First Batch with real Fly Sparge and False Bottom

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I am real excited that I will get to brew my first batch of beer with my bottom drain keg (MLT) with a Loc-Line fly sparge and 15" false bottom from Bobby. I have brewed with my newish BCS eHerms several times, but my efficiency never got up to the 80% mark that I am chasing. For the last couple of years I've used the orange round cooler and bazooka tube to mash with okay results. I also have been trying a poor mans fly sparge through my HLT with 50' long 1/2" SS coil back into the cooler with just a 3/8" hose. This got me around 74-76% efficiency, but not good enough. I finally found a keg on Craigslist for a good price and made my MLT. I plasma cut off the bottom to make a tri-clamp bottom draining MLT.



I am getting so close to having my dream setup. Now I need to weld a stainless brew stand and get that second pump. Hopefully my new MLT will produce as good as I expect.

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Well that brew day was certainly eventful. I had two major problems arise. One was my fault and the other was equipment failure.

I have a garden hose bib valve coming out of my filter that I run to my heat exchanger and from there it runs to the pots or discharge when cooling. That garden hose valve failed on me when I went to shut it off after filling up the HLT to heat cleaning water. So I had to shut off water to the brew shed with the ball valve. Unfortunately I need water to clean everything and the outside hose bib is on the same water supply. The valve was stuck about 3/4 of the way open. So I had to catch the water with a 5 gallon bucket and clean and rinse as fast as I can, then shut off water, empty the 5 gallon bucket, and repeat. This took forever.

The other problem I had was during sparging and collecting my wort in the boil kettle. With my old 10 gallon cooler setup, the sparge would gradually slow as the grain settled. With my new MLT the grain drains so well that I did not judge the speed well. During the sparge I went out to fix the chicken coop and came back in to find 8.4 gallons in the kettle when I goal was only 7. I had to boil an extra hour with the lid off and BCS running the heating element at 70% for a strong boil.

Overall I think the beer should be really good, but I sure was up late. I cant wait to brew again.

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Craig