Finished Stage 1 Of My Mash Tun

[BrissyBrew]

Ok I must admit I have been slack. I finally got around to finishing off my mash tun. I have waiting to buy some pickling gel first to clean up the stainless steel welds. Now that is done, I thought I would post some pics of my false bottom and my mash tun.

My drain is centred at the lowest point of the keg. It is able to drain every last drop of wort. The false bottom is a perforated stainless steel plate that is dished in shape. I have a brass (would like to upgrade to SS on day) stem that screws into the drain socket, the stem has a number of holes drilled in it so there is an even pull into the drain hole. Above the drilled part of the stem are two nuts that hold the false bottom in place. Above that this is a long stem I could not be bothered cutting off. The stem makes a nice handle to screw the false bottom in. Note that the false bottom is slightly smaller that the keg. This means that the edges are drawn in a little from the sides of the keg to avoid channelling down the side. The shape at the bottom results in an oval type pocked being created due to the concave and convex shapes of the perforated false bottom and the kegs bottom. The false bottom does not move once screwed into place.

 

[Franko]

where did you get that false bottom brissybrew

 

[manaen]

Nice .. very nice.

Are you taking orders for them

 

[Tony]

very nice.

What did u insulate it with.

cheers

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

Looks like one of them thin camp mattresseseses things

 

[Ross]

Queensland finally has someone to give borret a run for his money

Fantastic engineering Brizzybrew :super: - My setup looks more archaic every day...

Cheers Ross

 

[BrissyBrew]

The false bottom is from grain and grape (I finally spilt the beans for one).

The deadspace is less than 1L when it looses suction, will drain to about 200ml left, probably less if I was assed drilling some more holes. But really, without overextraction being a priority I dont think the small dead space will be. Even flow through the grain bed was what I had in mind.

The insulation (a couple camping mats from big W, boy I love working next door to Big W) is a temporary fix (meaning I will have it for a year or so). Long term options include, one container inside another and filling with foam, or foam rubber plus a nice timber finish.

If you note there is two more sockets on my MT, both plugged at present. I plan to put a sight gauge on the MT so I can monitor to suction/water level if I decide to try fly sparging.

 

[warrenlw63]

Nice tun BB. Your FB looks familiar. :lol:

Considering the SS units are only a couple of dollars dearer than the plastic Phil's jobs they're great value for money.

Really happy with mine too. :beerbang:

Warren -

 

[BennyBrewster]

Wish i could weld stainless

good job !

 

[Lukes]

BrissyBrew
You have inspired me as my my esky is looking a little sad these days.

Looks like im going to G&G next weekend for a stainless FB.

Luke

 

[BrissyBrew]

I popped my all grain cheery yesterday and put down a basic ale

Batch Size: 23.00 L
Boil Size: 28.53 L
Boil Time: 60 min Equipment: My Equipment
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.0

Ingredients

Amount Item Type % or IBU
5.00 kg Pale Malt, Traditional Ale (Joe White) (3.0 SRM) Grain 100.0 %
45.00 gm Pride of Ringwood [13.00%] (30 min) Hops 35.7 IBU
70.00 gm Northdown [5.80%] (15 min) Hops 14.1 IBU
28.00 gm Goldings, East Kent [5.00%] (5 min) Hops 3.0 IBU
500ml Cooper Ale (Coopers #-) [Cultured] Yeast-Ale


Beer Profile

Est Original Gravity: 1.051 SG
Measured Original Gravity: 1.041 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.012 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 5.1 %
Bitterness: 52.8 IBU
Est Color: 4.8 SRM

Mash Profile
Mash Name: Single Infusion, Batch Sparge Total Grain Weight: 5.00 kg

Name Description Step Temp Step Time
Mash In Add 12.50 L of water at 73.8 C 67.0 C 60 min
Mash Out Add 7.30 L of water at 93.8 C 76.0 C 10 min

Sparge Water: 16.24 L Grain Temperature: 22.2 C
Sparge Temperature: 75.6 C TunTemperature: 22.2 C
Adjust Temp for Equipment: TRUE Mash PH: 5.4 PH

So how did it perform?

I heated the mash in water in the tun so I did not need to work out the thermal mass, just dipped the immersion heater in until it read 74 C and poured the grains in on top with a little stir. No dough balls. I mashed for 60mins, no temperature loss in that time. I used the bottom of a 19L pot I have as a lid, I filled the pot with some hot water from the tap and sat it on top of the hole in the top of the keg.

