HardEight
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- 20/3/13
- Messages
- 441
- Reaction score
- 34
So it looks like today was a busy day for 'AG virgins' as another couple of people have already posted their fun of the first day all grain brewing...
Having looked at a lot of pics of people's rigs and read a shitload of stuff about AG on this forum (and brewing in general, thanks everyone!)
Here is my story..
So I started brewing K&K's in January this year... realised there was a heap more to brewing and progressed to partials then stovetop AG and then building an AG rig (It took a few months...)
Here is the result of planning, sorting out what I wanted to use (gas, HERMS), could afford (keggles+esky, kaixin pumps).. would work.. etc
So I went with a Dual Immersion Coil system... 9m of 1/2" copper tube in both the HLT and the BC... HLT for HERMS... BC for slight cooling pre-chiller (30 plate). After I bought the 55L esky I read about RIMS and HERMS systems so I have kept the esky anyway and incorporated the HERMS system with that.. I went with copper manifolds for the esky, slotted for suction and drilled for the top (sits on the grain bed).
So anyway today... 1st brew day... I went with "Operation Mongoose Brown Ale" ... It seemed simple enough...
But I had some issues:
My MLT outlet probe was reading 66 (PID was controlling to that temp)... but i had another probe reading the outlet of the HERMS.. and it was reading 2 degrees higher 68... (when by-passing the HERMS coil)... I stuck an analogue temp gauge in the mash and it showed 67deg.. So I didn't adjust anything, thinking 66, 67, close enough, should I have adjusted the HERMS PID SP a degree lower? What about the next brew I do, is a degree going to make a huge difference?
Anyway, I lifted the mash temp to 75 and mashed out, realising as I was filling the Boil Kettle I didn't fit a pickup tube... too late now!
Got to boil pretty quickly (Italian Spiral burner with HP reg).. boilover... kill the heat... relight the burner... make a facebook post about boilover... boilover again while writing said post... kill heat.. relight... get to rolling boil finally... Easy!.. lol
I took a pre-boil sample but dropped my damm hydrometer (again, 3rd in 8 months).. and a sample post-boil.. so can't tell yet what my efficiency is/was... will get another one tomorrow. I started with 20L strike water, 18L sparge (1-2L loss in MLT from manifold) taking the boilovers into account I ended up with 23L into the fermenter (trub and all: i'll filter it after ferment), add a 1.5L starter... 25L! Spot on to the recipe!
Did I mess up anything (else)?
Having looked at a lot of pics of people's rigs and read a shitload of stuff about AG on this forum (and brewing in general, thanks everyone!)
Here is my story..
So I started brewing K&K's in January this year... realised there was a heap more to brewing and progressed to partials then stovetop AG and then building an AG rig (It took a few months...)
Here is the result of planning, sorting out what I wanted to use (gas, HERMS), could afford (keggles+esky, kaixin pumps).. would work.. etc



So I went with a Dual Immersion Coil system... 9m of 1/2" copper tube in both the HLT and the BC... HLT for HERMS... BC for slight cooling pre-chiller (30 plate). After I bought the 55L esky I read about RIMS and HERMS systems so I have kept the esky anyway and incorporated the HERMS system with that.. I went with copper manifolds for the esky, slotted for suction and drilled for the top (sits on the grain bed).

So anyway today... 1st brew day... I went with "Operation Mongoose Brown Ale" ... It seemed simple enough...
But I had some issues:
My MLT outlet probe was reading 66 (PID was controlling to that temp)... but i had another probe reading the outlet of the HERMS.. and it was reading 2 degrees higher 68... (when by-passing the HERMS coil)... I stuck an analogue temp gauge in the mash and it showed 67deg.. So I didn't adjust anything, thinking 66, 67, close enough, should I have adjusted the HERMS PID SP a degree lower? What about the next brew I do, is a degree going to make a huge difference?
Anyway, I lifted the mash temp to 75 and mashed out, realising as I was filling the Boil Kettle I didn't fit a pickup tube... too late now!
Got to boil pretty quickly (Italian Spiral burner with HP reg).. boilover... kill the heat... relight the burner... make a facebook post about boilover... boilover again while writing said post... kill heat.. relight... get to rolling boil finally... Easy!.. lol
I took a pre-boil sample but dropped my damm hydrometer (again, 3rd in 8 months).. and a sample post-boil.. so can't tell yet what my efficiency is/was... will get another one tomorrow. I started with 20L strike water, 18L sparge (1-2L loss in MLT from manifold) taking the boilovers into account I ended up with 23L into the fermenter (trub and all: i'll filter it after ferment), add a 1.5L starter... 25L! Spot on to the recipe!
Did I mess up anything (else)?