My intro to All Grain

[cravej]

After doing about 12 extract batches on my stove, I've started gathering the equipment to do 10 gallon all grain batches. So far, I built a chiller, bought a propane bayou burner, acquired a keg for a boil kettle, cut out the top, drilled a hole for a drain. Got a 70 quart coleman for a mash tun, and built a copper manifold. I'm hoping to have everything ready to do my first batch this saturday.

I cut out the top freehand with a grinder, then decided it wasn't big enough, so I cut another inch out after this photo:

Then cleaned it up a little.

Mash Tun with valve:

I only soldered the middle pieces, just enough to hold it together while stirring. The long pieces just slide on, but are tight enough that the won't come loose unintentionally.

Still need to make a pickup tube, clean out the shavings, leak test, make a yeast starter and go pick up some grain. I also need to figure out how to measure the mash and sparge water. I guess I will use the boil kettle as a HLT, collect the wort in my two fermenting buckets, then dump it back into the keggle when I have collected enough. Wish me luck!

 

[bob1852]

looking good!

I recommend a sight glass on the kettle....

If you use your fermenters to measure volume, make sure to ground truth the marks on the buckets - they're usually way off....

 

[oceanselv]

+1 on the set up. One minor detail not to over look is to get a small bottle of iodine indicator solution. This is used to determine of the mash is complete. If there are any starches that have not hydrolyzed into sugars present in your runnings the iodine will turn them purple. If the color of the indicator does not change, the mash is complete. By using the iodine indicator all the guess work is taken out of the mash process and there is one less variable in controlling the process.

 

[EarthBound]

If you use your fermenters to measure volume, make sure to ground truth the marks on the buckets - they're usually way off....

+1 to this. I have many ale pails and they are all way off from one another. I have one bucket where the 5-gallon mark is actually 6 gallons and another bucket is dead-on. I haven't seen somebody mention this yet, but it sure is damn important to know it.

 

[Bobby_M]

Don't be afraid to put a small hole or slot on the bottom of the piece of copper right before it hits the bulkhead. That will provide a way to drain the deadspace that would otherwise exist in that gully.

 

[cravej]

I recommend a sight glass on the kettle....

I thought that would just be another part that I would have to clean, but I could see it being useful if I build a dedicated HLT.

Don't be afraid to put a small hole or slot on the bottom of the piece of copper right before it hits the bulkhead. That will provide a way to drain the deadspace that would otherwise exist in that gully.

Thanks, I will do that.

I've ordered the grains for a cream ale, the will be crushed and ready for me to pick up on friday.
14 lbs. 2-row
1.5 lbs. honey malt
.5 lbs. biscuit malt

 

[cravej]

I'm doing a 10 gallon batch of cream ale, with a target OG of 1.040.

I've been trying to keep things simple for my first attempt, so here is my rough plan for brewday.

1. Heat 6 or 7 gallons of Mash water up to ~ 180°
2. Transfer 5 gallons of it into the cooler mash tun, let it equalize, then check the temp.
3. Add the grain to the mash tun and stir, then check the temp. My target is somewhere between 150° and 155°.
4. While waiting for the mash (60 min), I will heat up ~ 10 gallons of sparge water to ~ 180°
5. Vorlauf, then drain into one of my fermenting buckets.
6. Add enough sparge water to get a total of ~ 12 gallons for a boil, wait 10 minutes, vorlauf, then drain.
7. Transfer wort into the boil kettle.
8. Add hops, boil for 60 minutes.
9. 15 minutes before the end, put the immersion chiller in the pot to sanitize.
10. Cool, transfer to fermentor, pitch yeast.

 

[bob1852]

I'm doing a 10 gallon batch of cream ale, with a target OG of 1.040.

I've been trying to keep things simple for my first attempt, so here is my rough plan for brewday.

1. Heat 6 or 7 gallons of Mash water up to ~ 180°
2. Transfer 5 gallons of it into the cooler mash tun, let it equalize, then check the temp.
3. Add the grain to the mash tun and stir, then check the temp. My target is somewhere between 150° and 155°.
4. While waiting for the mash (60 min), I will heat up ~ 10 gallons of sparge water to ~ 180°
5. Vorlauf, then drain into one of my fermenting buckets.
6. Add enough sparge water to get a total of ~ 12 gallons for a boil, wait 10 minutes, vorlauf, then drain.
7. Transfer wort into the boil kettle.
8. Add hops, boil for 60 minutes.
9. 15 minutes before the end, put the immersion chiller in the pot to sanitize.
10. Cool, transfer to fermentor, pitch yeast.

How are you going to transfer your sparge water to your cooler? The reason I ask is that you may lose a lot of heat, depending on your process. You really want to make sure the water is at ~180 when it's added to the cooler...

And you may need to look at two sparges in order to get to your pre-boil volume, depending on how big your cooler is.

 

[cravej]

How are you going to transfer your sparge water to your cooler? The reason I ask is that you may lose a lot of heat, depending on your process. You really want to make sure the water is at ~180 when it's added to the cooler...

And you may need to look at two sparges in order to get to your pre-boil volume, depending on how big your cooler is.

I'm going to use gravity, the valve and a short hose, and thanks for the tip. I'm sure it is easier to lose heat, then to heat it back up.

The cooler is a 70 quart, so it should hold enough to do one sparge.

 

[bob1852]

I'm going to use gravity, the valve and a short hose, and thanks for the tip. I'm sure it is easier to lose heat, then to heat it back up.

The cooler is a 70 quart, so it should hold enough to do one sparge.

That'll work -

The reason I asked was I used to heat up my sparge water in the kettle and transfer to a smaller kettle that I could actually carry. Finally measured, and I was losing ~10 degrees in temp.

You could also mash a little thinner than 1.25 qt/lb, and that would reduce your sparge volume...

 

[milldoggy]

would there be any benefit to making notches in the pipe that is connected to the valve? Also what about using a four way fitting in the middle and adding another pipe in the middle on the tun? I am about to build the same thing and just wondering if adding more pipe is beneficial.

 

[cravej]

From what I have read, not based on experience, manifold design isn't all that important if you batch spare. However, if you fly sparge, you will want to design it to minimize channeling.

 

[cravej]

Some more pics, today I made the diptube and leak checked everything.

close up:

Big immersion chiller:

And a yeast starter, Wyeast 1056 that I washed from a previous batch:

I'm pretty excited for brewday!

 

[cravej]

I'm about to dough in. :rockin:

 

[bob1852]

I'm about to dough in. :rockin:

Good luck; and have fun! In about two hours you'll wonder why you didn't go AG sooner!

 

[cravej]

My brewday went pretty well, strike temp of 165 gave me a mash temp of 150. It didn't really drop at all over 90 minutes, but somehow I lost too much heat during the first runnings, so I did two separate batch sparges, and reheated the water for the last one. When it was all done, I had just under 10 gallons in my fermentor at 1.045 SG.

 

[cravej]

I made some upgrades, including quick disconnects, sight glass, thermometer, march pump, and a whirlpool port:

 

[chrislehr]

I like those quick connects