RighteousFire
Well-Known Member
So we had a gathering of local homebrewers this past weekend and I decided to brew a couple batches on a buddies system, an IPA and Dusseldorf Altbier.
He has a two tier system, all keggles with their own burners. HLT gravity fed into a fly sparge mashtun. The wort is recirculated and transferred to the brew kettle with a march pump. He does 10 gallon batches and normally achieves 75% efficiency. His beers are very good.
I have a 5 gallon cooler with a stainless braid, one propane burner, a 7.5 gallon aluminum kettle, a 5 and 4 gallon pot for heating water on my stove (getting a second burner soon hopefully). I vorlauf manually and do double batch sparges and never get any lower than 80% efficiency. My beers are tasty, too.
I grind my own grain. He gets his ground at the LHBS.
I had 2 stuck mashes, clogged up his pump system, was off by about half a gallon less on both batches as well as had low efficiencies. I also clogged the filter on his brew kettle both times.
The only time I ever get a stuck mash is when there's lots of wheat and I forget to get rice hulls.
Needless to say, it was a bad brew day. On the bright side I'm sure they will still taste fantastic and are both happily bubbling away in my garage.
My point is that this was a prime example of how important nailing down the brewing process with your own system can be. My style works with my system and his with his, but not vice versa.
Also, I'll never make beer on his system my way again. We are planning on doing a 10 gallon RIS to split between us in the near future though.
He has a two tier system, all keggles with their own burners. HLT gravity fed into a fly sparge mashtun. The wort is recirculated and transferred to the brew kettle with a march pump. He does 10 gallon batches and normally achieves 75% efficiency. His beers are very good.
I have a 5 gallon cooler with a stainless braid, one propane burner, a 7.5 gallon aluminum kettle, a 5 and 4 gallon pot for heating water on my stove (getting a second burner soon hopefully). I vorlauf manually and do double batch sparges and never get any lower than 80% efficiency. My beers are tasty, too.
I grind my own grain. He gets his ground at the LHBS.
I had 2 stuck mashes, clogged up his pump system, was off by about half a gallon less on both batches as well as had low efficiencies. I also clogged the filter on his brew kettle both times.
The only time I ever get a stuck mash is when there's lots of wheat and I forget to get rice hulls.
Needless to say, it was a bad brew day. On the bright side I'm sure they will still taste fantastic and are both happily bubbling away in my garage.
My point is that this was a prime example of how important nailing down the brewing process with your own system can be. My style works with my system and his with his, but not vice versa.
Also, I'll never make beer on his system my way again. We are planning on doing a 10 gallon RIS to split between us in the near future though.