I think I reached my limit.

[Chairman Cheyco]

I disagree. I've siphon fed through my CFC, and it works just fine. To sanitize, just boil a little extra water and feed it through the CFC via siphon (without running cold water through the outer channel of the CFC). With a little care (make sure the tubing remains filled with liquid at all times), you can keep the siphon action going during the transition from sanitizing to chilling.

I also siphon through mine and I have it running pretty smoothly now that I have the hang of it. I use a copper racking, and my kettle sits on top of my wash machine to rack into a carboy on the floor. I put it on the wash machine so I could use the water hook-up from it during the winter, and I think I'll keep using it there.

 

[Bobby_M]

Since I came here venting like a chick stood up on prom night, I thought I'd share some pics of said brew session from hell.

Here's the not-to-code temporary gas hose with QD.

These are what happens when you put the keg too close to a nat gas mutli jet burner:

 

[Bobby_M]

A couple 2x4 shims and I was in business. Also got the MLT high enough to gravity right into the keg. Note the square tubular trailer axles to the right in the pic that i found on the curb which will become part of my new brewstand hopefully.

Hey, at least I proved that the diy hop filter works. PIA to clean out though. Maybe a couple hop bags will make this easier.

 

[Spyk'd]

What, no video?



But seriously...I'm glad your setup worked, but damn that makes me nervous!


I'm sure it wasn't as precarious as it looks.

 

[EdWort]

Cheese and Crackers Bobby, that's the most improvised AG rig I have ever seen. When I go to my Keggles (I have to wait till the brew hut is built), I'm going to get one of these for $119 and use my 10 gallon cooler for the MLT.

I will use a March pump with my ChillZilla though since this puppy is one level.

 

[brewman !]

The secret to a relaxing brew session is to have things organized and have things that run unattended.

Lets break this down a bit. The brewing process consists of getting stuff out, mashing, sparging, boiling, chilling, pitching and cleaning up.

Getting stuff out is self explanitory except that if you aren't organized you will be continually getting things from the kitchen/garage/basement, which can take a tremendous amount of time and energy. I've got everything I need in 1 Rubbermaid container. 1 trip for that plus my pot, cooler and pressure caner and I'm ready to go.

Mashing is pretty simple. Grains pre ground, water up to temp. Mix and let it sit. Go watch a movie. Pretty darn easy ! Check every 20 minutes (on the commercials) for heat loss. With the steam system, open the valve and stir a bit to bring up the temp.

At this point I haven't broken a sweat yet. I haven't really been brewing, I've been watching a movie why the grains soak.

Sparging is pretty simple too. Add water, recirc until clear and then slowly drain. Top up with water once in a while ! I weigh out my hops and start my yeast during this time. This is the first part of the brew session that I actually consider that I am doing something.

The boil. The key to a relaxing boil is to get the heat source set so that it boils unattended. I use a digital thermometer during my boil. A pot at less than 92C needs no attention other than a stir from time to time. During this time I weigh out the hops and clean up the HLT.

From 92 to 95C, I watch a little closer. Wort boils at 96C where I live (3500 feet), so I watch closely from 95 to 96C until its at full boil. A boil over won't occur until 97C, so I watch my temp closely and get the stove set so it holds 96C all the time. If I stir and the temp drops I leave the stove set right where it was because it will bring it right back to full boil, but not boil over.

While the boil is going on, I clean out the mash vessel. Thats the most work of the whole boil. Then I sanitize the fermentation vessel. I'm done with the MLT and HLT at this time so I put them away.

Now its time to chill. If I'm brewing in the kitchen, I have to stir. If I'm using the CFC, all I have to do is watch the outlet temp a bit. Once I get the flow set, its hands off too.

My brew sessions are pretty relaxing and they will be even more relaxing when I get some of my automation projects done.

It really helps to have a sink right in the brewing room. Saves many steps running for water, etc. I'll be putting a sink in the garage with freeze proof faucets in our next house.

