Brau Clone - What are you using for a Malt pipe?

[neo__04]

Hey all,

Just finished by Brau Clone build. I've used a 100l craftbrewer pot & a 19l bigw pot as the malt pipe.

I was doing some calculation on the Brau Volume scenario tester spreadsheet for my setup, and unless i've done something wrong, it seems the 19l pot will only take like 3.8kg of grain.
Does that sound right?

I know a few people have used a 19l pot at some stage, what size grain bills were you getting?

I've just got everything finished now looks like i need a bigger malt pipe for a normal 23 litre brew.

Am I just confused here or have i done something wrong?

Any info would be great!

 

[lael]

Hi neo,
Easy calc - divide the malt pipe capacity between the two plates by 2.8. 17l/2.8 = appx 6kg max grain bill. Of course don't crush too fine and you want to make sure you have enough water to cover your elements. I did 6kg in mine once with the BigW, but had issues with reduced flow and had to nurse it. I'd crushed too fine. Not worth the extra time and effort and you lose efficiency.

Long answer - use the spreadsheet.

 

[MastersBrewery]

I had mine custom made, I'm also using the CB 100L as my main vessel. Genuine BM malt pipes and plates can be bought from G&G if you want the easy way out, or find a pot that suits for volume, get perf and cut to size or have made to fit.

My small malt pipe is 32 L between plates and the big one 50L ( both yet to be run in anger ) the small will do a double standard strength, the large a triple.


If I'm going to spend hours making beer I may as well make some beer, is how I see it

MB

 

[NealK]

I have gone up to 6.5kg in my BigW 19l malt pipe. The efficiency was not great but good enough.
My grain bills are usually 5 - 5.5kg and my efficiency is about 75%.

 

[dug]

I'm cutting down an old keg to about 25L, after playing around with the spread sheet i think it should work.

 

[angus_grant]

I just did a 5.75kg IPA Friday night. Haven't done the numbers yet but I am normally getting around 90% mash efficiency. Doubt I would have got that for this IPA though.

I drilled a bunch of tiny holes in bottom of Big W pot, stainless mesh bolted to bottom of pot, and 2 Whitworth SS veggy plates clamped together (with mesh in between) on top of Big W by wing-nut and threaded rod. It's all in the thread in my signature.

3.8kg doesn't sound right unless you are losing a lot of volume in the pot due to your filter setup.

 

[neo__04]

All good, I worked it out.

There was a spot in the spreadsheet where you could put a vertical height the mash can be. I changed that
and the max grain bill lifted.

Did a brew on the weekend with 4.5kg grain no drama.

Efficiency was bad. But it was the first run