Brewed Pumpkin Ale
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=140674
Equipment
High Gravity's BrewEasy system with the "SV" controller
15 Gallon Mashtun performance and thoughts
With approx. 28 lbs of grains, 4 cans of pumpkin in the mashtun, and a little over half of the total water I still had 1/4 of the head space available.
The autosparge worked great, and I had no problems with anything getting plugged. The brewmometer worked great to know what my mash temp was actually at. If I had a complaint it would be that the autosparge tube doesn't really disperse the water very well. It kind of eats a shallow trough on the side of the kettle that it's on. Not a big deal I guess.
20 Gallon Boil Kettle performance and thoughts
This thing is big. Having been using a 32 quart kettle before, it's big. The boil coil is also very impressive. The water heater elements work fine I'm sure, but the area that the boil coil distributes the heat over is massive in comparison. I would guess it's 25 feet long if you bent it straight. The brewmometer seems wasted in this tank in this configuration. I would assume most that use this with the coil won't be immersion cooling. I'm considering removing it.
Shirron plate chiller
Works fine no problems with it. My water is ass cold so I can't speak to it's efficiency.
Chugger SS head pump
Worked great, had no problems priming it. One thing I noticed between the official blichmann system and this put together system was the ss chugger pump vs the blichmann used plastic pump. Not sure it matter, but stainless is pretty.
Controller "SV"
Not much to say, it doesn't make noise or whine, it didn't get hot, and it maintained my temp right on the nose. When I went to boil I had stopped recycling the wort so the temp controller went to 100 percent, and when the boil started to get crazy I could just dial down the potentiometer nob to slow things down a bit.
Brew Day Breakdown
910am Start heating water, add brewers salts pre mash ph 3.5
1010am dough in 166f
1020am start pump with 0.5gpm orifice on mashtun
1025am check mash ph 5.1 little low here, I added lactic acid by the ML not the activity. mash temp 156
1110am set temp control to 180 for mash out
1120am temp in mash tun approx. 174. shut down pump and dial up controller to 220
1135am mashtun empty just starting to see a boil sg check 1.045
1230am start recycle through plate chiller
1240am heat off
1240am-1:25pm slowly fill fermenters, and pitch yeast sg check 1.051
1:25pm -3:00pm cleanup breakdown hoses.
Targeting 125ppm calcium and the low end of the ph range I overshot a bit, but hit my efficiency numbers. Brewsmith targets the system at around 68% ?? I'd have to check again maybe it's 65%. either way I got there. If I would have added the molasses.
Times are approximate. I was done by 3pm and started at 910am. The rest could be off a minute or 5 here and there.
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=140674
Equipment
High Gravity's BrewEasy system with the "SV" controller
15 Gallon Mashtun performance and thoughts
With approx. 28 lbs of grains, 4 cans of pumpkin in the mashtun, and a little over half of the total water I still had 1/4 of the head space available.
The autosparge worked great, and I had no problems with anything getting plugged. The brewmometer worked great to know what my mash temp was actually at. If I had a complaint it would be that the autosparge tube doesn't really disperse the water very well. It kind of eats a shallow trough on the side of the kettle that it's on. Not a big deal I guess.
20 Gallon Boil Kettle performance and thoughts
This thing is big. Having been using a 32 quart kettle before, it's big. The boil coil is also very impressive. The water heater elements work fine I'm sure, but the area that the boil coil distributes the heat over is massive in comparison. I would guess it's 25 feet long if you bent it straight. The brewmometer seems wasted in this tank in this configuration. I would assume most that use this with the coil won't be immersion cooling. I'm considering removing it.
Shirron plate chiller
Works fine no problems with it. My water is ass cold so I can't speak to it's efficiency.
Chugger SS head pump
Worked great, had no problems priming it. One thing I noticed between the official blichmann system and this put together system was the ss chugger pump vs the blichmann used plastic pump. Not sure it matter, but stainless is pretty.
Controller "SV"
Not much to say, it doesn't make noise or whine, it didn't get hot, and it maintained my temp right on the nose. When I went to boil I had stopped recycling the wort so the temp controller went to 100 percent, and when the boil started to get crazy I could just dial down the potentiometer nob to slow things down a bit.
Brew Day Breakdown
910am Start heating water, add brewers salts pre mash ph 3.5
1010am dough in 166f
1020am start pump with 0.5gpm orifice on mashtun
1025am check mash ph 5.1 little low here, I added lactic acid by the ML not the activity. mash temp 156
1110am set temp control to 180 for mash out
1120am temp in mash tun approx. 174. shut down pump and dial up controller to 220
1135am mashtun empty just starting to see a boil sg check 1.045
1230am start recycle through plate chiller
1240am heat off
1240am-1:25pm slowly fill fermenters, and pitch yeast sg check 1.051
1:25pm -3:00pm cleanup breakdown hoses.
Targeting 125ppm calcium and the low end of the ph range I overshot a bit, but hit my efficiency numbers. Brewsmith targets the system at around 68% ?? I'd have to check again maybe it's 65%. either way I got there. If I would have added the molasses.
Times are approximate. I was done by 3pm and started at 910am. The rest could be off a minute or 5 here and there.
