Cleanup Procedure

[mesa]

So my mash tun is a 55L willow with a slotted copper manifold. To clean it I use a jug to scoop jugfull after jugfull of hot spent grains into a garbage bag which goes into the bin (not enough room to compost all that grain at my place). This is both a PitA and makes for a low efficiency system (the copper manifold is not siphoning the last of the sweet wort from the bottom of the esky).

So I'm looking for suggestions on how to make things easier. Do other people have garbage bags wide enough to fit over the top of the esky and they just upend the whole thing? Or do I just get a bigger jug? The other option I'm considering is putting a BiaB bag in the esky so that I can lift it off the bottom and give it a squeeze. Should reduce the amount of water left in the grain and raise efficiency, and maybe I can do something like put the whole BiaB in a garbage bag and pull the bag out and leave the grain behind? Any comments?

 

[Darren]

Hi Meso,

Simply add more sparge water. Once you have extracted all the sugar (well as much as possible) it does not matter how much water remains in the bottom.

I usually stop sparging when the gravity of the run-off reaches 1.010

cheers

Darren

 

[Goofinder]

I think I scooped the grains out once, but after that I just used to upend my esky into the garbage bin. The grains stink for a bit and you get heaps of bugs out of them but my bins are collected on Monday and I usually brew on the weekend so it wasn't that bad.

Now I've decided to try and use the compost heap (never bothered before because it always dries out too much here in Adelaide). Again, just upending it over the bin, then a bit of water swished around to get the rest out.

 

[Kleiny]

Jug by Jug

but its a small price for the good AG Beer :icon_drool2:

 

[Fourstar]

i dump all my grain onto the front garden. The roses are surrounded by a think barley crust! Give the mash tun a bit of a rinse and roberto's you're mothers sisters husband!

As for decreasing you're deadspace i can only suggest getting a false bottom or making a manifold from some braid and either securing it to the base of the tun (if thats possible without causing leaks) or do as i do and have the nipple connected to the ball valve bent on an hangle when sparging ensuring the manifold is on the base of the tun.

As long as you are mixing the mash well and sparging slow, you're effieiency will probably be as good as you're equiptment allows. batch spargning will also assist in getting you're efficiency up.

 

[Barramundi]

put the whole lot mash tun and all into the car and go empty it into the council garbage bin near my boat club which gets emptied daily ....

 

[haysie]

A lot of questions will derive a lot of answers,

1, You say cleaning jug by jug? tip the lot in bin, the lawn(dont burn the grass better wait til during your boil when it has cooled down) the chook run etc.
2. How much sweet wort is the manifold not siphoning? my falsie leaves a litre behind, anymore and I may look at the system otherwise???????? continue on soldier!
3. Use the fractometer as Darren said, you just need a good source of heated water too keep your sparge temp up and have excess.

Tipping no refractomer, so maybe try running off a little hotter, i.e "mashout". Good luck with it.

 

[mesa]

Thanks guys,

Tipping the whole lot in the bin sounds the way (I guess I've just been wary because I've had the manifold fall apart once )

I am batch sparging ATM (I build the manifold after reading "How to Brew", before discovering AHB and the joys of batch). Based on both gravity of the second and third runnings using an average grain absorption figure (I think it was 1.5L/kg) and water out to water in (again based on the 1.5L/kg figure) the manifold appears to be leaving behind about 2L (Having said that I only did the experiment once on a 40L batch, I should vary the batch size so that I know my grain absorption figure is correct). In a 40L batch this is no big deal, but in a smaller batch its a bit of a pain.

As for tipping it on the lawn rather than the bin ... I think the puppy got a hold of a few handfuls of spent grain that missed the garbage bag on the weekend and had a tummy ache for the next 12 hours. I hate to think how he would be if he had 8kg sitting there for him to eat

 

[raven19]

You can rig up a frame that allows the mash tun to be rotated (like Sqyres), or this one discussed again today...

http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/inde...16391&st=60

 

[sinkas]

i dump all my grain onto the front garden. The roses are surrounded by a think barley crust!

