jkarp
Well-Known Member
Many grounding ideas in this thread.
Does anyone ever have problems with condensation while brewing indoors?
very interested in this setup and need imput on my set up.
- can you build the rig without the counterflow wort chiller. i have a keggle im converting with two 2000 watt elements and a 40 qt polarware as my mlt. since i have a drop in chiller, can i build the system without a bucket chiller and just pump the wort/water between the two vessels.
Have you had any problems with the PID overshooting the desired temp when the volume in the kettle/HLT is lower....I ran the autotune with 4 gallons and I notice when I have two gallons in the kettle the PID keeps rasing the temp 10...15...even 20 degrees above the set temp...
I have a couple questions...
1.What is your cleaning/disinfecting protocol?
2. Do you use recirculation to maintain mash temp...if so is a very slow recirculation best?
my apologies if this has already been covered... but i noticed you are using a 15 amp receptacles in the control box. at max output, the heating element will pull 16.67 amps. seems to me the heating element should be plugged into a 20 amp receptacle and 12 g wire used instead of the 14 g. any thoughts from the more electrically inclined?
I'm a huge fan of this idea, this thread, and others related to it. My preliminary plans are to go all-electric with two 2000W heating elements, but I realized that I'd be able to slightly modify my current system to try out the process.
I've got a 10 gallon brew pot, a 10 gallon cooler with false bottom, and a single pump. I typically do some variety of batch sparge. All I had to do was hook up the hoses in a different order and set my mash tun up on a bucket, and I'd replicated the Countertop Brutus setup (albeit with my heat still my usual combination of 1500W heat stick and gas stove).
I thought it went really well. Dropped my efficiency a little bit from my usual in the low 70s to 67%, but was easy and simple. I ran into one problem. As I started circulating, some grain ended up in the kettle. This wasn't surprising. The problem was that a non-trivial amount of it wanted to just float around, and not get drained out (to get pumped back to the top of the grain bed in the mash tun). I tried to let the water level in the kettle get lower, so the floaters would get sucked into the dip tube, but that just resulted in me losing pump function.
My solution was ultimately to stop the pump, dump the kettle contents onto the top of the grain bed, and then resume business as usual. From then on, we were golden. Really crystal clear wort.
I thought perhaps this was a one time problem, maybe related to the grain bill. (Recipe was a Leffe Blonde clone I found on HBT a while back.) Perhaps one of those grains is just particularly floaty. Going to give the method a few more tries before I commit to my next rig. Thanks again jkarp and everyone else.
I'm a huge fan of this idea, this thread, and others related to it. My preliminary plans are to go all-electric with two 2000W heating elements, but I realized that I'd be able to slightly modify my current system to try out the process.
I've got a 10 gallon brew pot, a 10 gallon cooler with false bottom, and a single pump. I typically do some variety of batch sparge. All I had to do was hook up the hoses in a different order and set my mash tun up on a bucket, and I'd replicated the Countertop Brutus setup (albeit with my heat still my usual combination of 1500W heat stick and gas stove).
I thought it went really well. Dropped my efficiency a little bit from my usual in the low 70s to 67%, but was easy and simple. I ran into one problem. As I started circulating, some grain ended up in the kettle. This wasn't surprising. The problem was that a non-trivial amount of it wanted to just float around, and not get drained out (to get pumped back to the top of the grain bed in the mash tun). I tried to let the water level in the kettle get lower, so the floaters would get sucked into the dip tube, but that just resulted in me losing pump function.
My solution was ultimately to stop the pump, dump the kettle contents onto the top of the grain bed, and then resume business as usual. From then on, we were golden. Really crystal clear wort.
I thought perhaps this was a one time problem, maybe related to the grain bill. (Recipe was a Leffe Blonde clone I found on HBT a while back.) Perhaps one of those grains is just particularly floaty. Going to give the method a few more tries before I commit to my next rig. Thanks again jkarp and everyone else.
Your mash tun have a copper / pvc manifold? I use a stainless braid so there's no way anything but flour-sized bits can get through and they recirculate easily. With a manifold, I'd suggest doing a normal vorlauf before beginning recirculation to get the grain bed set.
In my original Brutus 2.0 design, I recirculate the pots back to themselves. This clears the wort crystal clear. Then I switch the lids when all has cleared.
Kegcowboy, I have been meaning to come see your shop. Several members from my brewclub (Mashtronauts) say it's real nice. I don't need much of nothing, but just to say hi, a beer, and maybe a refill...
Sorry for the![]()