claypot said:
Hey All,
First of all thanks to all who have gone before and giving your time to report back here.
Here a couple of things I have done on my rig that may suit others looking for other options.
For the bottom malt pipe seal I used a pressure cooker seal from eBay -$5 or so. You would need to be handy with a MIG welder but.
For the top clamp I used a removable brace. Will try to upload pics.
I've used a 3 way valve - $30 eBay to divert to counter flow chiller after boil. All in all it looks a lot more shitier than I'd planned but it wasn't making beer while I deliberated over how to make it look better!
I've been collecting parts for ages now and often think I should of just bought one. But where's the fun in that! All the stainless I had at home, so if you had to buy it, it may not be cost effective.
Now to try and attach pics, Cheers,
Hey All,
Just a recap on my unit. Here:
http://aussiehomebrewer.com/topic/57924-braumeister-nextgen-build/page-83#entry1196086
The slotted lid eventually bent and failed so got some 5mm stainless plate and slotted it with super thin cut off wheels. I have had to add as many slots as possible to get more flow. As I was getting grain compaction and even with the strong set up the lid was still lifting enough to spew grain out.
The efficiency has been pretty crap also, best I had was around 65%.
The best was on a hightail ale clone, the first I have done with any darker grains.
This got me thinking maybe the mash water PH. So added a teaspoon of gypsum to the next pale brew seemed to get a better efficiency but not great.
So I'm in the process of building a new malt pipe. As the first was only around 17 lts. This time using a Big W one, with a spatter screen at the bottom instead of the cut slots.
I found a surround from an old stainless chimney flue that was perfect so migged that to the bottom of the pot so I could keep the whirlpool fitting. I even found that I could fit the pressure cooker seal to the bottom and seems to seal well although not mashed with it yet.
So I'm hoping that my efficiency will improve.
My mash has always been:
Mash in at single temp as below. Stir in well in 25 lt tap water (Adelaide)
1 - 1.2 hrs long @ single step of 66 to 72 deg depending on recipe.
Mash out @ 76 -78 deg. - 10 min.
Sparge 7 lts @ 78 deg
I was lead to believe that little was to be gained in efficiency by multi step mashing when using modern grains so only ever done single steps.
I have tried stopping the mash and stirring several times but didn't improve things.
The other thing is I only have a on / off switch for the pump so wondering if there's channelling going on as I only stop the pump 10 - 15 times as I happen to pass during the mash.
It seems I could sparge for some time more and still have good runnings.
One of my reasons for going 1V was to get away from sparging and taking too much time up.
Some numbers from one of the best ones-
4.8 kg vienna
0.5 munich 1
0.2 caramunich
1 teaspoon gypsum.
1 hr @ 67 deg
Sparge 10 lt @ 78 deg.
SG after mash 1.045
23.5 lt into fermenter @ 1.049
Any thoughts much appreciated
Cheers Clayton.
