2 Pot Stovetop Ag With Lauter

[technobabble66]

Great set of vids, LRG.

It's a brilliant display of how beer can really bring the family together :lol:

Great example of how to brew AG effectively for a tiny investment of $'s, but also time & effort, even for someone who's a little time poor & has 3 kids to keep an eye on...

 

[Lord Raja Goomba I]

4, but the 9 month old was asleep.

The only person that got burned was me, and that was carelessness with pouring hot water.

My biggest problem is if that verandah over the toolshed keeps growing, I won't be able to see them around my disappearing feet.

 

[Rowy]

This is a great way to brew. My first couple were done using this, with LRG putting me onto the two bucket idea. I've now moved onto a gas burner and 70l pot BIAB but my two buckets still get used every brew. I've tasted some of LRG's beers and they are great. Some people like to drive Rolls Royce's, some like Hyundais, some people in between, they all get you where you want to go its just about cost, want and need. The individual decides where he or she sits in that equation. It's about beer not a pissing competition.

 

[mrTbeer]

Not redundant at all, this is the basis of Papazian which was the book I read before i found AHB.
I got into BIAB using '30 bucks' thread but actually thinking this might be the shot and also it gives me another bucket for bulk priming.
It's also cheaper than a stainless false bottom for my esky.

 

[DU99]

If you can't find the bucket's@ Bunning's,Masters have a similar line

 

[Lord Raja Goomba I]

Not redundant at all, this is the basis of Papazian which was the book I read before i found AHB.
I got into BIAB using '30 bucks' thread but actually thinking this might be the shot and also it gives me another bucket for bulk priming.
It's also cheaper than a stainless false bottom for my esky.

Not sure if I mentioned it on the bucket in bucket vid - but making one with the tap - it can double as a bottling bucket for bulk priming - so long as you seal it. Mine isn't, it has a very slow leak (which is fine when I'm lautering, because I can catch it, but not for bottling. When I'm next up to the hardware shop, I'll grab some silicone and seal it up and use it for said purpose.

The thing is, I tried to do the esky, I buggered the esky up (my poor DIY skills) and so this was the by product of working around that.

SWMBO "you are not altering this esky, are you"

Me "No, I know what failure means. Submission!"

 

[Lord Raja Goomba I]

Kmart has them as well near the fishing section.

 

[Pickaxe]

figures to come...

 

[dago001]

And excessively poor DIY skills.

All I could see was a trip to the hospital on the horizon - Take the knife of the DIYer. Your drill is shit as well, and deburring you holes with a screwdriver - who woulda thunk?? Oh well, beer quality out weighs brewery quality any day. Now drop me over some beer so I can check that the brewery is working to optimum standards
Cheers
LagerBomb

 

[Lord Raja Goomba I]

All I could see was a trip to the hospital on the horizon - Take the knife of the DIYer. Your drill is shit as well, and deburring you holes with a screwdriver - who woulda thunk?? Oh well, beer quality out weighs brewery quality any day. Now drop me over some beer so I can check that the brewery is working to optimum standards
Cheers
LagerBomb

Kinda doesn't help it when most of my DIY stuff wasn't brought with me (and I borrowed a better corded drill last time I did it). But yeah, every time I do anything, my Missus gets the kids ready for a trip to the hospital. The car, excepted. Fixed back lights, fixed window motor, serviced car - I can actually deal with cars, because they make sense to me like computers do. And I'm okay with a spanner.

Having said that, I'm not yet on first name basis at Latrobe (well, one doctor excepted) Hospital. That's a good sign, given how little equpment I had.

But doesn't it show - I had nothing, even by my admittedly equiment-poor standards - a dodgy steak knife, a 10 year old $12 Kmart drill and still managed to build a brewery.

I'll swap some more beer, if you'd like @Lagerbomb. I'm hanging for some dark beer, but I don't think I'll get around to making any before this cool weather disappears.

Oh, how did you go with that IPA recipe? I'll convert you yet.

 

[Pickaxe]

Goomba, I just put a brass nut on the back of the tap in the lauter bucket, no leak.

On my third brew with this setup. Eff is at 67% at last brew. Resulting beer is much clearer, trub loss is down. Very happy with the setup. My second brew was extremely clear when I bottled today, so I'm looking forward to drinking that next month. Now I'm just aiming for consistency. First brew I only got 58%, and low final volume, silly errors, but now I'm hitting figures, beersmith is setup for my gear, upwards and onwards.

Extremely viable brew method. Now I can focus on other aspects of brewing, like harvesting yeast and refining recipes. Total no brain method for me now. No lifting, just a bit of liquid juggling, just might try and up eff where I can, but 67% is perfect.

