smbdyshero
Active Member
- Joined
- Jan 25, 2017
- Messages
- 36
- Reaction score
- 35
So I got the Clawhammer System all put together. I did not take too much setup time or technical know-how to put it together. If you run into any snags, just check out their youtube videos on setup for the system and also the element. The system was reading +/- 2 degrees Fahrenheit from what my thermapen read. I did a leak test and everything was good to go. I was not a fan of the plate chiller, but it does the job and is fairly easy to clean. It does not screw apart so cleaning has to be thorough. Below is a timeline of my first brew day with it because everyone wants to know the magical time it took to heat to mash and time to boil.
I brewed a brown ale with 10 lbs of grain, but could easily fit just over 20 lbs of grain with full water volume in the kettle. Grain bill was milled pretty fine and that definitely helped reached 1.050 gravity. I was shooting for 1.056 so I'm not too upset.
I started with 62F water and it took about 50 minutes to an hour to reach 152F for mash temp. To be noted, I do not have the system insulated. I originally planned on going with around 165F or 170F to compensate for the temperature drop from grain, but decided to see how quickly the element would get it back up to 152F. Temps dropped to around 144F and got back to 152F within minutes.
The system held 152F pretty well, with a few fluctuations up to 154F then back down.
Mashing out was easy. I lifted the grain basket and inserted the metal feet myself, but I don't think this would be possible with a larger grain bill. Assistance would definitely be needed. Vorloufed for about 10 minutes with the pump and partially opened ball valve.
It took a little over an hour to get to boil at 208F with the lid on. I reduced power to 75% with the lid on and it was still boiling more vigorously then I expected. I took the lid off and the temperature dropped to around 205F at 75% but I ramped it up to 100% and got it back to 208F fairly quickly. The boil was still rolling but not as vigorously with the lid off. You will notice more condensation and boil off obviously, so take that into consideration when planning recipe and water amounts. I ended up putting the lid back on and there was still a fair amount of steam coming out where the lid meets the hop spider.
The plate chiller performed very well with very cold ground water (I'm in Montana). After finishing up the chilling and pitching the yeast, I now got to see how long it would take to clean up. I need to get better at not spilling wort when removing the quick disconnects to empty out excess wort. I emptied them and reconnected everything, including plate chiller. I ran PBW through everything while cleaning up other random brew day accessories. I dumped the PBW and ran a rinse through the whole system, also reversing lines on the plate chiller. I hate seeing standing water in my kettle no matter how little of an amount, so I pulled off all the hoses and hung them up, unplugged the temperature sensor and unscrewed the TC clamp for the element and took the kettle to my utility sink and sprayed it out real quick. Gave it a quick dry and left everything unattached.
All in all, it took about 5 hours start to finish for the brew day, but a lot of the time waiting for it to reach temps I worked on other projects so it wasn't too bad. I know a lot of guys want a vigorous boil, but I prefer the boil with the system because it will probably never boil over while left unattended. I think after a few more brews and getting everything dialed in I will really enjoy brewing on it.
I'm hoping to get photos of the next brew day, my phone was acting up so I apologize for the lack of photos.
I brewed a brown ale with 10 lbs of grain, but could easily fit just over 20 lbs of grain with full water volume in the kettle. Grain bill was milled pretty fine and that definitely helped reached 1.050 gravity. I was shooting for 1.056 so I'm not too upset.
I started with 62F water and it took about 50 minutes to an hour to reach 152F for mash temp. To be noted, I do not have the system insulated. I originally planned on going with around 165F or 170F to compensate for the temperature drop from grain, but decided to see how quickly the element would get it back up to 152F. Temps dropped to around 144F and got back to 152F within minutes.
The system held 152F pretty well, with a few fluctuations up to 154F then back down.
Mashing out was easy. I lifted the grain basket and inserted the metal feet myself, but I don't think this would be possible with a larger grain bill. Assistance would definitely be needed. Vorloufed for about 10 minutes with the pump and partially opened ball valve.
It took a little over an hour to get to boil at 208F with the lid on. I reduced power to 75% with the lid on and it was still boiling more vigorously then I expected. I took the lid off and the temperature dropped to around 205F at 75% but I ramped it up to 100% and got it back to 208F fairly quickly. The boil was still rolling but not as vigorously with the lid off. You will notice more condensation and boil off obviously, so take that into consideration when planning recipe and water amounts. I ended up putting the lid back on and there was still a fair amount of steam coming out where the lid meets the hop spider.
The plate chiller performed very well with very cold ground water (I'm in Montana). After finishing up the chilling and pitching the yeast, I now got to see how long it would take to clean up. I need to get better at not spilling wort when removing the quick disconnects to empty out excess wort. I emptied them and reconnected everything, including plate chiller. I ran PBW through everything while cleaning up other random brew day accessories. I dumped the PBW and ran a rinse through the whole system, also reversing lines on the plate chiller. I hate seeing standing water in my kettle no matter how little of an amount, so I pulled off all the hoses and hung them up, unplugged the temperature sensor and unscrewed the TC clamp for the element and took the kettle to my utility sink and sprayed it out real quick. Gave it a quick dry and left everything unattached.
All in all, it took about 5 hours start to finish for the brew day, but a lot of the time waiting for it to reach temps I worked on other projects so it wasn't too bad. I know a lot of guys want a vigorous boil, but I prefer the boil with the system because it will probably never boil over while left unattended. I think after a few more brews and getting everything dialed in I will really enjoy brewing on it.
I'm hoping to get photos of the next brew day, my phone was acting up so I apologize for the lack of photos.