Equipment Testing

[silverbullet07]

I have been getting some of my new equipment together tonight. I started marking measurement lines on old raking tube to find out where my 5 gal and 6.5 gal lines are in a new brew pot. I put my wort chiller and tested for leaks.

I thought I would test my stove top to see how long it would take to get 6.5 gal of water to boil. well....wait for it.....it's been 1 hr and its at 209F with a small roll going and it's not getting any hotter.

I have a outside propane burner that I can use. Do most people cook the wort outside or in the garage? Do you cover it while it's boiling? any issues with bugs or stuff flying in? Just wondering what the general conception is.

After cooking do you just bring inside for the cooling process or after the cooling process to finish?

 

[b-boy]

Use the outside burner. I boil in my garage using a propane burner. I leave my garage open and I have a CO detector just in case. I use an immersion chiller hooked up to my garden hose for cooling. Works great. Heats to a boil in about 20 minutes and cools down in less than that.

 

[RobertRGeorge]

What I have done when using a propane cooker is to do it in the garage with all the garage doors open. I think most people do something similar. Having said that, I am lucky enough to have a dedicated brewing space and I bought and installed a commercial stock pot range. It has two concentric burners, 50,000 BTUs (my home heater is 30,000) and boils five gallons of water in 15 minutes. It runs on natural gas. I had a hood constructed for it and run an exhaust fan while I'm boiling. Highly recommended, though I know this may be beyond the typical brewer. The latest in "Cajun Cookers" seem to be pretty well evolved from the early turkey frier years, with pots made especially for them, and wind guards, etc.


Don't cover your boiler while it is boiling or you will get an enormous boil over.

 

[Irish13]

Last weekend I brewed out on my back patio, hooked up my garden hose to my IC and transferred the wort to the carboy while staying outside. It was a nice sunny/chilly morning. The wort cooled a lot faster then normal.

 

[silverbullet07]

Thanks everyone. I dug out my burner and had to cut sume of the middle of each side down so the big pot will set on it right. I Tried it out a little to ensure everthing is working on it. Running out of time tonight to do a full test. Tomorrow I will run it through and see how fast it starts to boil and how much water I loose in a hour boil. I want to test the IC out to see how it does too.

Now that most of this will be done in the garage I will need to work out my work plan and work space. No tables and counters out there to help keep brew equipment clean and tiddy. I'll get it figured out. Glad I'm working on the stratagy before brew day.

 

[Irish13]

Now that most of this will be done in the garage I will need to work out my work plan and work space. No tables and counters out there to help keep brew equipment clean and tiddy. I'll get it figured out. Glad I'm working on the stratagy before brew day.

To keep things clean and organized all you'll need is a 5 gallon bucket with a mixture water/star-san and a folding table or saw-horse to keep things organized.

 

[TopherM]

Don't cover your boiler while it is boiling or you will get an enormous boil over.

It's a good idea to keep the lid on when you're heating up to strike temp at the beginning of brew day.

You definitely DON'T want the lid on when you are boiling. In addition to the boil over reason above, the biggie is that there is a compound called DMS that is present in all grains that will cause an off-flavor in your beer. DMS completely dissipates with the steam during the boil if you leave the top off. Leave the top on, and all of the DMS stays in your wort.

 

[silverbullet07]

I have read that some sanitize the brew pot lid after the boil and put on lid during the wort chill. I have a IC so the lid will not go on during the cool down. Is there concern of something flying into or infecting during this period? Is there a solution to minimize this?

 

[TopherM]

It is HARD to infect a batch of beer. Short of a small cloud of wild yeast or zombie **** (<---can I say that?) blowing directly into your pot, there is almost nothing that is going to fly into your wort and infect it on brew day. I have never covered my pot during cooldown, and never had an infection. I've had leaves, moquitos, fruit flies, and at least 2-3 oz of my own dirty azz sweat fall into the brew pot with no issue. If a giant african flesh eating moquito drowns in your beer, just fish it out....or don't....either way it isn't going to ruin the beer!

The main thing that causes infection is leaving uncleaned organics, usually hop and hot/cold break gunk, in the cracks and crevices throughout your system, like valves, plate chillers, pickup tubes, plastic scratches, etc. Practice basic solid cleaning and sanatizing techniques (solid...not fanatical!), and you're good to go without losing any sleep.

Also, if you put a top on your beer during cooldown, it is going to take you longer to cool down. Heat rises, so having the top off will dissipate heat.....lots of heat. The whole surface area of your wort radiates and regulates to the ambient air temp.

Put the top on, and you are now trying to cool down a convection oven.

RDWHAHB. It's good that you are thinking about sanitation, but TRUST ME, it is HARDDDDDDD to get an infection.

 

[silverbullet07]

Thanks TopherM for the help!

 

[silverbullet07]

Well, test number two..

I started my outside burner and got 6.5 gal water to boil in 30 min. Half the time then on my elec stove. Still I could only get the bottom water temp to 212 and the top was 210. That was with the burner on high. Flames were rolling out the sides of the pot but did not seem to do very well. The burner must not be very good and I do not know what the btu's are.

I let the water boil another 30 min and with the other 30 min to get to boiling I lost about 1 - 1 1/4 gal of water.

On the bright side, I was able to bring 210 F water down to 68f in 30 min with my IC. That's not to bad. Thank goodness for well water.

I guess a better burner is in the future any recommendations. I was looking at the Blichmann Top Tier Burner at 72,000 btu.

 

[ChuckO]

You won't get the water hotter than 212, once it starts to boil any further heat is used to make steam.

Once it is boiling all you will need is a gentle rolling boil, not an all out effort to get a maximum boil. Reduce the flame if necessary to maintain an even boil. Then try to get an idea of your volume loss over a typical hour long boil.

 

[silverbullet07]

Thanks ChuckO. I work on getting the flame adjusted correctly for maximum efficiency too. I should be doing my first batch Saturday or Sunday, so trying to work out the bugs before hand.

Do you think a 30 Qt 7.5 gal is ok to boil 6.5 of wort or will I have a mess?

 

[ChuckO]

That is probably marginal, depending upon how fast you are at turning down the flame. Before I switched to electric I had some boils with 6.5 gallons starting that were able to boil over in a 15 gal. pot! I didn't react fast enough and didn't know any methods of reducing the foam. Even now I keep a spray bottle of water ready to spray the foam. Personally I don't like the anti-foam additives that are available and always use water. The most likely times for a boil over are when it just comes to a boil and you develop the hot break, and when you put in the first hops. Be ready to reduce the heat drastically when you first get to a boil and have a spray bottle handy. Wait until the foam drops completely before adding the first hops and starting your boil timer.

Let us know how it works out.