Crown Urn

[captaincleanoff]

yeh.. i've only used it once, and this pissed me off too

 

[afromaiko]

Can anyone please tell me:

1. the litres of dead space below the sightglass?

2. the litres of dead space below the tap?

Cheers

 

[Pollux]

I know that if you leave the tap open and let it drain the point where it ceases to drain leaves 2L behind.....

No idea on the sight glass.

 

[crundle]

Can anyone please tell me:

1. the litres of dead space below the sightglass?

2. the litres of dead space below the tap?

Cheers

I marked my urn in 5 litre increments with cold water when I got it, and I used my fermenter to measure out those 5 litres each time, so at least for cold water it should be fairly accurate.

I find that where the sightglass finishes I still have about 15 litres in the urn, and about 2 litres below the tap (I tilt to get it all out and filter the last 2 litres through a pool filter to use as a starter or reintroduce to the cube if my final volume was a bit low.

Hope that helps,

Crundle

 

[afromaiko]

Thanks for the info.

15L, wow that's heaps below the sight glass that you can't measure then. I didn't realise it would be that much.

So in order to measure out the mash in water for a single batch it seems like you'd need to heat up about 30 litres.

 

[Thirsty Boy]

There was a whole thread about how to fix this issue with the crown urns - including pictures on how to make the mod etc. I believe that Lethalcorpse even ran his eyes over the pictures of the mod and failed to pronounce it a deathtrap - so that's confidence inspiring. Here's the thread. - A fix for Crown Urn Boiling issues - Naturally, I recommend you get a sparkie to perform this operation... as with any electrical work.

As for point 3 - should you mash with a more "normal" L:G ratio.... well, it will make your life a little harder and more complex, and I don't think you will get any better beer as a result. But you could if you wanted, seeing as you already have a 20L urn.

If you just add the extra water at the end, and dont use it as a separate "sparge" step you would get:

A quick change to the mashout/lauter temp
Whatever possible benefit there is to mashing with a "normal" L:G (I believe minimal to none)
Probably slightly lower efficiency than if you mashed with the whole volume

If you sparge with the reserved volume of water. You would be best served by either dunk sparging or batch sparging (drain the liquid, add more, stir and drain again) - the bags are not the appropriate tool for continuous sparging and if you try to pour the liquid through them... they sparge quite poorly. You would get :

Slightly better efficiency (maybe)
The ability to do bigger batches, longer boils or higher gravity beers (less volume in the tun at any given point)
Faster ramp to mashout (but not as fast as the other option)
The need for another vessel (just a bucket) if you choose batch rather than dunk sparge (might still need it for the dunk??)

Or something like that anyway - you are lucky, you already have the 20L urn so your life is full of options. I suggest you start with some nice stock BIAB brews, learn how your urn works and just get a few under your belt. THEN... try everything.

At a guess, I reckon you might end up with a process that resembles BribieG's. That would be pretty easy for you to do and is obviously effective given the medals that Bribies has been winning recently.

For me - BIAB works remarkably well in its simplest form, so I wouldn't bother with any sparging or other mucking about, unless you have a concrete reason for it. But you get to try em all without extra expense.. so have fun!

TB

 

[smollocks]

My measurements on the Crown urn show about 8L left under the sightglass. I only have confidence in my measurements to the nearest litre or two, but there's no way it's 15L!

Since Thirsty Boy has brought up the electrical modification to get a stronger boil from the Crown urn, I'll just say again that I've now done 5 AG brews on the Crown urn, each with a 90 minute boil, and have experienced this problem only once. The boil is strong and consistent and my evaporation rate is reproducible at 11%. It seems to have become accepted fact around here, but to my knowledge there are only 5 people or fewer who have experienced the cutting off boil, and it probably warrants further investigation.

