I have two 50L kegs at the moment. After finding this forum a couple of weeks ago, I"m keen to try an AG and BIAB seems to be the easyest (and cheapest) way to go.
I'll have to get scales and a thermometer, got a burner allready, but what do I have to do to the keg apart from cutting the lid off??
Will I be able in the future to do a double batch of grain in the keg and top up with water into fermenter??
Sorry for the noob questions but Iv'e been doin' K&K for about 10yrs, Some good some average
and learned after finding this place that I know SFA!!!!!!!!!!!
Cheers
Dave
Hi Dave,
First of all, if no-one's already said it,
Welcome to AHB! :beer:
Secondly, please fill out the 'location' section of your profile. It'll help people know where you're from (duh) and you might even get an offer to join in on a BIAB (or traditional!) brew day.
Thirdly, Yes, get yourself a set of digital scales & a thermometer. Homeart/Copperart have a decent set (I hope!) of scales on special at the moment:
http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/inde...showtopic=14540.
Mashmaster & Craftbrewer both sell excellent & reasonably priced thermometers as well. See the Sponsors banner under the 'latest threads' box above.
Now to your question re the keg (and I've chosen my wording carefully to avoid any legal issues with chopping up someone else's property). *IF* you chose to cut the lid off (rather than return it to it's rightful owner, blah, blah), don't be tempted to just lop the whole top section off including the handles. You may find it more useful if you were to cut
out the top 'lid' section. This way you would get some carry handles and slightly more volume as well.
There are a few topics around here about chopping up stainless steel, keg-shaped kettles. Search for "Cut stainless" (no quotes) for some relevent hits.
You might also want to put at least a ball-valve (tap) in the bottom of your kettle. To do it on the cheap, drop into your local hardware suppliers an pick up a half or 3/4 inch brass (nickle plated) ball valve from the plumbing section. Grab whatever adapters you need to attach it to your kettle. Then head to the bathroom plumbing section and pick up some red fibre washers designed to go on the hot water taps. Get twice as many as you think you'll need - a. Because they're cheap and b. because they'll eventually need replacing.
If you wanted to get the ducks-nuts of brew-bling, head to Mashmaster and pick up some of his Stainless fittings. Email Francis from Mashmaster (BrissyBrew on AHB) and hopefully he'll be happy to advise.
Will I be able in the future to do a double batch of grain in the keg and top up with water into fermenter??
Definitely YES. I have done this with my last BIAB batch (have not yet posted the results cos the beer's still fermenting!)
However, a couple of things to keep in mind with regards to the amount of grain you'll be using:
1) Double-stick or double-overlock your bag seams. There'll be close to 10KG or grain when it's DRY, let alone after it's absorbed water. The swiss violle material is stong enough, but you don't want your seams bursting as you lift the bag out.
2) Cut the hole in the top of your kettle as WIDE as possible. I would go so far as saying to cut the ENTIRE lid section off. This is so that the corners of the bag do not get stuck inder the cut-out lip of the kettle. Just make sure that you've ground down any burs off the side walls so you don't snag & rip your bag.
Regarding the process of the Double-batch - There are a few very good posts around this site which explain in more detail than this (search for "Double batch concentrate"), but the short version of what I do is:
1) Get a program like Beersmith to work with. It'll make all the calculations you need.
2) Work out all your ingredients, IBU, etc based on the TOTAL double batch volume you want to drink. Mine are worked out at 44L with similar equipment.
3) Estimate (or calculate) your evaporation rate of the boiling wort.
4) Once it's all worked out, drop the batch volume amount down to roughly 33L. The software will then (in beersmith look at the 'Preview brew sheet' button) give you the amount of water you need to start your boil at.
5) Add this water as your mash water (doesn't have to be exact, better to have LESS than more). Mash as per BIAB destructions, remove the bag, etc and top up to your boil volume with plain water and start your boil.
6) Boil for 60mins minimum or 90mins if you can (just make sure you put your boil time into the software!), and the excess wort will evaporate (evap rates are usually between 9%-15% per hour) leaving you with very close to 33odd Litres worth of sweet wort.
7) [I'm assuming you don't own any sort of chiller, and you'll be using the 'no-chill' method] If you choose split your wort into no-chill cubes, just run off 15L to each sanitised cube or the whole lot into a big cube if you have one!.
8) Let the hot wort sit in the cubes overnight to come down down to room temp, then dump into your fermentor with as much splashing as possible [slight tangent to point 8a] top up with plain/filtered/other water to your desired volume and ferment as normal.
8a) I tend to take a gravity reading from the fermentor BEFORE I add my top-up water. This way I can add as much or little top-up water as I need to get my desired colour or alcohol volume. Beersmith has a "dilution tool" to help with the calcs.
Anyway mate, hope this makes sense. Let us know if you have any questions.
Good luck, and let us know how you go!
:chug: :super:
Tim
