Hello From Tasmania

[wildburkey]

Hi everyone, I'm a 32yo male from Tasmania just starting to venture into all grain brewing. I have been brewing kit beers for years and mostly force carbonate kegs in a fridge. I am currently in the process of building a 3 tier mash tun but kinda rushed ahead without really doing my homework. So far I have purchased a boil kettle with thermometer and ball valve and made an immersion chiller for it. I plan on putting a 2 piece valve in the boil kettle to recirculate/ whorl the beer when heating and intend on using a 20 jet mongolian LPG gas burner to heat it over an old bbq frame which I will build some new legs for until I assemble a stand. I have began building a manifold for an esky mash tun and found I need to make some alterations as it sits close to the edge which will apparently cause channeling (this should be pretty easily fixed) plus rushed ahead and soldered parts together that I probably should not have. I plan on making the HLT out of a keg with the top cut out and reused as a lid. I am going to put the keg on legs and have a large ball valve directly underneath so I can multipurpose it for mashing corn, wheat and barley plus going to have a 1/2" ball valve outlet for mashing/ sparging beer in the tun. Once I figure out if my manifold is suitable my next plan of attack is to make a manifold for even sparging on the top of the tun. My main points of concern right now are if my manifold is going to drain evenly and is the false floor I am building going to work (the picture is just a template I will cut it out of one large piece which will cover the whole channel in the floor). Any tips on what I can do better with the manifold would be greatly appreciated, I still got to cut allot of slits I know and thinking I will drill holes in the connection pieces?

 

[DU99]

Welcome to AHB..Nice bit of gear

 

[michaeld16]

Hi wildburkey and welcome good to see more tassie brewers on here where bouts in tassie are you from (im on mobile so cant see peoples location) cant see a problem with ya false floor if ya seal it off well amd liquid cant get under otherwise would be a bitch to clean. I was gonna solder my manifold together but found it all held together well enough without. A couple of connections were loose so I just lightly crimped with pliers but can still easily be taken apart for cleaning. Also I didnt cut slots into the elbows but ya could if you like dont know how much benefit you would get but couldnt hurt.

 

[manticle]

Don't worry about the slots in the joins. Presuming slots up is just for illustration?
Batch or fly sparge?

 

[wildburkey]

Cheers guys, I'm in Burnie mate. I was thinking about just placing the plastic there, I realise I will probably loose a bit of efficiency but my main thought behind it was to keep the grain bed even under the manifold. I think I will heat up the elbows and disconnect so I can clean the whole thing easier and leave the rest soldered as is. Also going to shorten up the manifold either side to avoid the channeling issue many seem to have encountered from being too close to the sides. Thanks manticle, I was just playing with ideas on where I could drill holes in the joints and yeah it is upside-down in the pic where the slots are visible.

 

[wildburkey]

I hadn't really thought too much about the sparge method so far manticle, I reckon I'll try batch sparging to start out and move onto fly sparging if need be. Would a manifold on top to distribute the sparge water evenly have any advantage if batch sparging or should I fill from the bottom to avoid dough balls? so many questions I have not looked into or answered for myself I guess it will be trial and error, lol. Thanks for bringing these things to my attention, I knew there would be plenty I have over looked here.

 

[manticle]

Batch sparging is easy and any chanelling issues are less important.
To avoid doughballs you can mash in at 50-55 (rest 5 mins before raising temp) add grain and water a bit each at a time or underlet.
Alternatively you can stir well at the beginning and hope they work themsleves out over the course of the madh.
Don't stress too much on getting everything perfect first time.

 

[wildburkey]

Thanks again, there is so much info here I don't know where to start. Can anyone recommend a easy beer to start out with? I usually use LME draught beer kits with combinations of light and dark DME. I don't go much on dark ales or stout but will drink any other type beer. Not a huge fan of the bitterness in VB and I prefer a clear beer if that helps any, cheers :beer:

 

[manticle]

Pick your favourite extract recipe. Convert it to AG.
Let us know recipe and specs and we can help.

 

[ianh]

Hi wildburkey

Welcome to the forum, good to see another NW tassie brewer on the forum. Have you caught up with LagerBomb he is also in Burnie and it would also be good to catch up some time.

 

[wildburkey]

Maybe we could start a NW brew club Ian, it'd be great to catch up and share a drop sometime. The worst thing I find with kegging is it makes it hard to take out and share around. I have been using these lids on 1.25L coke bottles but only have the two, I plan on getting some more plus one of those little pocket CO2 bulb carbonator's so I can use 2L bottles and keep em gassed up between servings. Here are the elements I am going to order for the HLT when I can afford them and the temp controller and pump I purchased last night (I'm not too sure that the single relay switch is going to be sufficient as I'm thinking 2 x 2400W elements will be a bit much on one circuit, I realised after I purchased it that I can get the same thing with two relay switches in the one unit. If this one doesn't work I guess it might come in handy for running a HERMS coil pump or something else down the track) I also have managed to get my hands on a retired 50L SS Keg

 

[ianh]

I think there are now 7 or 8 forum members in the NW. Don't know anything about your temperature controller but the nornal STC1000 ones only control 10 Amps max,

I do BIAB and set my brew volumes so I finish with just over 22 litres, 19 litres for the keg and fill 2 by 1.5 litre bottles.

 

[michaeld16]

Nw brew club sounds like a great idea

 

[wildburkey]

mmm, the one I ordered is 10A max also - 2400w/240v = 10A exactly so I might just see how I go heating with one element to start with. I'm beginning to think I should have started out with a more simple technique like BIAB but heading down a 1 way street now I am balls deep in equipment, lol. I'll do a bit of research into what other clubs get up to and what is involved in running eg. costs incurred etc. it would be good to have it structured with meeting agenda's and have some policy's to keep things on track and under control whilst keeping it fun and informative.

 

[michaeld16]

You could use the Controller to control an external relay if you need to use another element. I've got a 3v setup I started with but with 3 kids found biab to suit my lifestyle (lack of time) so thats all I use nowadays but hope to bust out the 3v gear in a few yrs time.

 

[wildburkey]

Thanks michael, why didn't I think of that, lol. So here is an updated pic of where I am at with the manifold, do you think I need more slots or holes in it? Just waiting on parts to arrive to build the HLT now, I will start a thread on the mash tun once complete and let you follow how it all goes.

 

[michaeld16]

Looks good to me mate

 

[Crusty]

Looks fine.

 

[wildburkey]

Cheers guys, I just got to run over the slots with a file or something, give it a good clean and it should be good to go. I have only ordered 1 x 2400W element for the time being and will see if it will cut the mustard on it's own in the keg/ HLT. Hopefully I can bring temp up for sparging quick enough, worse case scenario I will just have to use the LPG for the time being to raise the temp then use the element with temp probe and controller to maintain temp.