2 Pot Stovetop Ag With Lauter

[Droopy Brew]

Is that just by throwing more hops at it or introducing them later or is there another method.

I wont be brewing 60L- just the standard 20-23L batches but the pot has 60L capacity. May come in handy for when I try and Imperial stout or Barley wine or some equally stupid 1.110 plus beer.

 

[Lord Raja Goomba I]

Is that just by throwing more hops at it or introducing them later or is there another method.

I wont be brewing 60L- just the standard 20-23L batches but the pot has 60L capacity. May come in handy for when I try and Imperial stout or Barley wine or some equally stupid 1.110 plus beer.

I honestly don't know what the dead space will do for you - especially if you have no lid or anything to keep the heat in whilst you bring the water to temp.

I've done a barleywine (on oak) - about 15L it came out. Pretty easy to brew too.

Anywho. Question you asked. I prefer a 60/10 split on my hops for an IPA (and 30/10 for APA), that is - the 60 minute additions are for bittering, 10 minute for aroma/flavour (or 30 for bitterness). 15 IBU of bitterness, the balance as flavour additions.

With no-chill, I cube hop of sorts. That is, I transfer the steaming wort to the cube and add in what would be my 10 minute additions to the cube afterward. It seems to work. Those sort of additions are what was stopping me staying with no chill for hoppy beers (as I'd done it for bitters and other 'early addition' centric beers).

Since you will transfer the wort to a fermenter the next day (or whatever), you'll rack the break and hops away from the liquor, so no issues with ongoing 'taint' during fermentation.

 

[jkhlt1210]

I honestly don't know what the dead space will do for you - especially if you have no lid or anything to keep the heat in whilst you bring the water to temp.

I've done a barleywine (on oak) - about 15L it came out. Pretty easy to brew too.

Anywho. Question you asked. I prefer a 60/10 split on my hops for an IPA (and 30/10 for APA), that is - the 60 minute additions are for bittering, 10 minute for aroma/flavour (or 30 for bitterness). 15 IBU of bitterness, the balance as flavour additions.

With no-chill, I cube hop of sorts. That is, I transfer the steaming wort to the cube and add in what would be my 10 minute additions to the cube afterward. It seems to work. Those sort of additions are what was stopping me staying with no chill for hoppy beers (as I'd done it for bitters and other 'early addition' centric beers).

Since you will transfer the wort to a fermenter the next day (or whatever), you'll rack the break and hops away from the liquor, so no issues with ongoing 'taint' during fermentation.

Sorry if this is a stupid question but in next few weeks I want to attempt my first AG brew using your method. Just wondering how many litres of water go into the mash tun with the grains? And how many litres for sparge?

 

[Tahoose]

Sorry if this is a stupid question but in next few weeks I want to attempt my first AG brew using your method. Just wondering how many litres of water go into the mash tun with the grains? And how many litres for sparge?

Best bet is to download brewmate, the standard setting has a 1:3 grain to water ratio and in the brew day mode it will tell you how much water you need to sparge with.

Also has all of the relevant things like strike temps, sparge water temps ect

 

[jkhlt1210]

Best bet is to download brewmate, the standard setting has a 1:3 grain to water ratio and in the brew day mode it will tell you how much water you need to sparge with.

Also has all of the relevant things like strike temps, sparge water temps ect

ok cool cheers for that

 

[menoetes]

Picked up a 26lt esky from gumtree for $15 today as well as 2 x 20lt paint mixing buckets from bunnings (the same as yours as far as I can tell) for $13 each. I already have the 2 x 20lt Big W pots. I'm ready to try my first AG. I've got a few Kmart clearance kits left which I will probably turn into partials but I'm looking forward to trying your AG method, Raja.

Cost in equipment so far = $41 (my magnetic stir-plate alone cost more - no regrets).

Your videos have been helpful, I'll read up some more on how much water to use with what quantities of grain and how much water + temperatures to sparge with etc. Then I should be good to go.

Cheers for the inspiration and instructions on AG brewing ghetto style.

 

[Lord Raja Goomba I]

No worries.

If your reading is pointing to standard grain mash vs water ratios - use that, not the ones for BIAB (which don't generally include allowances for sparge methods).

Generally with mine, it's about 3:1 for the mash in and I'll generally go 3-3.5:1 on sparging as well, which seems to allow for absorption.

Pop the data into brewmate for "AG" not "BIAB" and you should be pretty much right.