 

[EK]

As a 40L Crown Urn BIAB'er:
1. No need to worry about the sight glass, I don't think that amount of water would be a problem, especially if you no chill.
2. I use the standard tap and add some silicon hose from Ross/Craftbrewer and secure it with a hose clamp from the hardware store. I clean it well and I put it on before I brew. I coil it up into a small ice cream bucket to keep it clean while brewing. Then I uncoil it into a jerry for no chilling/water bath chilling.
3. Don't know enough to comment on this one. I add all the water at the beginning and go from there. I have only got 3 AG BIAB brews behind me at the moment, so I will leave this for more experienced brewers to answer.
4. I use a teflon safe scourer to remove anything stubborn and just boil and wipe to remove the rest...I clean it pretty quickly after I empty the urn.

I marked my urn in 5 litre increments with cold water when I got it, and I used my fermenter to measure out those 5 litres each time, so at least for cold water it should be fairly accurate.

I find that where the sightglass finishes I still have about 15 litres in the urn, and about 2 litres below the tap (I tilt to get it all out and filter the last 2 litres through a pool filter to use as a starter or reintroduce to the cube if my final volume was a bit low.

Hope that helps,

Crundle

I marked my urn in 5L increments as well...though the first mark on the sight glass is a little above the start of it and that is the 10L mark. There should only be about 2L below the tap, but I'd say about 7 or 8L below the sight.

:icon_cheers:
EK

 

[crundle]

Ah crap, in that case I will have to go out and test it again tomorrow to check my measurements, though it wont change the amount of water I mash in, but would be nice to know what it reads a bit more accurately.

Crundle

 

[EK]

Ah crap, in that case I will have to go out and test it again tomorrow to check my measurements, though it wont change the amount of water I mash in, but would be nice to know what it reads a bit more accurately.

Crundle

I used a carbouy with litre marks cast into the side of it for the measurements. It seemed accurate enough.

:icon_cheers:
EK

 

[Pollux]

Since Thirsty Boy has brought up the electrical modification to get a stronger boil from the Crown urn, I'll just say again that I've now done 5 AG brews on the Crown urn, each with a 90 minute boil, and have experienced this problem only once. The boil is strong and consistent and my evaporation rate is reproducible at 11%. It seems to have become accepted fact around here, but to my knowledge there are only 5 people or fewer who have experienced the cutting off boil, and it probably warrants further investigation.

For what it's worth, I never noticed the cutting out at first, but for some reason the more brews I did the worse the boil got.....No idea why, I scrub the inside after after brew so it shouldn't be a build up of gunk.....

 

[crundle]

For what it's worth, I never noticed the cutting out at first, but for some reason the more brews I did the worse the boil got.....No idea why, I scrub the inside after after brew so it shouldn't be a build up of gunk.....

It has done it on and off with my urn for every brew it seems, sometimes it would be boiling quite nicely then just stop and cool down a bit, to start up again. Now with the mod no such issues, it boils constantly and strongly. I agree it is unlikely to be gunk buildup on the base causing the issue, and I make sure to clean the temperature sensor after each brew also.

Crundle

 

[bullsneck]

Re: Measuring the amount of water below the tap/sightglass.

You could weigh the empty urn. Then fill to just below the tap, weigh again and record. Fill to the sightglass, weigh and record.

1L = 1kg so just do the conversion.

 

[bullsneck]

Just don't forget to take-away the weight of the urn!

 

[Mikedub]

(I gotta tell someone)

woohoo, I pick up my new 40L Crown Urn tonight on the way home,

 

[Bribie G]

Gotta bag yet? :icon_chickcheers:

 

[Mikedub]

yep,
will also need to pick up a cube this weekend,

goodbye 20L pot teetering in an icebath - hello no chill

 

[Mikedub]

taking my new shiny urn for its first run today, 5.2kg grain, 90m mash at 66,
#*$@#...an intimidating OG1.036, (adjusted for temp) efficiency at 50%, might have to break the no drinking while brewing rule

...now where did I put that DME :angry:

 

[Bribie G]

Mike, I'd double check that hydro - what does it read in cold plain water? <_<

 

[Mikedub]

cheers, checked it, its 1.000,
only lost 0.5 degree during mash, 33L strike water, sparged 3L at 75, OG measured 1.024 @54degress, so Beer Smith gives me 1.037 @20 degrees, I've miscalulated somewhere, I used 750g (18%) Minute Oats, perhaps they didnt shed their goodness like Id hoped