Kettle
New Member
I have been all grain brewing for about 3 years and wanted to share my way of making beer to see if I can help anyone or any one can help me. I will start with my equipment:
Hot Liquor tank / Fermenter: (This keg does 2 jobs)
58.5 liter keg with the following adjustments:
- Hole cut in top
- tig welded 1/2 inch stainless nipple on outside and inside approx 6 inches from bottom. A standard 1/2 ss valve screws into the nipple
- tig welded ss bolts welded through holes in top of keg
- lid of another keg cut larger than fermenter hole and matching holes for bolts
- I use wing nuts and a rubber seal to clamp it all in place
- Silicone hose attached to hose barb is used for racking - use with ss spoon for racking beer off trub
The next 2 kegs that I use are my mash tun and my boil kettle. You can see pictures of the boil stand and mash tun attached. The filter system in my mash tun is from Adventures in Home Brewing in Taylor Michigan.
I also use the following pieces of equipment that I will describe in more detail in the next post:
- Scale
- Grist mill
- Compost thermometer - 18 inches
- Insulated mash tun vests and hat
- March pump
- Hot Plate
- Block and tackle
- Stainless steel mash paddle
- Sump pump
- 2 20 gallon pails
- Frozen water balloons if snow is not available
- Stainless steel immersion chiller
- Steam generator (clothes steamer - Salton)
- Silicone tubing
So here is how I brew:
HLT - night before
- I grind 17 pounds of base malt and 3 pounds of specialty malt for a total of 20 the night before
- I fill my hot liquor tank with 15 gallons of tap water and place it on my brew stand.
- Under the hot liquor tank I place a hot plate that sits nicely on my burner jets and let it heat the water all night
- The HLT has an insulated vest and hat that keeps the heat in so by morning the water is close to 150F
Morning
- In the morning at 6 am I remove the hot plate, and insulated vest and fire up the 23 jet natural gas burner
- My target water strike temp is 168 for summer and 170 for cold winter
- I drain from my HLT approximately 8 gallons of water to my mash tun and place the mash tun on my hot plate which is on the ground
- I dough in the grain
Vorlauf and mash
- I have a March pump that I use to recirculate the wort for the hour long mash
- My compost thermometer sits in a hole in the top side of my mash tun so I can see my target mash temp of 153
- The mash tun has an insulated vest and hat that keeps the temp at my target along with the hot plate
Sparging
- I lift the mash tun so it sits on top of my brew stand and light the jets
- The wort gets heated to 170 slowly under a medium low flame ( I had already heated my HLT water to 170 prior to this)
- I shut off the jets and start to sparge into my boil kettle
- I drain the wort into my boil kettle with the valve fully open until the water drops from the top of my grain bed.
- I add hot water on top of the grain bed in 1 quart increments to so the water level is always near the top
- Once I run out of water, I adjust the valve so there is just a trickle and wait for 20 minutes to let the wort run
Boiling
- My boil kettle which is sitting on the ground now has 12 gallons of wort
- I use a block and tackle to lift the keg on top of my brew stand ( I have a structure overhead)
- Fire the jets and bring to a boil
- I use irish moss at 50 minutes and use 3 hop additions at 60, 30 and 15
- I boil for an hour
Cool down
- I place my ss immersion chiller in hot tap water before i put it in the wort so it does not cool it down as much and sterilize for 10 minutes
- I have 2 20 gallon buckets and a sump pump ready to cool the wort
- I add frozen water balloons to the buckets once the temp drops to 150 or so
- I circulate the wort for 20 minutes with my paddle and add frozen water balloons or snow if available until the temp hits 70 ish
- I place a cover on the boil kettle and let it sit for 1 hour
Fermentation
- After 1 hour I drain out the first 1/2 quart of wort and discard as it is full of break and hops
- My boil kettle has a ss tube pickup inside that pulls from the bottom of the keg
- I drain into my fermenter that has been sterilized and stop when the wort starts to run cloudy
- I pitch 1 gram of yeast per liter of wort ensuring that the temps are the same
Sterilization
- I do not use chemicals to sterilize and only use water and cloths to clean
- I use boiling water a steam generator to sterilize everything including my fermenter and serving kegs
- I used to use iodine but find it obsolete with my better system
Here are a few more notes on how I ferment.
- The keg fermenter accepts a #11 bung and I use a standard air lock.
- I steam 3 corney kegs by injecting steam into the out port and wrap the keg in an insulated vest for 20 minutes. I put the spring valves in boiling water.
- Once all 3 corney kegs are sterilized, I start to rack my beer and fill the first 2 about 2/3 full
(I discard the first 1/2 liter of beer as it is full of yeast.)
- My fermenter has a length of silicone tube that is just below the 5 gallon ring and I make sure that I am ready to fill the last keg
- The tube is still under the beer at this point before I start to fill the last keg and I use a sterilized ss spoon to bend the tube down such that the end of the tube is always under the surface until I come close to the trub and then I stop.
