What I Learned This Weekend

[Slowfro]

Well this weekend was a very good learning experience. I finally made the jump to 10-gallon batches using my new keggle system which I was really excited for. Wednesday evening I made (2) starters from reharvested/washed yeast from previous batches. That had taken off really well so I had some great confidence going into brewday. Friday night I made all my usual notes for Saturday morning for strike water, mash temps, sparges, etc.

Saturday starts off great. Heat strike water, mash in, hit mash temp. Surprised at how well keggle MLT retained heat with some Reflectix wrapped on it. Awesome, brewday going great so far. Pop open a homebrew Breakfast Stout to please the brew gods and keep the good karma rolling. Transfer first runnings to boil kettle. All is right with the world. Re-route poly tubes for batch sparge, introduce air to pump head (single pump system with quick-connect hoses), fight to get/keep pump primed. Less than "all" is right with the world. Frustration ensues, leading me to pick up my HLT to dump into MLT, and burning my arm in the process (just a little, not bad). Time to sparge, pump is priming just fine, stuck sparge, pump loses prime. Assemble syphon with filter to manually pump wort into boil kettle.

Note, you don't see sight glasses on kegs, so I'm going on calculations and gut feelings on volumes at this point. Get tired of pumping wort 6oz at a time, so I call it "good enough."

Jet burners bring wort to boil quickly so the day starts looking up. Put the hop spider on, start dumping leaf hops in. Recipe is an IPA, which for me means way too many hops to be using leaf. It was a real struggle to continually force them into the paint strainer bag. Couldn't fit them all in, modify recipe on the fly. Finish batch, end up with 9-gallons, not 10.

Cons of brewday:
1. I need to install sight glasses and thermometers on the HLT and BK.
2. I need to re-mount the pump to a vertical position with discharge facing up for better priming.
3. I am not a fan of leaf hops, at least not for IPAs.
4. I need to figure out a way to not get stuck sparges.

Pros of brewday:
1. Still ended up with 9 gallons in fermenters.
2. Learned more about the system for next time & how to improve.
3. Was better than being at work.
4. Learned how awesome washed yeast w/ starters can be...incredible fermentation take-off within a few hours.

Just thought I'd share the story of brewing "Maiden Voyage IPA". For a while there I thought I'd have to rename it to Titanic - was looking to be a disastrous day but was (mostly) salvaged.

 

[GodsStepBrother]

If you cannot get a sight glass installed yet, just mark a stick every gallon or so in your tank. At least you can get a better estimation than just eyeballing it.

You can use rice hulls to prevent a stuck sparge they are cheap and easy to use. What kind of manifold do you have in your mash tun?

 

[Slowfro]

Agreed on the calibration stick - that will help if I can't get the sights installed by next brewday.

I've got a SS false bottom in the mash tun. In the 5-gallon cooler MLT I've got a SS braid, so I knew it was going to be a learning experience with the false bottom. I'll have to look into using rice hulls for next brew. I've seen a few differing opinions on how to use them, whether or not to wash/rinse them, etc. Any advice?

 

[GodsStepBrother]

I have never used them, but I did a lot of research on them at one point. Some people just chuck them in, some soak them first so they will not absorb any wort when they are added to the mash. I would probably be the guy that just soaks them. Hopefully someone that has used them will chime in with results.

Anyways I always thought false bottoms worked better than manifolds and braids, quite bizarre you are the second brewer I have spoken with that has had trouble with their false bottom. I remember reading about one guy that put a braid attached to the spigot tube under the false bottom, and he said that got rid of a lot of headaches. So he had two filters in his set up.

Pretty cool that your ridge is made of wood, what kind of burners do you have under there? and what pumps are you using? I’m about to build my rig very soon and am curious.

 

[Slowfro]

I've heard good things about the false bottoms, I mean if they didn't work why would so many people on here use and endorse them right? One thing I need to do next time is use more control when opening the valves so I don't cause a surge in the pressure differences, I think that can help prevent issues. I've had issues with the SS braid as well, so I know it can vary with grain crush, flow control, and more than likely operator error.