Another thing that makes it more relaxing is to have a nice comfy chair and a TV nearby. I found that I tended to do a lot of nervous nelly hovering in my early batches. Now I set things up (mash, sparge, boil, chilling) and leave them run. I'm either getting ready for the next step, cleaning up or relaxing while this stuff is going on. There is no need to hover.

I'm sure you will get much, much better as time goes on. I remember being totally played out with my first batches too. Now I tend to brew on nights when there is a good hockey game or movie on TV so that I am not bored. Like anything, it takes practice.

 

[Willsellout]

Cheese and Crackers Bobby, that's the most improvised AG rig I have ever seen. When I go to my Keggles (I have to wait till the brew hut is built), I'm going to get one of these for $119 and use my 10 gallon cooler for the MLT.

I will use a March pump with my ChillZilla though since this puppy is one level.

Where do you get that from? that seems like a pretty cool setup.


Dan

 

[Orfy]

Boy, you guys are lucky with the kit.
If I could get one of those for £55, I wouldn't.......
I'd get two!

 

[EdWort]

You can get those puppies at Academy Sporting Goods. They have stores in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and Texas.

We have 5 in the Austin area. Cool place to shop!

 

[Cheesefood]

Why the heck is this one so much more expensive?
http://www.dickssportinggoods.com/p...igkw=fryer&parentPage=family&searchId=2277758

 

[Bobby_M]

First, my ghetto rig was solid enough to work without dumping the keggle on myself, but keep in mind I'm running natural gas so those stands would do me no good. I'm also in the planning stages of a real brew stand so those would just be a waste of money for a stopgap solution. I'd be more prone to garbage picking an old grill and ripping the top off for my next brew (hey, that's a pretty good idea).

Did I mention I was also in and out of the house "watching" my daughter for about 3 hours in the middle of the brew session so I wasn't overwatching the brew.

I totally agree on getting a water supply to work with in the garage. I already piped the line into the garage to run a bib out in the driveway. The only problem is that I didn't tap into the hot line. I plan to run another line off the hot side and put a basement sink type faucet right in the garage so I can quickly go from chilling to hot water clean up without leaving the garage.

So maybe my process needs tweaking:

1. Build ghetto brewstand, clamp burner to the ladder, shim the keg up higher, connect hose to Nat gas. (haha, yeah, working on fixing this step.
2. Mill grain per recipe.
3. Fill keg with gallon of sanitizer, bring to boil and drain through CFC, then add total amount of mash/sparge water and heat to 190F.
4. Drain mash water into bucket (measuring marks on side) and dump in MLT.
5. Wait for temp to drop to 170F (3 minutes last time) and drop the grain in, stir and verify mash temp.
6. Get remaining keg water up to about 195 to account for losses in the transfer to bucket then MLT. Transfer remaining water to bucket and close keggle valve (important LOL).
7. Vorlauf first runnings, then drain into keg (flame on), grab a sample for gravity and sit it in ice water.
8. Dump now 180ish water into MLT for batch sparge, mix well and let sit for 10 minutes. Read first runnings gravity.
9. Vorlauf, drain into keg, sample for second running grav. If I end up with too little in the kettle, I can run in the house and quickly bring a gallon or so up to temp on the stove.
10. Normal brew session boil schedule.


I think the process is pretty sound. Maybe I'll replace this HLT "bucket" system with a cooler if I find a great deal.

 

[BierMuncher]

I know how you feel. Kinda like after that 22 Oz T-bone steak? Red meat is the last thing you think about...for about 36 hours.

No doubt AG is a full-on process.

I'm rather spent on Saturdays after a 5-6 hour session but innevitably, by Monday night I'm wondering if I can get a batch delivered from Midwest in time to do another brew this Saturday.

We're gluttens for punishment...but I'll take it.

 

[Bobby_M]

I think the real issue is that I have two AG batches that are basically just beer in a carboy. It won't seem worth it until I take that first carbonated, chilled pull. The IPA is going into the keg tonight with an ounce of whole Cascade. I'll be hopefully sampling the fruit of my labor by ST Pats.

 

[Yuri_Rage]

Yuri, how high is your kettle when you're using the CFC?

Tabletop/counter level, with the CFC right next to it. The fermenter is on the floor.