That must mell wonderful for the first week post dumping, bet it keeps the jehovas witnessess away though.

Mesa I will happily have you dump the grain in our rolly composter after the next batch, as the feed of grain into our garden has dried up.

Hate to see it going into land fill

 

[Fents]

i just pick the whole esky up (same willow 55L) and dump it on the garden....learnt my lesson about 4 weeks ago tho....mash tun full of grain and i mean full...9KG's i think.

Picked it up, walked it over to where i was dumping it, lifted it up with all my weight to up end it and them SNAP! one of the handles broke and with all my force polus a bit extra i ended up pucnhing myself in the jaw so hard, i dropped the mash tun and instantly floored myself on the ground grabbing my chin just wondering WTF had just happened. now i've been in a few scraps in my time and i can tell you i've never been hit so hard, my jaw was bruised for days.

 

[Bribie G]

I'd go for the biab bag idea, the material would cost you less than ten bucks and as you aren't actually doing a 'real' biab brew you could get away without employing a seamstress or seamguy (PC ) - just gather it up like a huge hanky.

Also if you have a skyhook, get a five dollar awning pulley so you can raise the whole thing using a hangmans noose and let it drain thoroughly for a tad more efficiency but much easier to handle.

 

[reviled]

I'd go for the biab bag idea, the material would cost you less than ten bucks and as you aren't actually doing a 'real' biab brew you could get away without employing a seamstress or seamguy (PC ) - just gather it up like a huge hanky.

Also if you have a skyhook, get a five dollar awning pulley so you can raise the whole thing using a hangmans noose and let it drain thoroughly for a tad more efficiency but much easier to handle.

+1, would make it way easy!

 

[enoch]

Now I've decided to try and use the compost heap (never bothered before because it always dries out too much here in Adelaide). Again, just upending it over the bin, then a bit of water swished around to get the rest out.

Add a shovelful of Dynamic Lifter and it goes ballistic. A great way to warm up the compost bin.

 

[devo]

Once I've drained off all the wort into the kettle and fired it up I scoop out the spent grain into a 20lt bucket and give it the the folks across the road who happen to have chickens. I then rinse out the tun with a hose and sponge cleaning the inside and whatever is left gets flushed out of the bottom valve into a 10lt bucket positioned underneath.

 

[therook]

i just pick the whole esky up (same willow 55L) and dump it on the garden....learnt my lesson about 4 weeks ago tho....mash tun full of grain and i mean full...9KG's i think.

Picked it up, walked it over to where i was dumping it, lifted it up with all my weight to up end it and them SNAP! one of the handles broke and with all my force polus a bit extra i ended up pucnhing myself in the jaw so hard, i dropped the mash tun and instantly floored myself on the ground grabbing my chin just wondering WTF had just happened. now i've been in a few scraps in my time and i can tell you i've never been hit so hard, my jaw was bruised for days.

LOL @ Fents

Feed mine to the Horses and if there not fast enough all the Cocky's and Galah's have a feast

Rook

 

[Goofinder]

I am batch sparging ATM (I build the manifold after reading "How to Brew", before discovering AHB and the joys of batch). Based on both gravity of the second and third runnings using an average grain absorption figure (I think it was 1.5L/kg) and water out to water in (again based on the 1.5L/kg figure) the manifold appears to be leaving behind about 2L (Having said that I only did the experiment once on a 40L batch, I should vary the batch size so that I know my grain absorption figure is correct). In a 40L batch this is no big deal, but in a smaller batch its a bit of a pain.

I measured 3.5L of dead space in my esky with SS braid (just filled with water, drained, then measured what was left). After adding this in on top of the 1.1L/kg grain absorption I end up hitting my targets pretty well. I think you just need to accept there is a reasonable amount of dead space and factor it into your calculations.