Hello From The Punkin

[punkin]

Thought i'd say hello, as is polite in a new pub.

I'm Punkin, named after the size, shape, colour and roughness of my head. I've been a kit and kilo man for 25 years + and have recently gotten a very economical source of base malt of dubious origon so have decided to move into allgrain to save money.

I'm not a connesuir of fine beer, im a guzzler. I buy cans when i buy beer because the hole in the top is bigger and you can tip it down your neck quicker :lol:
Although health issues have me slowing down the last few years, i still can't get a full week out of a keg


I've found that even with the xtent of the equipment i've garnered with my other homemade alcoholic hobby, that's apparently not to be discussed (see some people read the rules and the stickies ) i have still had to go on a rather big learning curve and adaption process for equipment. Mostly cause of the batch sizes i want to do i guess.

I'm planning to be able to brew and keg 4 kegs at a time, bulk fermenting and then kegging and purging until needed.

I have 7 corney kegs, so should be able to keep ahead. I do have some experience with doing allgrain washes, but the goals were different and they didn't have to keep longer then a few days or taste any good so i'm not a complete virgin and certainly have a lot of experience in fermenting so that helps.


I'll show some pics of the equipment i have converted/gathered and explain the method a couple of people have been helping me with, a few here will recognize my name and be able to say they've helped with advice i'm sure.



This is my proposed mash tun. It's shown with 100l of water in it. The braid is a very stiff stainless from Pirtek, it's really hard to squash with you're hand and i think it may be ok without support.



This is my revamped boilpot. It was powered by steam injection with a 1" copper steam wand that connected through one of the unions on the side. I stripped the insulation from the bottom and for 200mm up the sides so i could power it with gas. Shown here ready for the test yesterday where it lifted 90 litres of 49C water to a rolling boil in 59 mins with the three ring burner underneath. I plan to make a larger burner shortly.
The pot holds 160 litres and has two 1" sockets welded into the top sides that will accomodate a large removable wort chiller that i will be building in the next week.



This is the previous version of the boil pot, but it shows my strike water pt, a 50l keg thatused to generate the steam to run the boil pot.
It will heat the water for strike and sparge if the day happens to be cloudy and my solar hot water doesn't have enough temp by itself.


I welcome ideas and suggestions and hope to settle in here for a couple of quiet ones now and then.


CheersAndBeersPunkin

 

[RdeVjun]

Welcome punkin, I lolled at your intro! :lol:
That malt, has it been mashed with before, i.e. it performs OK? I'd do a small test batch first if you're unsure of its provenance- when it comes to making beer with quality ingredients there's malt and there's malt, although that may not be a huge concern for you.
Also, quantity- wise I'd be loathe to fill everything up to the brim only on your maiden brew to find out there's a fly in the ointment somewhere along the line, so again, do a smaller test batch before scaling up. Other than that, looks like you're all set, happy brewing! :icon_cheers:

 

[ekul]

hi Punkin, I like the size of you pot, very pwurty.

Have you looked into nochill? I think you'll find it a godsend with such a big pot. With a 160L pot you should easy be able to knock out 100L batches, you may even get it to 120L if you push it.

Also, a 32 jet mongolian will power that pot no worries, you can get them cheap from keeferbros.com

goodluck mate

 

[punkin]

Thanks boys. Yes i intend to do a 40l mash first up just to get an idea of the proceedures and the flavours that come from different brews. Hadn't really thought about anything smaller than that. If the malts no good you'll be seeing a fire sale go up in the classifieds for specialty malts and hops :lol:
\
Maybe i could just mash a few kilos to see how it goes. I have a 40l pot made from a cut down keg with a false bottom. I wouldn't get real clear beer from it but i could get some figures on the base malt?

I've thought about nochill, but can't see the benefit when i can just ferment in bulk and store it in kegs ready to be carbonated and fridged?
It's all about cutting down on expense and brew time for me. Tween my other brewing to keep the missus going, my mushroom spawn cooking etc i spend more time than i'd like in the shed.

100l batches are on the cards if they don't turn out too big for my esky and 120 isn't out of the question if i get my shit together.

 

[Yob]

Thought i'd say hello, as is polite in a new pub.

I'm Punkin, named after the size, shape, colour and roughness of my head.

CheersAndBeersPunkin

:lol: :lol: gold..

nice rig mate.. envious

 

[ekul]

Nochill is cheaper to setup than a chiller. But if you got the room and capability to ferment everything at the appropriate temp (lagers like low temps) i reckon go for it, i wish i could do the same!