 

[menoetes]

Thanks for the feedback Raja,

So if I mash 4kg of grain I should use 12 litres of water and more or less the same for sparging? How then do you drop the volume before putting it into the fermenter? Do you boil and evaporate the 24 litres down to about 20 litres or does the grain absorb the extra liquid? Sorry if these seem like stupid questions but I've never done this before... Your vids don't include volumes.

Could you maybe post a very basic step by step recipe with volumes and temps (for a simple pale ale for example) to be clear on how to use your method?

If it's too much of a bother don't worry about it, I'm sure I'll get there in the end. Experimenting is the heart of home brewing after-all...

 

[Tahoose]

Menoetes, I'd suggest getting brew mate and having a play with it.

Have a look at the brew day mode and that should answer a few of your questions.

 

[Lord Raja Goomba I]

Menoetes, I'd suggest getting brew mate and having a play with it.
Have a look at the brew day mode and that should answer a few of your questions.

This.

Far easier to plug an existing recipe into brewmate, adjust it to your volume and let the brew day function sort out the calcs. It's all I do.

And I no chill.

Recipe for 25L for a basic Pale Ale:

5kg Ale malt (love Perle, Maris Otter a close 2nd)
.5kg Heritage Crystal (medium crystal if heritage NA)

Citra hops:

15 IBU at 30minutes
15 IBU at 10 minutes

US05.

If you plug in for 25L, you can then scale it down to 20L.

Brewmate will work out the rest for you. Assume mash temp 65 degrees.

 

[menoetes]

Ah, the brewday function, hello!

I've been using brewmate for a few months now, as a tool to work on my extract and few partial brews. Did you know I never even used the brewday function? This is very helpful and answers almost all my questions.

Thanks guys.

 

[menoetes]

Lauter bucket done. Drilling the strainer bucket took a little while but wasn't hard, making the hole just right for the tap in the other bucket was a bit more effort. It took a while but I got there, though it does have a slow drip. I'm hoping some plumber tape will fix that.

Otherwise does anyone know a liquid or gel sealant that would be heat resistant up to 100'c and safe to use on a food prep item?

Edit: Never mind about the sealant question, I just went back over the thread (as others have suggested) and will get a brass nut to fit over it when next at bunnings, maybe a washer too...

 

[beermeupscotty]

Just took a re-read of this thread (since first joining AHB and being led to it). To get started with AG, I've acquired a 65L SS pot which I'm planning to use with the hope of producing enough wort for two 19-23L batches. I have some other equipment at my disposal too, and I've been going over the combinations in my head of how I can get this going.

Total current equipment includes:

• 65L SS Stock pot
• 2x20L pail with tap for lauter
• 38L esky
• 7.6L stock pot
• 10L stock pot

I've been considering adding another large pot or esky to the mix. So right now, with the limitations of minimal extra equipment and just a stove-top, I'm thinking:

Method 1 (new pot, temperature-mash)
Heat sparge water in 10+7.6L pots (first, because the 65L pot takes up all four burners)
Store sparge water in 38L esky
'Temperature mash' in 65L pot (with a pizza-tray+bolts false bottom?)
Lauter+sparge with pails into 45L pot (new)
Boil wort in 45L pot

This method would allow me to mash-out. An alternative, single infusion with no variable temperature (e.g. mash-out), might be:

Method 2 (new esky, no temperature variation on mash)
Heat mash water in 65L pot
Mash in 65L esky (new)
Heat sparge water in 65L pot
Store sparge water in 38L esky
Lauter+sparge with pails into 65L pot
Boil in 65L pot

Or I could consider getting a ring burner + pulley and do BIAB, but my feeling is I'd prefer not to do BIAB with this size brew.

It's late and I'm thinking kinda slow so maybe both of these ideas are wack. If anyone has any comments / advice, I'd be glad to hear it.

Cheers.

 

[Tahoose]

I think if your going to do double batches you should probably look to get the bigger esky and boil in the 65ltr pot.

You probably won't get 10kg+ of soaked grain in your lauter bucket but you'll have plenty there for a good grain bed and it should affect anything to much.

You would be a able to do infusion step mashes in the bigger esky also by adding boiling water to get up to the next temperature.

Food for thought. I brew 24ltr batches, and by the time I have 5kg of grain 15ltrs of strike water and then roughy another 10ltrs of boiling water to hit different temps my 50 ltr esky is relatively full.

 

[beermeupscotty]

Thanks Tahoose.

Yeah I figured I might struggle with the 20L lauter doing a double-batch - couldn't find the density of soaked grain in order to calculate it though. So you reckon, if I managed to do a double-batch with my equipment, I should just lauter what I can in the 20L bucket and go with that? i.e. don't bother with a second 20L lauter?

