caver95
Well-Known Member
I am finally getting back into brewing consistently. I had taken a break because, 2 young kids, an MBA, and life were taking a higher priority. I just finished the MBA, so I bought myself a few graduation items.
A king kooker, a chugger pump, and a counterflow chiller.
I have been doing mostly all-grain batches since my 4th batch. It was a single burner turkey fryer and a lot of moving hot things around by pots and gravity. I wanted a little more sophisticated set-up that would be easier.
I used all of these new things yesterday and learned some valuable lessons.
1. Quick connects are worth the money and I should have ordered them prior to this brew day.
2. A sparge arm is needed, holding a tube slinging hot liquor across the top of the grain bed is a horrible idea.
3. When you are sparging, tell people to leave you alone, I had set up the run-off and hot liquior to match rates. A contractor came by to give me an estimate right then.... I thought I set it up pretty well and went and spoke with him. Because I did have a sparge arm, the tub fell out, hot liquor lost, grain bed sucked dry..... this added 15 minutes getting enough hot liquor to finish
4. Counter flow chillers are amazing and I do not understand how it took me 7 years to buy one. In south Florida my water coming out of the hose is 74-75 degrees I had been using an immersion chiller that took forever to get the temp down. This saved 30-45 minutes. AWESOME.
5. Plastic auto siphons are not meant to move boiling wort..... I never had a need for a valve on my brew kettle and had no means to transfer hot wort easily.... I have a hole saw with my kettles name on it once my order from bargainfittings arrives.
6. King kooker uses REALLY CHEAP paint. I had originally planed on making a single tier saw this and thought it would be a good option. It works well, but I think I am going to do a few modifications and use some bbq paint on it.
I am looking forward getting to a point where I will bolt some things on to the rig.
I have ordered a few items and will do another brew with them before I tap any metal and permanently place things.
The worst part of all is that I did not take any pictures.
I am not really sure what style I made but below is the grain bill.
8lb 2 row
1 crystal 40
.5 biscut
.5 carapills
mashed 60 minutes at 154. 10 minute mash out.
1.5 oz cascade at 60
reused a yeast cake of Wyeast Burton ipa.
I wanted something a little malty. It is happily bubbling away.
A king kooker, a chugger pump, and a counterflow chiller.
I have been doing mostly all-grain batches since my 4th batch. It was a single burner turkey fryer and a lot of moving hot things around by pots and gravity. I wanted a little more sophisticated set-up that would be easier.
I used all of these new things yesterday and learned some valuable lessons.
1. Quick connects are worth the money and I should have ordered them prior to this brew day.
2. A sparge arm is needed, holding a tube slinging hot liquor across the top of the grain bed is a horrible idea.
3. When you are sparging, tell people to leave you alone, I had set up the run-off and hot liquior to match rates. A contractor came by to give me an estimate right then.... I thought I set it up pretty well and went and spoke with him. Because I did have a sparge arm, the tub fell out, hot liquor lost, grain bed sucked dry..... this added 15 minutes getting enough hot liquor to finish
4. Counter flow chillers are amazing and I do not understand how it took me 7 years to buy one. In south Florida my water coming out of the hose is 74-75 degrees I had been using an immersion chiller that took forever to get the temp down. This saved 30-45 minutes. AWESOME.
5. Plastic auto siphons are not meant to move boiling wort..... I never had a need for a valve on my brew kettle and had no means to transfer hot wort easily.... I have a hole saw with my kettles name on it once my order from bargainfittings arrives.
6. King kooker uses REALLY CHEAP paint. I had originally planed on making a single tier saw this and thought it would be a good option. It works well, but I think I am going to do a few modifications and use some bbq paint on it.
I am looking forward getting to a point where I will bolt some things on to the rig.
I have ordered a few items and will do another brew with them before I tap any metal and permanently place things.
The worst part of all is that I did not take any pictures.
I am not really sure what style I made but below is the grain bill.
8lb 2 row
1 crystal 40
.5 biscut
.5 carapills
mashed 60 minutes at 154. 10 minute mash out.
1.5 oz cascade at 60
reused a yeast cake of Wyeast Burton ipa.
I wanted something a little malty. It is happily bubbling away.
