First Urn Biab - Great Experience

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hopnerd

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Morning all,

Had my first run with the 40L Crown Urn yesterday, and I have nothing but good things to say about the whole process. Beats trying to do a half batch BIAB on the stove. I just wanted to share a few ideas for any of the new brewers out there that I found really useful on the day.

I put on a half batch (10L) of McQuaker's Oatmeal Stout (Brewing Classic Styles). Using the BIAB calculator spreadsheet it showed that I needed roughly 20L of strike water. I use iBrewMaster on the iPad for recipe tracking and Mash design, which told me that the strike water had to be roughly 71 deg C for a 68C mash. Hit it bang on.

med_gallery_25060_879_241945.jpg


I bought the urn from one of the members here (you're a champ Wimmig). I've semi-permanently clad it in an old camping mat which has been wrapped in alfoil and protected on the outside by duct tape. I figured the duct tabe would would protect the camp mat from melting and act as a reflector for some of the radiated heat. Worked a charm - I had no trouble maintaining boil while it was 15C outside. During the mash I had it wrapped in a sleeping bag and jacket, and with power off I only lost 0.5 deg C (big thanks to Wimmig for throwing in that German winter jacket in the sale, the urn looks like a little headless Deutscher when wrapped up :icon_cheers: ).

I don't have a roof for a pulley setup so I went to bunnings and picked up a couple of food grade buckets for a makeshift colinder. I really want to give credit to the mastermind behind the original idea but I cant find the original post (feel free to chime in). The buckets are 20L and 11L respectively. They're the same brand so stack perfectly. The holes are roughly 0.5cm in diameter and spaced 3cm apart. I reckon they could be a little larger in diameter, but that's a project for another day.

med_gallery_25060_879_110976.jpg


Start of Boil efficiency looked to be about 70%, not bad for a first effort I reckon. Everything else on the day went according to plan. I now have a 10L cube filled with delicious black liquid ready for pitching.
 
Nice one, mate. Glad you enjoyed the process. I don't have anything overhead to hang the bag from either, so I just drilled holes in a mixing bowl that sits perfectly in the top of my keggle - so I just let it drain (and squeeze it), while the bag acts as a lid to assist with bringing the wort to the boil quicker. I don't know if I'm just lucky or what, but I seem to get over 90% starch conversion every single mash, so I've never bothered with sparging.
 
Glad to hear it went well hop nerd!
 
Nice work Hop Nerd,

Looks like a good rig!!
I popped my urns cherry a couple of weeks back and loved it too.
Duct tape all over is a good idea, my camping mat is really soft.
I put the bag in my old brew pot with a colander to drain.

Urn.jpg
 
Cheers guys,

Jake, love the slot cut in for the sight tube, it really leaves nothing exposed. I should of said that it is the alfoil that relfects the heat back in, not the duct tape. I reckon if the tape came into contact with the hot metal it would turn into a sticky mess.

The only thing that let me down yesterday was the coopers plastic hydro tube. It went limp as soon as I put in some hot. Time to invest in something a little sturdier I think.
 
Well done, it's addictive.

Duct tape- the handymans secret weapon ( for those of you who remember the red green show )
Cheers
sean
 
I use a ladder leaning against a wall to make a portable skyhook, also is easy to tie off the pulley rope to a ladder rung.
 
Morning all,

Had my first run with the 40L Crown Urn yesterday, and I have nothing but good things to say about the whole process. Beats trying to do a half batch BIAB on the stove. I just wanted to share a few ideas for any of the new brewers out there that I found really useful on the day.

I put on a half batch (10L) of McQuaker's Oatmeal Stout (Brewing Classic Styles). Using the BIAB calculator spreadsheet it showed that I needed roughly 20L of strike water. I use iBrewMaster on the iPad for recipe tracking and Mash design, which told me that the strike water had to be roughly 71 deg C for a 68C mash. Hit it bang on.

med_gallery_25060_879_241945.jpg


I bought the urn from one of the members here (you're a champ Wimmig). I've semi-permanently clad it in an old camping mat which has been wrapped in alfoil and protected on the outside by duct tape. I figured the duct tabe would would protect the camp mat from melting and act as a reflector for some of the radiated heat. Worked a charm - I had no trouble maintaining boil while it was 15C outside. During the mash I had it wrapped in a sleeping bag and jacket, and with power off I only lost 0.5 deg C (big thanks to Wimmig for throwing in that German winter jacket in the sale, the urn looks like a little headless Deutscher when wrapped up :icon_cheers: ).

I don't have a roof for a pulley setup so I went to bunnings and picked up a couple of food grade buckets for a makeshift colinder. I really want to give credit to the mastermind behind the original idea but I cant find the original post (feel free to chime in). The buckets are 20L and 11L respectively. They're the same brand so stack perfectly. The holes are roughly 0.5cm in diameter and spaced 3cm apart. I reckon they could be a little larger in diameter, but that's a project for another day.

med_gallery_25060_879_110976.jpg


Start of Boil efficiency looked to be about 70%, not bad for a first effort I reckon. Everything else on the day went according to plan. I now have a 10L cube filled with delicious black liquid ready for pitching.

Nice one hopnerd.
Have you got the Crown exposed element or concealed?
 
Ah that's fantastic to see. I'm so glad it's gone to a great home. .05 to .09 C was about the loss i experienced as well, and i think it's a pretty good outcome for the method.

In terms of a skyhook, like one the above members i've seen good results from a step ladder above the urn. I like the idea of draining then, i assume, returning the wort to the boil with the bag removed. The final brew from it was a saison which is still kicking me about :/
 
Nice one hopnerd.
Have you got the Crown exposed element or concealed?

Concealed. I did a fair bit of reading before purchasing on the boil cut-off problems of the concealed urn, but it looks like those problems only occur with significant crud build up on the element cover. I had a bit of build up on the cover which was pretty easy to remove with a green scrubby while cleaning up. Absolutely no cut-off problems during the 90 min boil.

Deebo - I reckon you're onto something with the ladder, only issue would be convincing the committee that our little two bedroom apartment is in need of a tall ladder. What do you think, go with the 'it's for changing light bulbs' argument?
 
Hi guys, sorry about the zombie thread.
Previously I posted about insulating my urn with aluminium foil. Do not do this. Aluminium and stainless steel have the potential to create a galvanic reaction that may corrode the stainless.
Link: Galvanic Reaction

I am happy to report that there has been no damage to my urn, the insulating layer of foil has no been replaced by cotton.
 
what kind of cotton did you use? did you just grab some from spotlight?
 
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