angus_grant
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man, long time between updates.
I've now brewed 22 batches on Brewton including some high gravity Belgians, low gravity mid's and a bunch of IPAs, pale ales, and porters.
I've broken the whole system down to give everything a really good clean and it was looking fairly clean.
I've installed a longer threaded rod in preparation for a larger malt pipe for higher gravity brews. Am going to troll a few cheap kitchen shops for large pot so I can convert it to a malt pipe. Am going to look at getting a washer and nut welded to the threaded rod to improve this part of the install. It's the only bit which I don't particularly like. Has a habit of leaking a bit if the rod gets moved too much. I would prefer to use a big silicon seal captured under a nut which would do away with the need for plumbers tape.
On the software side, I am finally making the changes required to do automated step-mashing reading straight from the beer.xml file exported from Beersmith. This should allow fairly easy school night brewing. I can set the software to ramp up to mash temp so by the time I get home from work I throw the grain in. I can then comfortably get the kids fed and in bed, feed myself and it should then be mash-out time.
Also looking at adding in a small web-server component so I can review mash steps and temps remotely.
I've also built myself a new prototype brewstand (out of non-structural pine at the moment-he he) so this should improve clean-up procedures and make that a little quicker. Which is the most annoying bit of all-grain brewing, let's be honest.
On an unrelated topic, just bought myself a freezer so there will be a keezer project starting as well. Looking at 5-tap coffin setup, with space for a 6th keg carbonating and hump space for CO2 and some bottles.
I've now brewed 22 batches on Brewton including some high gravity Belgians, low gravity mid's and a bunch of IPAs, pale ales, and porters.
I've broken the whole system down to give everything a really good clean and it was looking fairly clean.
I've installed a longer threaded rod in preparation for a larger malt pipe for higher gravity brews. Am going to troll a few cheap kitchen shops for large pot so I can convert it to a malt pipe. Am going to look at getting a washer and nut welded to the threaded rod to improve this part of the install. It's the only bit which I don't particularly like. Has a habit of leaking a bit if the rod gets moved too much. I would prefer to use a big silicon seal captured under a nut which would do away with the need for plumbers tape.
On the software side, I am finally making the changes required to do automated step-mashing reading straight from the beer.xml file exported from Beersmith. This should allow fairly easy school night brewing. I can set the software to ramp up to mash temp so by the time I get home from work I throw the grain in. I can then comfortably get the kids fed and in bed, feed myself and it should then be mash-out time.
Also looking at adding in a small web-server component so I can review mash steps and temps remotely.
I've also built myself a new prototype brewstand (out of non-structural pine at the moment-he he) so this should improve clean-up procedures and make that a little quicker. Which is the most annoying bit of all-grain brewing, let's be honest.
On an unrelated topic, just bought myself a freezer so there will be a keezer project starting as well. Looking at 5-tap coffin setup, with space for a 6th keg carbonating and hump space for CO2 and some bottles.