- My boil volume is 14 gallons and I end up with 11 gallons of beer.
Hot Liquor tank / Fermenter: (This keg does 2 jobs)
58.5 liter keg with the following adjustments:
- Hole cut in top
- tig welded 1/2 inch stainless nipple on outside and inside approx 6 inches from bottom. A standard 1/2 ss valve screws into the nipple
- tig welded ss bolts welded through holes in top of keg
- lid of another keg cut larger than fermenter hole and matching holes for bolts
- I use wing nuts and a rubber seal to clamp it all in place
- Silicone hose attached to hose barb is used for racking - use with ss spoon for racking beer off trub
The next 2 kegs that I use are my mash tun and my boil kettle. You can see pictures of the boil stand and mash tun attached. The filter system in my mash tun is from Adventures in Home Brewing in Taylor Michigan.
I also use the following pieces of equipment that I will describe in more detail in the next post:
- Scale
- Grist mill
- Compost thermometer - 18 inches
- Insulated mash tun vests and hat
- March pump
- Hot Plate
- Block and tackle
- Stainless steel mash paddle
- Sump pump
- 2 20 gallon pails
- Frozen water balloons if snow is not available
- Stainless steel immersion chiller
- Steam generator (clothes steamer - Salton)
- Silicone tubing
So here is how I brew:
HLT - night before
- I grind 17 pounds of base malt and 3 pounds of specialty malt for a total of 20 the night before
- I fill my hot liquor tank with 15 gallons of tap water and place it on my brew stand.
- Under the hot liquor tank I place a hot plate that sits nicely on my burner jets and let it heat the water all night
- The HLT has an insulated vest and hat that keeps the heat in so by morning the water is close to 150F
Morning
- In the morning at 6 am I remove the hot plate, and insulated vest and fire up the 23 jet natural gas burner
- My target water strike temp is 168 for summer and 170 for cold winter
- I drain from my HLT approximately 8 gallons of water to my mash tun and place the mash tun on my hot plate which is on the ground
- I dough in the grain
Vorlauf and mash
- I have a March pump that I use to recirculate the wort for the hour long mash
- My compost thermometer sits in a hole in the top side of my mash tun so I can see my target mash temp of 153
- The mash tun has an insulated vest and hat that keeps the temp at my target along with the hot plate
Sparging
- I lift the mash tun so it sits on top of my brew stand and light the jets
- The wort gets heated to 170 slowly under a medium low flame ( I had already heated my HLT water to 170 prior to this)
- I shut off the jets and start to sparge into my boil kettle
- I drain the wort into my boil kettle with the valve fully open until the water drops from the top of my grain bed.
- I add hot water on top of the grain bed in 1 quart increments to so the water level is always near the top
- Once I run out of water, I adjust the valve so there is just a trickle and wait for 20 minutes to let the wort run
Boiling
- My boil kettle which is sitting on the ground now has 12 gallons of wort
- I use a block and tackle to lift the keg on top of my brew stand ( I have a structure overhead)
- Fire the jets and bring to a boil
- I use irish moss at 50 minutes and use 3 hop additions at 60, 30 and 15
- I boil for an hour
Cool down
- I place my ss immersion chiller in hot tap water before i put it in the wort so it does not cool it down as much and sterilize for 10 minutes
- I have 2 20 gallon buckets and a sump pump ready to cool the wort
- I add frozen water balloons to the buckets once the temp drops to 150 or so
- I circulate the wort for 20 minutes with my paddle and add frozen water balloons or snow if available until the temp hits 70 ish
- I place a cover on the boil kettle and let it sit for 1 hour
Fermentation
- After 1 hour I drain out the first 1/2 quart of wort and discard as it is full of break and hops
- My boil kettle has a ss tube pickup inside that pulls from the bottom of the keg
- I drain into my fermenter that has been sterilized and stop when the wort starts to run cloudy
- I pitch 1 gram of yeast per liter of wort ensuring that the temps are the same
Sterilization
- I do not use chemicals to sterilize and only use water and cloths to clean
- I use boiling water a steam generator to sterilize everything including my fermenter and serving kegs
- I used to use iodine but find it obsolete with my better system
Here are a few more notes on how I ferment.
- The keg fermenter accepts a #11 bung and I use a standard air lock.
- I steam 3 corney kegs by injecting steam into the out port and wrap the keg in an insulated vest for 20 minutes. I put the spring valves in boiling water.
- Once all 3 corney kegs are sterilized, I start to rack my beer and fill the first 2 about 2/3 full
(I discard the first 1/2 liter of beer as it is full of yeast.)
- My fermenter has a length of silicone tube that is just below the 5 gallon ring and I make sure that I am ready to fill the last keg
- The tube is still under the beer at this point before I start to fill the last keg and I use a sterilized ss spoon to bend the tube down such that the end of the tube is always under the surface until I come close to the trub and then I stop.
- My boil volume is 14 gallons and I end up with 11 gallons of beer.