 

[Pickaxe]

As far as drlling the bucket, just keep it spinning in and out, then scrub the burrs off with a chisel or screwdriver at worst. It cuts Like butter. Be careful with not making the tap hole too big, and whack a brass nut on the back, plumbing section at bunnings, no silicone required. I used a 6mm multi purpose drill bit (wood/plastic/ etc.).

25l strike water to mash at 71.
14l sparge water at 81.
Bloody easy.

Like goomba said, my gravity in each pot is 1-2 points off at worst, let's me boil well on Shit stove with alfoil floats helping with boil. I chill in laundry tub then let pots to 30ish degrees, then sit out in thr cold air glad wrapped to get to pitch temp (about 2 hours). Will ice the tub in summer.

Easy method, low outlay. Bloody brilliant.

 

[Lord Raja Goomba I]

Thanks for that - I reckon I'll do that when I'm at bunnings next, which should be in the next week or two as we have a bulk buy here. I did slightly make a mistake in it, so it has a teeny leak. I want to use it as a bottling bucket as well, so I'll fix it up. I'll grab some silicone for that, and hopefully it'll fix it if the brass nut doesn't.

67% efficiency means you might still have some way to go to get used to it. I'm generally around 75-80% with not much variation. Check your water too, I ended up before I left Brissie, adding some acidulated malt as my tap water got quite alkaline after the 2011 floods and I couldn't figure out why my efficiency was high 60's/low 70s.

 

[ian4379]

i did my first AG today with this method. worked well.

the only issue i had was my stovetop element for the second pot wasnt strong enough to get it to a boil, more like a light simmer, so i did a 60 min boil in the "main" pot that was boiling well, dropped the hops into it, then swapped to second pot onto the bigger element and reduced it for an extra half hour to get the volume down.

i cooled both pots down in the bath.

 

[Lord Raja Goomba I]

Good to hear you enjoyed it.

I should put that down as a possible disadvantage to the method - that one element may be less than another.

My solution would be to put the lid over part of the pot that is on the less powerful element, so it boils well but doesn't overflow. I know others put aluminium contains on top of the wort to float (see pickaxe's post above) and increase boil.

You'll find, due to the peculiarities of the method - you may need to tweak these things. In your case, what you did might end up with a reduced hop optimisation (might!) but it won't be show stopping. The intricate tweaks will come with time.

I'm planning to step mash (another advantage of having two pots - one to heat step mash water, the other to heat mash out or batch sparge water) a Saison when I get around to it. Will post when/if I do it (and if I remember).

 

[Ives_MD]

For those who say this is redundant, this thread has converted a 'talker-about-erer' or a 'should-doer' into an AG brewer. One batch so far, still fermenting. Already converted, wont go back.

Thanks LRG, this method rings true to my shoddy DIY skills too, and just makes more sense to me than BIAB. Hit the targets within few points for temp, volume, OG etc. couldn't be simpler.

Great Stuff

 

[Elderfi]

i did my first AG today with this method. worked well.

the only issue i had was my stovetop element for the second pot wasnt strong enough to get it to a boil, more like a light simmer, so i did a 60 min boil in the "main" pot that was boiling well, dropped the hops into it, then swapped to second pot onto the bigger element and reduced it for an extra half hour to get the volume down.

i cooled both pots down in the bath.

Im pretty sure im in the same situation. If I let one pot cool while boiling the other would this cause issues??

 

[Tahoose]

Hey guys did my first AG this week using this week, thanks for all the tips people have shared and LRG for the innovation I'll do a "my first AG with pics topic" soon when I get some more time, I remembered to pick up the brass nut also and tightened it up real good, made the bucket leak proof and was quite solid

Didn't quite hit all my numbers got 8ltrs at 1.054 for about 70% efficiency, but I reckon I could have got more easily, was just impatient to get the boil going...

 

[jkhlt1210]

Great thread very helpful to someone like me looking to take the next step

 

[Lord Raja Goomba I]

Hey guys did my first AG this week using this week, thanks for all the tips people have shared and LRG for the innovation I'll do a "my first AG with pics topic" soon when I get some more time, I remembered to pick up the brass nut also and tightened it up real good, made the bucket leak proof and was quite solid

Didn't quite hit all my numbers got 8ltrs at 1.054 for about 70% efficiency, but I reckon I could have got more easily, was just impatient to get the boil going...

Did you ever get around to it, tahoose - the pictorial topic?

Great thread very helpful to someone like me looking to take the next step

I was hoping it was! Good luck on your AG adventures, wherever they may lead you.