Bragging Time - First Ag On The Weekend

[Airgead]

Folks

After 3 months of building gear I finally made the first AG Oatmeal stout yesterday -

Brewstand - check (finished on Saturday)
Chiller - check (also finished Saturday)
Kettle with tap - check
Mash esky with slotted copper manifold - check
Large pot and electric hotplate for HLT - check

Right.. on to brew

Strangebrew said 14l at 76 degrees to hit a mash in temp of 66 so 14l at 76 degrees went in. In went 4kg JW ale malt and 1/2gk coles organic instant oats. Stired. Checked temp and what do you know - 66 degrees. Spot on. Lid on and wrapped the esky in blankets to help with temp stability.

Left to mash for 60 mins then added the dark grains (having read that mashing them for too long can extract tanins and stuff). Checked temp - 65 degrees. Excellent. In went 300g JW chocolate and 600g JW roast barley. Time for the first mistake of the day. Left the thermometer propped up in the esky for a minute to see what adding the extra grains did to the temp. One small sploosh later and I am sans thermomenter for the rest of the mash. I didn't feel like fishing around for it as broken thermometer was not on my recipe sheet.

Mashed for another 30 mins than added 5l of boiling water to get it up to 76 degrees for mashout. Actual temp - ??? I'm sure the thermometer was reading it perfectly but I just couldn't see it through 6 inches of grain.

Time to sparge. Opened the tap. New manifiold works like a charm. Runoff was clear within 1/2 litre. Started running into the kettle. Good fast flow even with the oats. Start fly sparging.

Arrrrggghhh.... need bigger pot for sparge water. I was taking out 1 or 2l to sparge with then adding 1 or 2l of tap water to top the pot up again. The electric hotplate wasn't fast enough to heat it so my sparge water was dropping in temp rapidly. By the time I had my final volume It was nearly room temp. Oh well. Note to self for next time. Use bigger pot.

Started boil with my new 4 ring burner. Wait. Wait some more. Put NASA burrner on wish list. Wait more. Ahhh.. finally. Boil 30 mins then add 60g fuggles for the remaining 60 mins. I was assuming a 20% loss during the boil. It was actually around 10 so I now have too much wort to fit in the fermenter. No time to boil longer, its getting dark and I need the gas bottle to cook the BBQ. I'll just chill and will have to dump the excess as I don't have a spare fermenter *sob*.

Fire up the chiller. Fantastic. 9m imersion chiller. Boy it cools quickly. Discover a problem - a pinhole in my solder is causing hot water from the out end of the chiller to spray back into the kettle. Bugger. Quickly rig up a screen. Will have to fix that for next time. By this time I have recovered my thermometer from the mash esky so I can see how the cooling is going. From boiling to 22 degrees in under 20 minutes. Great.

Into the fermenter. pitch yeast. Done.

A bit on the low side OG wise due to my mis-calculation in volume but still well within spec. The calculations show 75% efficiency which I figure isn't bad for a first go.

Well done me. Pat self on back. Cook BBQ. Drink several beers to celebrate.

Couldn't have done it without you guys. The fact that things went so smoothly is a testament to the incredible wealth of collective knowledge here. In a couple of weeks when its all done I'll raise a glass to everyone here.

Cheers
Dave

 

[joecast]

that 75% is very good efficiency considering a miscalculation of the boil off. sounds pretty good for a first ag. any brewday is not complete without a few"mishaps".
joe

 

[pint of lager]

Well done Airgead.

Another all grainer.

 

[Jase]

Folks

After 3 months of building gear I finally made the first AG Oatmeal stout yesterday -

Brewstand - check (finished on Saturday)
Chiller - check (also finished Saturday)
Kettle with tap - check
Mash esky with slotted copper manifold - check
Large pot and electric hotplate for HLT - check

.......

Fire up the chiller. Fantastic. 9m imersion chiller. Boy it cools quickly. Discover a problem - a pinhole in my solder is causing hot water from the out end of the chiller to spray back into the kettle. Bugger. Quickly rig up a screen. Will have to fix that for next time. By this time I have recovered my thermometer from the mash esky so I can see how the cooling is going. From boiling to 22 degrees in under 20 minutes. Great.

Cheers
Dave

[post="70637"][/post]​

Any pics of chiller???

Cheers,
Jase

 

[Airgead]

[

Any pics of chiller???

