Going Ag Setup

[glennheinzel]

Thanks Geoff.

Edit: PM'd Eric to discuss offer made below. (Thanks, Eric)

 

[eric8]

Rukh,
I have some spare cubes if you want one.

Eric

 

[glennheinzel]

I am no longer a stranger to the ways of All Grain. Yesterdays brew day went as follows-

* Whilst I had water tested the mash tun, I realised just before that I was due to mash in that I hadn't bought all the required parts to connect the hose tail (with braided hose) to the threaded nipple inside the mash tun. My search for the missing part lead me to Doc's place, but unfortunately he didn't have the appropriate part (Doc - My apologies for interrupting your lunch). I improvised a solution as the inside compression fitting had just enough thread to join the nipple and the hose tail. It was later that day that I discovered DJR had given me the missing fitting when I bought his esky (DJR - Thanks again for the extras that you included with the esky).

* The next issue was how much water to mash in with. Palmer recommends 3-4litres whereas I've seen others recommend 2-3litres. I went for 3 litres.

* The mash tun only lost 1 degree over the hour.

* Batch sparging. What volume should I be batch sparging? I did some searching during the mash time and came up with what I hope was a meaningful number.

* Transferring wort from mash tun to brew pot. The plastic tube that I wanted to use for transferring wort into brew kettle was was too big for the barb. In the end I managed to balance the hose on the barb. There was a regular drip from the mash tun into the kettle, but hopefully HSA won't be an issue due to the small volume. Secondly, the barb opening was quite small and it took ages for the wort to come out (30min+ for each running), or is this a good thing?

* I got 25l into the kettle, which was 2 litres more than expected. I deliberately set my efficiency on the low side so astringency shouldn't be a problem.

* I drained the wort into the NC cube and all was going well, but then the dip tube started to suck dry. I had about 1/2 litre of space in the NC cube to fill so I tipped the brew pot to suck up more liquid. Thinking about it now I realise that I should've squeezed the cube to reduce the air space because what I did may have drained some whirlpooled crap from the bottom of the brew pot.

* I did a gravity check and it was on the high side of what I want, but then it should be okay by the time I dilute it to the planned 20 litres.

* Celebrated end of first brew day with a couple of Brooklyn beers and then Chimay Blue.

Thank you all for your assistance during this process. Also, thanks to my little bro who helped me and can therefore claim to have made an AG beer too. Hopefully I'll be notching up AG#2 in a couple of weekends.

 

[Spoonta]

good work keep it up mate

 

[bigfridge]

Thanks Dave! I'm going to inspect the holes that house all my compression fittings immediately!

No, No - you will probably be ok.

It is the 'liquid/air' interface that promotes the most agressive corrosion. As long as your stainless fittings are insulated from the aluminium by rubber washers all is ok. Similarly the gap between the fittings and SS 'hole' are either not in contact or probably not wet so it all should be ok.

As an example I have a cheap SS stockpot that has aluminium rivets to hold the handles on. Whenever I leave it soaking in water/cleaner the rivets get big (or bigger) pits in them and a grey sludge accumulates at the bottom of the pot - under the rivets.

Like most things in science (and brewing) it is the actual, real life conditions that govern what actually happens.

Dave

 

[crozdog]

Top work rukh, your efforts are paying off. Resolve a few minorissues eg the hose situation & have another go - it'll get easier. Some responses below

* The next issue was how much water to mash in with.
* Batch sparging. What volume should I be batch sparging?

I work on the following simple formula:

• Mash in with 1/2 the desired final volume
• Mash out with the grain weight + all losses (tun dead space, eveporation & kettle dead space)
• Batch sparge with 1/2 the desired final volume

I find that draining my tun only takes about 10 minutes, a bit longer to get the last bits following the batch sparge. I know some will reckon that's way too quick, but it works for me

* I got 25l into the kettle, which was 2 litres more than expected. I deliberately set my efficiency on the low side so astringency shouldn't be a problem.
* I did a gravity check and it was on the high side of what I want, but then it should be okay by the time I dilute it to the planned 20 litres.

Keep your records so you get to know your system. I reckon you got better efficiency than you planned. Change the efficiency setting in your brew software till you get the software to match your results.

 

[glennheinzel]

good work keep it up mate

Spoonta - Thanks... and welcome to AHB!

I work on the following simple formula:
Mash in with 1/2 the desired final volume
Mash out with the grain weight + all losses (tun dead space, eveporation & kettle dead space)
Batch sparge with 1/2 the desired final volume

Crozdog - Thanks for your advice.
Re: Mash Out, is that 1 litre per kg of dry grain that was used?
Re: Mash tun dead space. Do I measure how much empty space is below the bulkhead (as I use braided line and not false bottom) and add this on top of the grain weight, evap + kettle dead space?

Cheers,

Rukh.

 

[crozdog]

Spoonta - Thanks... and welcome to AHB!
Crozdog - Thanks for your advice.
Re: Mash Out, is that 1 litre per kg of dry grain that was used?
Re: Mash tun dead space. Do I measure how much empty space is below the bulkhead (as I use braided line and not false bottom) and add this on top of the grain weight, evap + kettle dead space?

Cheers,

Rukh.

yeah 1L water / 1 kg dry grain

I also use braid. I think there are ways to calculate it, but I used the trial & guestimate method. Once I have drained, I tip up my tun, let it sit for a while & drain again. I usually get another litre or 2 out. Once drained, I scraped the spent grain back from the outlet of the tun (while it was still on an angle) let it sit for a while then guestimated how much was left. I did that a few times initially, but don't bother now. You are right again with your comment "add this on top of the grain weight, evap + kettle dead space". Simple eh?

 

[glennheinzel]

Crozdog - Thanks again for your advice.

Now to start planning my next AG recipe...

 

[newguy]

No, No - you will probably be ok.

It is the 'liquid/air' interface that promotes the most agressive corrosion. As long as your stainless fittings are insulated from the aluminium by rubber washers all is ok. Similarly the gap between the fittings and SS 'hole' are either not in contact or probably not wet so it all should be ok.

As an example I have a cheap SS stockpot that has aluminium rivets to hold the handles on. Whenever I leave it soaking in water/cleaner the rivets get big (or bigger) pits in them and a grey sludge accumulates at the bottom of the pot - under the rivets.

Like most things in science (and brewing) it is the actual, real life conditions that govern what actually happens.

Dave

I checked everything on the weekend just before I brewed again and everything was fine. Thanks for the information.

 

[LethalCorpse]

The rule for galvanic corrosion is that two dissimilar metals must be in electrical contact, and electrolytic contact. The electrolyte is your wrt, and for corrosion to occur, both metals must be touching it at the same time. The electrical contact can be direct (ie the metals touching each other), or indirect (eg both metals connected to earth via an element, or connected to each other via a metal bench, etc). If one of these is missing, corrosion can't occur, so copper can be happily submerged in an aluminium pot if it's not touching the pot. As shown by the series posted earlier, some combinations are significantly worse than others, but any two dissimilar metals will corrode to some extent. This may not mean much visible pitting, but can still mean plenty of dissolved metallic ions in your beer, which isn't great for you or the beer.
If you can make sure they're never in contact, you shouldn't have a problem. Better to try to use all the same metal throughout the brewery, or at least in each pot. Stainless steel, silicon and food grade plastic