place next to its shiny HLT and BK keggle buddies.
I love brewing on my rig! It's my pride and joy, my mid-life crisis! (My keezer is pretty spanking too, I'll write that up someday soon.

A regular PID is not recommended for boil control. I have a power percentage controller, which may have a more specific name but that's what it does. You can set some of the fancier PIDs to act that way I think but I don't own one of those and until mine breaks I can't describe them accurately. I can pretty much just set the power to 100% to get the boil started and walk away with 6 gallon batch on my boil keggle but I'd be about a gallon or more short at the end of the boil. I usually out of an abundant sense of caution only put it at 95%, wait for the boil, start the brew timer, then power it down to about 75%. Add hops accordingly , check boil losses at 15 minute intervals, adjust power if needed. I just ran through four 10 gallon batches and that's pretty full so I had to learn the hard way to not to set it too high because the minute you walk away....well you all know what happens! I just have PIDs on the HLT and MT. The PID on the MT doesn't control anything, but it reads the temp and can do high alarms. Not exactly sure why the design has them other than perhaps they are reasonably priced and work easiest for the out temp into the coil.

Here's another thing I don't want to do. I do a fair amount of whirlpooling of hops and most certainly don't want to stand over the kettle for 20 minutes stirring. I can connect the pump to the whirlpool port, set the power to 10-15% to keep the temperature steady and let it run. In the mean time I am going to set up the fermenter, sanitize, and get the CFC in place.

 

[Rich1234]

If this helps...I know this is not my original concept, but...

I'm an old guy with a bad back as well. I brew 15 gal batches out of my clawhammer biab system. To remove the basket, I use one of those cheapo $100 electric winches from amazon. I mounted it to the ceiling of my basement and my kettle is on a stainless steel cart with wheels. I wheel it under the winch and lift the basket. Then move my kettle back in place. Drop basket to the ground. My typical grainbill is about 30-35lbs dry if that helps.

Once I have the basket on the ground, while heating to boil, I scoop it into home depot 5 gal buckets for removal from the brew site.

Rich

 

[OakIslandBrewery]

If this helps...I know this is not my original concept, but...

I'm an old guy with a bad back as well. I brew 15 gal batches out of my clawhammer biab system. To remove the basket, I use one of those cheapo $100 electric winches from amazon. I mounted it to the ceiling of my basement and my kettle is on a stainless steel cart with wheels. I wheel it under the winch and lift the basket. Then move my kettle back in place. Drop basket to the ground. My typical grainbill is about 30-35lbs dry if that helps.

Once I have the basket on the ground, while heating to boil, I scoop it into home depot 5 gal buckets for removal from the brew site.

Rich

Impressive!

Most brewers are creative folks making their system work and evolve as circumstances change.

I have thought about the electric winch idea several times but more for full kegs if beer going into a keezer. That is when and if I build another.

 

[glick]

I Ebiab on a homemade setup. I was just recently thinking about building a cooler mash tun!! I like the ease of biab but do miss the joy of mashing traditionally occasionally