Hey all,
I recently finished building my 3 vessel all grain system and had my first brew day with it yesterday. I've previously done a few extract kits and a BIAB all grain batch, which have worked out pretty well.
I'm in Darwin, Australia and so chilling using a wort chiller isn't an option as water comes out of the "cold" tap around 26C. Basically I have hot and warm taps. So using the no-chill method by dunking the wort (in a food safe plastic water container) in the apartment pool to reduce the temperature down at least something.
A few thoughts on this brew session.
Firstly, what went wrong or didn't go quite as smoothly as I'd have liked:
- Mash tun lost a fair bit of temperature. It went in at 66C and I measured it out at the end of the mash at 58-59C. There's a few places where the temperature probably escaped - the ball valve was pretty hot and obviously a place of lost temperature and I wonder if it got out through the lid as well. Not sure what to do about that other than put the water in hotter perhaps?
- Almost got a stuck sparge. The sparge on a couple of occasions almost completely stopped but it continued as a trickle though. I put the sparge water in at 74C and the sparge arm was whirring around pretty quickly. Not sure if it needed to be run slower or what? But anyway, it carried on doing it's business. and got plenty of wort out of the mash tun. I guess the sparge ran for about 20 minutes or so. From what I can tell, that was too fast. Something for next time.
- For some reason when I was moving the wort from the boiling kettle to the no-chill cube, the exit either blocked up or something else as I was unable to get the last 4L out of it (annoying). I'll have a proper look at the ball valve later when I wash the boiling kettle to find out what happened there. I'm using a bazooka tube on the boiling kettle to stop the hops from getting into my wort when I empty the kettle. I might have to think of a different solution. Perhaps remove that bazoooka tube entirely and get a hop bag? Would welcome suggestions for this!
- Didn't get as much wort as hoped - lost out on at least 3 litres. And I suspect I could have got a bit more while I was sparging - I stopped the sparge when the wort coming out of the mash tun was looking a bit thin - ended up not using about 2 or 3 litres of sparge water. Not sure if this was a wise move or not. I did all my calculations with Beersmith and so in hindsight should have just stuck with it.
- Pre-boil gravity was a bit off - Beersmith estimated 1.042, I got 1.037 but the wort was still a bit warm so perhaps not as off as I think.
And what went right:
- Got plenty of wort (but just not as much as I'd have liked)
- The wort is tasty.
- I completed a 3 vessel brew - evidence is in the fridge, currently cooling the wort ready for fermentation in a couple of hours (waiting for my yeast smack pack to do its thing).
- I completed a brew with an absolutely stinking hangover.
- I met another local brewer and I met my neighbours while I was cooling the wort in the pool downstairs. Home brew bringing people together!
- All the gear seemed to work as it should and mostly without too much trouble, excepting the issues above. I bought a little brown pump to move water from the HLT to the mash tun and to pump the sparge water through a rotating sparge arm as well. The little brown pump was a beauty. Worked an absolute treat.
- First 3 vessel brew went surprisingly smoothly. A few hiccups here and there but the next brew day will be far easier when I've got the few little spanners in the works figured out.
Cheers!
welly
I recently finished building my 3 vessel all grain system and had my first brew day with it yesterday. I've previously done a few extract kits and a BIAB all grain batch, which have worked out pretty well.
I'm in Darwin, Australia and so chilling using a wort chiller isn't an option as water comes out of the "cold" tap around 26C. Basically I have hot and warm taps. So using the no-chill method by dunking the wort (in a food safe plastic water container) in the apartment pool to reduce the temperature down at least something.
A few thoughts on this brew session.
Firstly, what went wrong or didn't go quite as smoothly as I'd have liked:
- Mash tun lost a fair bit of temperature. It went in at 66C and I measured it out at the end of the mash at 58-59C. There's a few places where the temperature probably escaped - the ball valve was pretty hot and obviously a place of lost temperature and I wonder if it got out through the lid as well. Not sure what to do about that other than put the water in hotter perhaps?
- Almost got a stuck sparge. The sparge on a couple of occasions almost completely stopped but it continued as a trickle though. I put the sparge water in at 74C and the sparge arm was whirring around pretty quickly. Not sure if it needed to be run slower or what? But anyway, it carried on doing it's business. and got plenty of wort out of the mash tun. I guess the sparge ran for about 20 minutes or so. From what I can tell, that was too fast. Something for next time.
- For some reason when I was moving the wort from the boiling kettle to the no-chill cube, the exit either blocked up or something else as I was unable to get the last 4L out of it (annoying). I'll have a proper look at the ball valve later when I wash the boiling kettle to find out what happened there. I'm using a bazooka tube on the boiling kettle to stop the hops from getting into my wort when I empty the kettle. I might have to think of a different solution. Perhaps remove that bazoooka tube entirely and get a hop bag? Would welcome suggestions for this!
- Didn't get as much wort as hoped - lost out on at least 3 litres. And I suspect I could have got a bit more while I was sparging - I stopped the sparge when the wort coming out of the mash tun was looking a bit thin - ended up not using about 2 or 3 litres of sparge water. Not sure if this was a wise move or not. I did all my calculations with Beersmith and so in hindsight should have just stuck with it.
- Pre-boil gravity was a bit off - Beersmith estimated 1.042, I got 1.037 but the wort was still a bit warm so perhaps not as off as I think.
And what went right:
- Got plenty of wort (but just not as much as I'd have liked)
- The wort is tasty.
- I completed a 3 vessel brew - evidence is in the fridge, currently cooling the wort ready for fermentation in a couple of hours (waiting for my yeast smack pack to do its thing).
- I completed a brew with an absolutely stinking hangover.
- I met another local brewer and I met my neighbours while I was cooling the wort in the pool downstairs. Home brew bringing people together!
- All the gear seemed to work as it should and mostly without too much trouble, excepting the issues above. I bought a little brown pump to move water from the HLT to the mash tun and to pump the sparge water through a rotating sparge arm as well. The little brown pump was a beauty. Worked an absolute treat.
- First 3 vessel brew went surprisingly smoothly. A few hiccups here and there but the next brew day will be far easier when I've got the few little spanners in the works figured out.
Cheers!
welly
