fluketamer
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Dec 1, 2008
- Messages
- 828
- Reaction score
- 971
hi i got a klarstein knockoff for black friday at a steal so i tried it out for the first time yesterday. i love it. i wrapped it in reflectix to try to get temps up quicker and keep them more stable since its only a 110 v machine.
it took a little while figuring out how to use it so i had a very long brew day but my numbers were spot on. so i a m happy and think with planning i can really streamline the process for a shorter brewday.
the dead space on these things is huge so the reccomended 1.5 ish qts per pound of grain onyl filled up my pipe about a third of the way so i added another gallon to the mash so i would have more space for the grain. i prolly could of got away with an extra half gallon instead cause the mash seemed thin but i got 74 percent efficiency so i am very happy with the results. this threw off my water calculations though so i am not sure how much was sparge and how much was mash . i thought it would affect my extraction a lot but everything worked fine in the end. the beer looks and smells amazing .
heres what i did:
i filled the kettle up to 7.5 gallons and heated to 170 and drew off 3 gallons for sparge . i kept the sparge water in a small kettle in the oven at 170 ( which worked perfect - btw) . i then prepped grain while the water cooled to 168 for mash in. i doughed in at 168 and the temp dropped to 158. the mash was thin so it was easy to thoroughly mix everything, (recipe below) . i started the pump and the temp stayed between 155.5 and 157 deg. for the 60 min mash. the mash was very uneventful. i took off the screen at about 30 mins to stir the top third of the mash but i dont think that was needed and wont next time. otherwise mash went very smoothly. the 11 lbs of wet grain in the pipe was def heavier then i expected and after i sparged with 2.5 gallon of water and let it drain there was still a considerable amount of drippings in there and that became a mess later on. in future i will just dump grain as soon as i take basket off or find a big enough bucket to let it sit in. 5 gallon pail was too small. i topped it up to 7.5 preboil vol. cause i was looking to get 6.5 into the fermenter. i took a gravity reading cause i have never done AG aio before and was worried i didnt get sugar out of my grain but my numbers were in the 1050 range before top off so i was happy. during boil i was scared to burn the kettle with the full 1800 watts so i kept messing around with 1000 but had trouble maintaining boil. i settled on 1600 which seemed to keep it rolling. spider went in hop additions. chiller, whirfloc, more hops, flame out whirpool hops. chilled and ran off to the fermenter. no scorching on the bottom of the kettle. pitched yeast and its bubbling away already. 1046 OG = BEER!
some pics below
pretty excited to taste my latest creation.
recipe 6.5 gallons
9 lbs of briess pilsen malt
1 lb of flaked corn
.5 lbs carapils.
.5 lb of dextrose
2 oz of rice hulls
1 oz nz pacifica at 60
1 oz nz pacifica at 10
1 oz huell melon whirpool
it took a little while figuring out how to use it so i had a very long brew day but my numbers were spot on. so i a m happy and think with planning i can really streamline the process for a shorter brewday.
the dead space on these things is huge so the reccomended 1.5 ish qts per pound of grain onyl filled up my pipe about a third of the way so i added another gallon to the mash so i would have more space for the grain. i prolly could of got away with an extra half gallon instead cause the mash seemed thin but i got 74 percent efficiency so i am very happy with the results. this threw off my water calculations though so i am not sure how much was sparge and how much was mash . i thought it would affect my extraction a lot but everything worked fine in the end. the beer looks and smells amazing .
heres what i did:
i filled the kettle up to 7.5 gallons and heated to 170 and drew off 3 gallons for sparge . i kept the sparge water in a small kettle in the oven at 170 ( which worked perfect - btw) . i then prepped grain while the water cooled to 168 for mash in. i doughed in at 168 and the temp dropped to 158. the mash was thin so it was easy to thoroughly mix everything, (recipe below) . i started the pump and the temp stayed between 155.5 and 157 deg. for the 60 min mash. the mash was very uneventful. i took off the screen at about 30 mins to stir the top third of the mash but i dont think that was needed and wont next time. otherwise mash went very smoothly. the 11 lbs of wet grain in the pipe was def heavier then i expected and after i sparged with 2.5 gallon of water and let it drain there was still a considerable amount of drippings in there and that became a mess later on. in future i will just dump grain as soon as i take basket off or find a big enough bucket to let it sit in. 5 gallon pail was too small. i topped it up to 7.5 preboil vol. cause i was looking to get 6.5 into the fermenter. i took a gravity reading cause i have never done AG aio before and was worried i didnt get sugar out of my grain but my numbers were in the 1050 range before top off so i was happy. during boil i was scared to burn the kettle with the full 1800 watts so i kept messing around with 1000 but had trouble maintaining boil. i settled on 1600 which seemed to keep it rolling. spider went in hop additions. chiller, whirfloc, more hops, flame out whirpool hops. chilled and ran off to the fermenter. no scorching on the bottom of the kettle. pitched yeast and its bubbling away already. 1046 OG = BEER!
some pics below
pretty excited to taste my latest creation.
recipe 6.5 gallons
9 lbs of briess pilsen malt
1 lb of flaked corn
.5 lbs carapils.
.5 lb of dextrose
2 oz of rice hulls
1 oz nz pacifica at 60
1 oz nz pacifica at 10
1 oz huell melon whirpool
Attachments
Last edited:
In my parts, the occasional super cheap AIO shows up and I've been tempted just to try one one out, but cash is super-tight so I'm hoping someone well-known on here like yourself can give an accurate report.