I like the wood stand, but the flames can surge a bit so when they're running I put a flashing shield up. The pump is a March, I forget which model but I can send it to you if you'd like. I need to reconfigure it for better priming since it's not a self-priming pump. I only have the 1 pump, but it's not a huge deal to me since all the hoses are quick-connect. The burners are Banjos - incredibly powerful. There is 1 burner under each keg, but all 3 are connected in series with shutoff valves to a single LP tank.

What kind of stand are you thinking you'll build? What do you currently use?

 

[GodsStepBrother]

Yes I have also heard good things from false bottoms that is why it surprises me. I am going to get two false bottoms on my system. I recently did a hefeweizen with over 60% wheat, and I didn’t get a stuck sparge I have a stainless steel braid. So I hope it is better with a false bottom.

I am looking to start building a brewtus ten here in the next two weeks. Well they are already welding the frame for me but I just do not know what burners to get. Where did you buy your burners and pump?

Right now I just have a big igloo mash tun, with a braid inside. I do ten gallon batches in a cut out keg. No pumps or nothing yet, it is all man power. I have a big freezer that is temperature controlled and that is pretty much it. A kegerator that just crapped out on me too.

 

[Irrenarzt]

Get the tejassmokers 10 tip minis. They are expensive but they are way nicer than the cheap shopperschoice crap they were selling a while back. I wrote up a little review on the Tejas ones:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f11/props-tejas-smokers-210322/

The burner is the most important component of the Brutus 10 type system besides the Love Controllers/ASCO valve or the pumps. Trust me, don't skimp and you will be rewarded with performance.

 

[GodsStepBrother]

Thanks Irrenarzt!

 

[Irrenarzt]

No sweat bro. Those Tejas burners are nice. You'll be happy with them even though you'll be out a fair amount of cash. They are a hundred times nicer than the crapass ones Shopperschoice sold me.

In Shopperschoice defense, they had great customer service when I was going through the headache of leaky burners. Most companies would have left me hanging out to dry.

 

[Slowfro]

I'm not sure where the burners or pump were from originally - I bought the setup from a guy who was moving and couldn't take it with him. Got a screaming deal on the whole thing because of it, and he threw in a bunch of carboys, grains, hops, bottles, etc. I had been looking around before finding that to build a similar setup, so I was just shopping all the typical supply stores...midwestsupply, austinhomebrew, those types of places.

I agree with Irrenarzt, this type of equipment is not the best place to cut corners...you can definitely get what you pay for.

 

[KevinW]

I have used rice hulls in the past.

I definitely recommend rinsing and soaking them before adding to the mash!

 

[Slowfro]

Kevin, I think I saw somewhere that people add them towards the last 15 minutes of mash or so rather than use them right from the start. To me it would seem to make most sense to have them mixed in with your grain bill and let them sit throughout the mash.

And what is it exactly about rice hulls that help prevent a stuck sparge?

 

[GodsStepBrother]

They are like the husk of the barely, they are light so when there is suction from the false bottom they make a natural false bottom on top of your mas tun’s false bottom. They do not clog up the holes in your screen, like the endosperm of the barely do.

Most people use them religiously when making wheat beers, because wheat has no husk and is all endosperm. So that mixed with hot water makes something the constancy of oatmeal. Imagine trying to run oatmeal through your false bottom. You need the husk to make another layer to allow the flow of liquid.

 

[Slowfro]

Yeah I'm familiar with the struggles wheat can cause - had issues with it on my SS braid a few months ago which caused the word Angry to be worked into the beer's name.

So is it best to mix the rice hulls in with your grains? It seems to me if you mash and they are dispersed throughout the grains the hulls wouldn't make it down to the false bottom. It almost seems like you'd want to lay down a layer on top of the false bottom when you are ready to mash in.

I've done some searching and reading on them before, but never came up with a solid conclusive approach as the "best way" so I'm just trying to see what you guys do since I've clearly never used them. Thanks for all the feedback!