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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