Cheers,
Jase

[post="70691"][/post]​

Unfortunately I lack a digital camera so no pics. Its pretty simple though - half a roll of 3/8 soft copper pipe wrapped around a 4l paint tin. The bottom of the coil was then bent round and up through the middle of the coil. Both ends were then bent over so they would hang outside the kettle. Solder a 3/8 inch screw fitting to each end then step that up to 3/4 inch to take a brass snap on hose fitting.

I'll see if I can dig up a digital camera and take some shots later.

Cheers
Dave

 

[cubbie]

I just made my immersion chiller on sunday. Used about 17m of 1/2" copper. I figured the large diameter would have great effeciency, plus it was easy then to use hose clamps and a regular quick disconnect.

What are the thoughts on 3/8" (which was actually what I went in to buy)
and 1/2" (what I came out with)

 

[Gough]

G'day Cubbie,

I think the 3/8" would be slightly more efficient, but I use 1/2" and have been happy with mine. The ease of the fittings won me over

Shawn.

 

[Airgead]

I just made my immersion chiller on sunday. Used about 17m of 1/2" copper. I figured the large diameter would have great effeciency, plus it was easy then to use hose clamps and a regular quick disconnect.

What are the thoughts on 3/8" (which was actually what I went in to buy)
and 1/2" (what I came out with)

[post="70894"][/post]​

The fittings for 3/8 are an absolute pain the the #$%#. I would probably do it out of 1/2 next time.

Cheers
Dave

 

[Brizbrew]

I just made my immersion chiller on sunday. Used about 17m of 1/2" copper. I figured the large diameter would have great effeciency, plus it was easy then to use hose clamps and a regular quick disconnect.

What are the thoughts on 3/8" (which was actually what I went in to buy)
and 1/2" (what I came out with)

[post="70894"][/post]​

The fittings for 3/8 are an absolute pain the the #$%#. I would probably do it out of 1/2 next time.

Cheers
Dave

[post="71083"][/post]​

I made an immersion chiller from 3/8 last week and found it very east, and for me, being tool challenged that is saying something.

I just rolled as normal and then cut one of those brass hose connectors (Bunnings) in half and soldered it on using my NASA burner to provide the heat.

Nice water tight job and I can just use the hoselock fittings now to click on and off.
:super:

 

[lou]

hi ya brizbrew

i am in brisvegas also - what did you pay fr the copper and where did you get it?

lou

 

[Jye]

Hey lou,

I got a roll of 3/8 (about 18m) from Chapman Industries for $60.

210 Ewing Rd, Woodridge, 32088222

Hope this helps

 

[Brizbrew]

I paid $68 for an 18M roll from a local plumbing place, that seemed like a very good price to me.
I made a main chiller using around 14M of the roll and made a small pre chiller which I will dunk into a bucket of ice during the hotter weather and hopefully bring the temp down to a pitchable temp.

Today I did a full dry run of my system and noticed that it got the boiling water down to 35C very quickly but from there down it really struggled, I might just use that pre chiller year round. My water temp from the cold tap was around 22C today.

 

[Borret]

I just made my immersion chiller on sunday. Used about 17m of 1/2" copper. I figured the large diameter would have great effeciency, plus it was easy then to use hose clamps and a regular quick disconnect.

What are the thoughts on 3/8" (which was actually what I went in to buy)
and 1/2" (what I came out with)

[post="70894"][/post]​

The fittings for 3/8 are an absolute pain the the #$%#. I would probably do it out of 1/2 next time.

Cheers
Dave

[post="71083"][/post]​

I made an immersion chiller from 3/8 last week and found it very east, and for me, being tool challenged that is saying something.

I just rolled as normal and then cut one of those brass hose connectors (Bunnings) in half and soldered it on using my NASA burner to provide the heat.

Nice water tight job and I can just use the hoselock fittings now to click on and off.
:super:

[post="71104"][/post]​

Yep the 3/8 fits straight up the guts of a brass hose fitting without modification. too easy. Refer to Chiller Art thread for images.

10-4

Borret :blink:

 

[Airgead]

Today I did a full dry run of my system and noticed that it got the boiling water down to 35C very quickly but from there down it really struggled, I might just use that pre chiller year round. My water temp from the cold tap was around 22C today.

[post="71137"][/post]​

Briz

I put a lot of my chiller's performance down to the the frigid water we are getting in Hornsby at the moment. You can just about hear the ice clinking as you run it out of the tap.

I'm sure it won't do as well in summer.

Cheers
Dave