I can run off the hot liquor at full open and the grain bed does not compact, it did however slow at one stage when I sparged. Now I know the sparge can take up to 45mins so should I slow my sparge down? I also had problems clearing the beer; I did recirculate by hand a number of litres. As I have not made a return manifold as yet I was pouring the water in through large slotted spoon so it would sprinkle back in instead of drilling a channel through the grains.

My concerns to date:
-drained way too fast, maybe I need to slow the flow rate, or can I get away with this, or is the fast flow rate on of the reasons I had problems clearing the run off. Am I worrying about nothing?
-Fast run off what is the effect of efficiency?

Any other comments.

 

[dreamboat]

What was your efficiency??
If you are getting 80% or more, then maybe you do not need to change your sparge rate. Sure you may get a slightly better efficiency, but at the cost of maybe another 30 mins on your brew day.... depends on how much time you have to spare I guess.


dreamboat

 

[roach]

BB,
congrats on the first AG. That beer is going to be very bitter. IBUs prolly should have been half that. Otherwise needed to add a reasonable amount of crystal to balance.

cheers
roach

 

[Jye]

My concerns to date:
-drained way too fast, maybe I need to slow the flow rate, or can I get away with this, or is the fast flow rate on of the reasons I had problems clearing the run off. Am I worrying about nothing?
-Fast run off what is the effect of efficiency?

Hey BrissyBrew,

Its good to hear you didnt get a stuck sparge as I find the mill at the HBS is to fine and have had a stuck sparge a few times.

You didnt say if you were fly or batch sparging, if its fly then yes its to fast, with batch sparging it doesnt matter since you are just rinsing the sugars from the grain. But at first you need to run the sparge slowly otherwise you could have channels forming and you grain bed will not filter very well. I have been doing the same thing as you and will be trying this today for the first time, so I will report back on how it went.

 

[razz]

G'day BB. When I changed to a return manifold and pump my recircs cleared up, I could not believe how much it cleared up ! With this type of system I find that by balanceing the sparge water in and the wort out I can sparge very fast. I always keep the sparge water just above the grain and it doesn't compact. Hope this helps

John

 

[pint of lager]

Brissybrew, welcome to the ag zone.

Watch those POR hops. There has been a fair bit of discussion in earlier threads about POR, some people love them, some hate them.

The general concensus was to use fresh POR and keep their bitterness contribution to 25 IBU's or less.

Nice job on the false bottom.

 

[BrissyBrew]

An old thread, but I thought I would post an update efficient sky rocketed when I removed the 3.5 liters I had for losses in beersmith. Note well set beersmith losses to zero. This problem is well documented elsewhere, I now bach sparge in about 30 min inclusive of all batch offs and recirculation (with no pump), just slowly let it run and open the valve.

Note: stuck sparge when using 70 wheat, (no rice hulls), silly me forgot to pick some up at rosses.

 

[devo]

Ok I must admit I have been slack. I finally got around to finishing off my mash tun. I have waiting to buy some pickling gel first to clean up the stainless steel welds. Now that is done, I thought I would post some pics of my false bottom and my mash tun.

My drain is centred at the lowest point of the keg. It is able to drain every last drop of wort. The false bottom is a perforated stainless steel plate that is dished in shape. I have a brass (would like to upgrade to SS on day) stem that screws into the drain socket, the stem has a number of holes drilled in it so there is an even pull into the drain hole. Above the drilled part of the stem are two nuts that hold the false bottom in place. Above that this is a long stem I could not be bothered cutting off. The stem makes a nice handle to screw the false bottom in. Note that the false bottom is slightly smaller that the keg. This means that the edges are drawn in a little from the sides of the keg to avoid channelling down the side. The shape at the bottom results in an oval type pocked being created due to the concave and convex shapes of the perforated false bottom and the kegs bottom. The false bottom does not move once screwed into place.

That's pretty much they same way I set up my false bottom BB. I noticed you purchased the G+G 12" s/s false bottom from the access slits on your Tuns opening. I had to do the same when I found that this size didn't actually fit through the opening that I had cut?? :huh:

 

[warrenlw63]

That's pretty much they same way I set up my false bottom BB. I noticed you purchased the G+G 12" s/s false bottom from the access slits on your Tuns opening. I had to do the same when I found that this size didn't actually fit through the opening that I had cut?? :huh:

:lol: I've got the 12" same thing dawned upon me at the last minute too... Gotta love the slits. Beats crazy ideas like cutting in half and hinging. :blink:

Warren -

 

[Lukes]

I have the same false bottom from G&G in the tun, drain to the centre underneath and it is a sweet set up.

- Luke
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