If you want to make 120L batches, but you only got space to ferment 80L, this is when Nochill comes into its own because you can store the excess. PLus you can do two brewdays in a row and then store the wort you can't ferment. In my opinion a chilled beer tastes a little better, but the portability and storability of nochill suit me better.

 

[punkin]

Nochill is cheaper to setup than a chiller. But if you got the room and capability to ferment everything at the appropriate temp (lagers like low temps) i reckon go for it, i wish i could do the same!

If you want to make 120L batches, but you only got space to ferment 80L, this is when Nochill comes into its own because you can store the excess. PLus you can do two brewdays in a row and then store the wort you can't ferment. In my opinion a chilled beer tastes a little better, but the portability and storability of nochill suit me better.

I won't be making lagers and won't be controlling temp except to keep it constant and slightly warm with an electric blanket and insulation.

I have a large nonworking 3 door drink fridge atm with a mashmaster fridgemate system running a 500watt bain marie heater.

It doesn't really do the job and the fridge is about to go to make room for a simple shelving system.

I don't run the variety of ferments i used to in my experimental days, just a constant beer and a constant corn/malt/sugar mash.
I do large sugar washes once a year and large mollasses washes every second year (200l).


Anyone want a fridge for free in the new england area? (minus the fridgemate)

 

[Bribie G]

I'd kill for the fridge but Bribie Island is a bit far and the Mazda 2 wouldn't make it back over the Ben Lomond

Hey as you have knowledge of adjunct mashes, some of the malts available from various sources h34r: can be great mashers but a bit high in protein and low in carbohydrate and are the ducks nuts for using adjuncts such as corn or rice (cheapest available). I got some malt that was destined for Milo and it makes brilliant, and I mean brilliant Aussie style mainstream beers used with 3 parts malt and one part maize - I use Polenta at $2 a kilo bulk from an Asian store near where I work.

Telling granny how to suck eggs but obviously you boil the cereal to a mush and either add it to the main malt mash to get it all to around 65 degrees or you can do a separate cereal mash with about a kilo of the base malt, in a side pan at 71 degrees to predigest the cereal then pour into the main malt mash to get 65 degrees.
Using a single hop like Pride of Ringwood or cluster etc and a bit of colouring malt you can just about nail Reschs Draught. Neutral yeast such as US-05

Cheers

 

[crozdog]

Hi Punkin,

good to see you found the place :beer: been waiting to see you pop up.

The rig is looking good. can't wait to hear how it goes.

Crozdog

 

[punkin]

Hi Punkin,

good to see you found the place :beer: been waiting to see you pop up.

The rig is looking good. can't wait to hear how it goes.

Crozdog

Thanks Croz, was inevitable i spose. A search of local home brew clubs led me here.

I'll be looking forward to popping up to Kentucky next apple season and checking the micro out, he should be in full swing by then.


NeedApplesForCiderPunkin

 

[punkin]

Not to bump my own thread, but rather than start a new one...

Is it possible for an experienced brewer to tell base malts apart from the appearance/flavour/scent of them?

I only ask cause 1) i have no idea and 2) i have a large amount of malt that is from JW and is just labelled 'malt' that i would be keen to know more about and to be able to design recipes around.

If this is possible i'd be happy to send one or two gurus a sample of this malt with the purpose of having it identified. :icon_chickcheers:

 

[Pennywise]

i still can't get a full week out of a keg

Neither can I :lol:

To answer your question above, someone who has used grains for a bit should be able to tell you what it is (especially if you know what brand it is), maybe even pop up a pic and it may be obvious to those who use that particular malt often.

 

[punkin]

Neither can I :lol:

To answer your question above, someone who has used grains for a bit should be able to tell you what it is (especially if you know what brand it is), maybe even pop up a pic and it may be obvious to those who use that particular malt often.

Well a piccie is easy enough, but i think this one represents it a couple shades darker than reality.

it is also soft and is more sugar sweet than malty.



I'm going to decant my wheat and caramalt shortly into buckets (arrived just now) so will compare it to the caramalt.

 

[Pennywise]

Soft doesn't sound good, afaik fresh malt should be crisp & crunchy. I'm on my work computer which has a really, really old (I mean really) graphics card, or what ever they are. I'm thinking Trad Ale or Vienna, if it's lighter than your Caramalt then that'll point more towards these, or possibly Pils malt, but it doesn't look that light to me. Sure these's others who have a better screen than I do :icon_cheers:

 

[felten]

Soft usually points towards the malt being slack, it should definitely be crisp like pennywise said.

Slack malt can have problems converting because the enzymes activity drops off.

 

[punkin]

When i say soft, the husk is stil crisp, but it's softer inside than the caramalt for sure. Much sweeter and a lot lighter. It really tastes like sugar.