Ah, yeah I kinda had hot water top-ups at the back of my mind. Wasn't sure how practical this was. Thanks for the reminder.

Thanks for the heads-up regarding volume limitations. I knew I'd be pushing it so I prepared a recipe in BeerSmith (first time properly using it) to see what kind of volumes to expect. For a final bottling volume of 44.5L, I got a required mash volume of 57.2L and a boil volume of 51.8L. I know these estimates will differ from my actual figures, but it seems doable. Will have to see...

 

[Tahoose]

Yeah I think it would be doable. Might even give it a go tomorrow tomorrow if I have the time...

Mine would be 2 batches back to back though, off the one mash as I don't have a kettle that big.

My recommendation would be;
Big esky 65ltr or bigger if you that's viable.
Mash in esky
Fill lauter bucket until 3/4 full with grain. Use a sieve or something to grab the grain from the mash.
Fill with wort until it has almost filled the bottom bucket( you'll see what I mean when you do it)

SLOWLY OPEN TAP. Run your wort at around or even a touch less than 1ltr per minute. Opening the tap fully create a vacuum and will compact the grain bed. This is very counterproductive.

At the same time as your starting to lauter fill your esky with the remaining sparge water, you could basically do a batch sparge at the same time.

The less amount of times you need to add water the better(my opinion). It means you can focus on other parts of your brewday. This is one of the things which makes BIAB popular.

Re-circulate the wort until it looks clear and then run the remaining wort from the esky through the lauter bucket.

On my brew day on Wednesday I ran about 6 litres through the buckets before it started getting clear. Then I ran the remaining wort through. I took me about 45 mins for 27-28 Ltrs of clear wort into the kettle. This was my smoothest running brewday though, I'd expect it might take longer than that especially with a big grain bill.

I hope that can help the situation, that's all from my perspective of using this system.

Was also wondering. Have you done a test run of your 65ltr pot boiling 55-60 litres of water on the stove? How does it handle it?

 

[Beertard]

I get around 5.5 kilos of grain in the double buckets with water before it overflows between the buckets.
Pictured is 4.5 kg with about 8cm from overflow once I added the water, I'm mashing in the bucket but the amount they hold will be the same for your use for lautering only.

 

[beermeupscotty]

Thanks! Well maybe a dual-lauter system is the way to go. Not expensive to set up another one...

 

[beermeupscotty]

Yeah I think it would be doable. Might even give it a go tomorrow tomorrow if I have the time...

Mine would be 2 batches back to back though, off the one mash as I don't have a kettle that big.

My recommendation would be;
Big esky 65ltr or bigger if you that's viable.
Mash in esky
Fill lauter bucket until 3/4 full with grain. Use a sieve or something to grab the grain from the mash.
Fill with wort until it has almost filled the bottom bucket( you'll see what I mean when you do it)

SLOWLY OPEN TAP. Run your wort at around or even a touch less than 1ltr per minute. Opening the tap fully create a vacuum and will compact the grain bed. This is very counterproductive.

At the same time as your starting to lauter fill your esky with the remaining sparge water, you could basically do a batch sparge at the same time.

The less amount of times you need to add water the better(my opinion). It means you can focus on other parts of your brewday. This is one of the things which makes BIAB popular.

Re-circulate the wort until it looks clear and then run the remaining wort from the esky through the lauter bucket.

On my brew day on Wednesday I ran about 6 litres through the buckets before it started getting clear. Then I ran the remaining wort through. I took me about 45 mins for 27-28 Ltrs of clear wort into the kettle. This was my smoothest running brewday though, I'd expect it might take longer than that especially with a big grain bill.

I hope that can help the situation, that's all from my perspective of using this system.

Was also wondering. Have you done a test run of your 65ltr pot boiling 55-60 litres of water on the stove? How does it handle it?

Thanks for the further tips - it's definitely helping. I've had a look into batch sparging, and like the look of it During my search, I came across people using SS braided tubing, or 'bazookas' for the lauter process. I guess this replaces the bucket-in-bucket lauter. Any thoughts on that? I'm guessing it'd be quite slow? Nice and compact though...

Can't say I have done a test run with the 65L pot on the stove. I was thinking it'd be ok given I was planning to use all four burners (I know other people often just use two). But it's a large volume of water. Might struggle... I don't really want to waste the water / gas with a test run so I might get everything set up first and buy the grain. If it fails, I'll abort and try to find a proper burner before the grain goes bad.

 

[Lord Raja Goomba I]

You have house gas?!?