Dry Run On New Ag Setup

[fergi]

i have just finished a dry run"wet" on my new double batch setup.

70 liter beerbelly kettle
53 liter igloo mash tun
40 liter HLT.

NOW ASSUMING ALL MY PREVIOUS "OOPS CAPS" volumes will change i ran through a dry run with water.

i need 42 liters into my fermenter
so i started with 75 deg water from my HLT , this used to give me 66deg in my mash tun with 5kg grain added, this would keep that temp for the hour mash.

with my new 53 liter MT i poured the 75 deg water in but this settled straight away to 65 deg, this was without any grain.
after 60 mins it had dropped to 64 deg, a drop in an hour of 2 deg. will the addition of around 10kg of grain keep the temp more stable, ie closer to my 66 deg mash temp, also will i need to raise my strike water temp by a couple of deg to settle on 66 deg mash temp.

i put 52 liters of water into my kettle , boiled it for 60 mins and came out with 44 liters,
this an 8 liter boil off or around 15% approx.
the 44 liters is around the mark for getting 42 liters into my fermenter and allowing a bit of trub etc left in the kettle.

anyone used this size setup that has any ideas or volumes that may be handy,
i am probably looking for water into mash tun and absorbtion of water into grain,i think i can get around the mark with the amount of sparge water i will need but any info may be helpful if you use this size system.
cheers fergi

 

[Adam Howard]

What brewing software are you using? My new system is 40L Crown Urn HLT, 60L esky mashtun and 70L kettle.

Beersmith 2 gives all the volumes I need, I make sure I have more water in the HLT than I need for the steps and use the refractometer at each step.

BS 2 also factors in grain absorption for mashing.

 

[mxd]

hopefully by dry run you mean you did a brew without drinking ?

 

[mxd]

in my drunken stuper,

you get hlt to 75, you put 10 kg of grain in you add 30 + ltrs (keep filling till your mash temp or full) of water in from hlt whilst stirring, when at temp stop, close lid get a beer, an hour or so later, recirc to clear, drain to kettle. add heat to kettle, measure volume in kettle then add 80 degree water from hlt ( the volume being vol in kettle - 48) give a good stir, get 4th beer (notice a mash time is 3 beers) stir, drink beer, recirculate till clear, drain into kettle, hopefully it's 48 ltrs (assuming double batch) start the rolling boil (N.B its a rolling boil not a vigorous boil) add hops etc.. drain to cube clean get 9th beer (notice a brew day is 9 beers, sometimes ponies but more often pints)

 

[fergi]

well you cant make beer without drinking some,

havent used beersmith it seems too complicated, i cant get my kettle size to 70 liters, keeps coming up with 70 liter biab, cant seem to change that.


i usually do my mash with 3 evenly divided amounts of water, for my 23 liter version i do 11PLUS 11 PLUS 11 LITERS FOR MASH AND SPARGING,so i am thinking for a double batch i probably will need 22/22/22 liters in mash tun and sparging with approx 10 liters for absorbtion.


fergi

 

[asis]

Hi Fergi

My system is similar as far as evaporation goes. 98 litre gas fired kettle with a consistent 8 litres/hour.

My HLT is a converted 18 gallon keg and mash tun is a 50 litre keg that drains from the bottom with basically zero dead space. Maybe a litre or so is lost to the pump and herms coil and around 2-3 in the kettle (nice tight trub cone thanks to brewbrite)

For 44 litres to fermenters I us 67 litres, mash in with around 30 and sparge with the remainder. Grain absorption is somewhere around .8L/kg.

My numbers are from experience and knowing my own system, as long as you are close for the first brew you can fine tune it from there.

Cheers

Adam

 

[fergi]

Hi Fergi

My system is similar as far as evaporation goes. 98 litre gas fired kettle with a consistent 8 litres/hour.

My HLT is a converted 18 gallon keg and mash tun is a 50 litre keg that drains from the bottom with basically zero dead space. Maybe a litre or so is lost to the pump and herms coil and around 2-3 in the kettle (nice tight trub cone thanks to brewbrite)

For 44 litres to fermenters I us 67 litres, mash in with around 30 and sparge with the remainder. Grain absorption is somewhere around .8L/kg.

My numbers are from experience and knowing my own system, as long as you are close for the first brew you can fine tune it from there.

Cheers

Adam

ok thanks for that adam, sounds like my figures are around the mark,
just a bit of fine tuning after the first proper brew.
cheers fergi