Just Finished My First Mash Tun

[Archie]

Hi all,
Well Its saturday and i finally got to finish my mash tun for my first AG project.
Got this 20litre cooler from you guessed it bunnings and the various fitting also.
I have gone for the braided type thing in the bottom we will see how we go hopefully it wont get clogged up with the mash.


Any advice on making this better would be appreciated cheers

Archie :super:

 

[Jye]

Looks good Archie but you may find 20L is just a bit to small and may have to double sparge. It looks like you have chrome plated compression nuts on the inside and outside, I would replace those with just brass nuts.... otherwise very clean work and look forward to reading how your first brew goes :beer:

 

[Archie]

Hey Jye cheers for the info,
Is there a specific reason for changing the compression nuts from what i have to brass??
So what would be a good size mash tun 36lt??
and it shouldnt be a problem doubling the sparge should it?
I have my eye on a nice stainless steel kettle 50lt

Cheers

Arch

 

[Ross]

Hey Jye cheers for the info,
Is there a specific reason for changing the compression nuts from what i have to brass??
So what would be a good size mash tun 36lt??
and it shouldnt be a problem doubling the sparge should it?
I have my eye on a nice stainless steel kettle 50lt

Cheers

Arch

[post="126170"][/post]​

Archie,

20L is too small - 36L will suffice - 50L+ magic.
You can pick up rectangular eskys pretty cheap, if you can't stretch to a round one.

Cheers Ross

 

[Archie]

Any reason in specific for the sizes of Mash tuns, my promash tells me i need 21 litres of water for my sparge for the recipe i am using here is my recipe
13-May-2006 Archie All Mash Pilsner

A ProMash Brewing Session Report
--------------------------------

Brewing Date: Saturday May 13, 2006
Head Brewer: Archie
Asst Brewer: Sooz
Recipe: Archie All Mash Pilsner

Recipe Specifics
----------------

Batch Size (L): 23.00 Wort Size (L): 23.00
Total Grain (Kg): 5.00
Anticipated OG: 1.048 Plato: 11.82
Anticipated SRM: 3.1
Anticipated IBU: 38.0
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75 %
Wort Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Actual OG: 1.048 Plato: 11.82
Actual FG: 1.012 Plato: 3.07

Alc by Weight: 3.66 by Volume: 4.69 From Measured Gravities.
ADF: 74.0 RDF 61.6 Apparent & Real Degree of Fermentation.


Grain/Extract/Sugar

% Amount Name Origin Potential SRM
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
100.0 5.00 kg. Pilsener Germany 1.035 2

Potential represented as SG per pound per gallon.


Hops

Amount Name Form Alpha IBU Boil Time
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
40.00 g. Tettnanger Tettnang Pellet 4.50 25.7 60 min.
24.00 g. Tettnanger Tettnang Pellet 4.50 7.9 30 min.
24.00 g. Tettnanger Tettnang Pellet 4.50 3.1 10 min.
12.00 g. Tettnanger Tettnang Pellet 4.50 1.3 5 min.


Yeast
-----

DCL Yeast S-23 SafLager W. Euro Lager


Mash Schedule
-------------

Mash Name: Archie

Total Grain Kg: 5.00
Total Water Qts: 11.09 - Before Additional Infusions
Total Water L: 10.49 - Before Additional Infusions

Tun Thermal Mass: 0.00
Grain Temp: 27 C


Step Rest Start Stop Heat Infuse Infuse Infuse
Step Name Time Time Temp Temp Type Temp Amount Ratio
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Saccrification 10 60 67 65 Infuse 74 10.49 2.10


Total Water Qts: 11.09 - After Additional Infusions
Total Water L: 10.49 - After Additional Infusions
Total Mash Volume L: 13.83 - After Additional Infusions

All temperature measurements are degrees Celsius.
All infusion amounts are in Liters.
All infusion ratios are Liters/Kilograms.


Water Needed For Brewing Session
--------------------------------

Sparge Amount: 21.00 Sparge Deadspace: 3.00 Total Into Mash: 18.00

Total Grain Kg: 5.00 Ltr Per Kg: 2.10 Total From Mash: 5.49
Mash Liters: 10.49
Grain Absorption: 5.01

Amount Lost in Lauter Tun Deadspace,
Grant and Misc. to Kettle: 1.00

Top Up Water Added to Kettle: 5.04
Amount into Kettle: 27.53

Boil Time (min): 60.00 Evaporation Rate: 9.00
Amount after Boil: 25.05

Left in Kettle Deadspace: 0.00
Left in Hopback: 0.00
Left in Counterflow Chiller: 0.95
Left in Other Equipment / Other Absorption: 0.00

Amount to Chillers: 24.10
Amount After Cooling (4 perc.): 23.14



Grain absorption rate is: 1.01 (L Per kg)

Evaporation rate is Percent per Hour

This formulation will yield 23.14 liters of fermentable wort.

You will need 36.53 liters of water for the complete brewing session.



Is my recipe sound it will be my first AG and is my mash tun sufficient. Cant i just have two lots of sparge water ready and put it in one after the other.

Cheers Archie

 

[NRB]

You need to remember the grain takes up a lot of the volume in your tun. If you're doing small batches then it'll be fine. If you're looking at ~20L batches you'll struggle and it will basically be impossible for high gravity worts unless you make extremely small batches and use a no sparge technique.

 

[Archie]

Hey all again,
I am a little confused about the reason for the different sized mash tuns. I have been using this link as a bit of a guideline for my first AG brew.

http://cruisenews.net/brewing/infusion/page2.php

In this link he adds 3.5 gallons of water to the grain which is about 13.2lt of water and his mash tun is nearly full. So why is a 36lt or even 50lt mash tun better than a 20. I figured with the 20lt mash tun and the 5kg of grain it will be nearly full leaving about 1.5 litres at the top of the mash tun

Cheers Archie

 

[Darren]

Archie,
When it comes to mash tun size I think the consensus would be bigger the better. It will allow for flexability in the future in both bigger batches and bigger beers.


cheers
Darren

 

[Archie]

okay i will be upgrading as soon as i can but there shouldnt be any problem in doing my first AG in this one should there
lucky i can transfer my fitting on to any type of cooler

Cheers guys
Arch

 

[Darren]

Archie,
Once you have made that first all-grain beer you won't turn back. Unless you are very used to yeast culturing I would go with a good dried yeast.

cheers
Darren

 

[Archie]

Cheers Darren I will be sticking with the dry yeast for a while

Arch

 

[Tony]

if all you are ever going to use is 5 kg of grain them it would work.

the less air space the better i recon.

I used a 25 liter rectangular esky for ages with great results.

It for dont have the space for a batch sparge then fly sparge. (tony ducks and dodges bullets)

If you need to up the gravity you will need more grain and a biggger ton and believe me.... once you get the bug you will want to have a crack at a strong one...... an english strong ale, belgian tripple, IPA, ESB, Bock, they will all need a few more KG,s of grain.

I use a 50 liter keg as a mash ton these days but i brerw 50 liter batches at a time and this size ton is showing its limitations these days.

I could only brew 40 liters of AG 1.076 strong ale. well thats enough i guess but.........

cheers

 

[Jazman]

Archie iused to use a 24 litre tun and it was to small with batch sparge and i used to sparge two and on a big beer 3 times and a thicker mash also u may have to fly sparge with the samller tun which takes longer but may make it a bit easier for u

 

[wee stu]

I made my first 10 or so all grains with a similar sized mash tun. (Thank you GMK for the extended loan of the pre fitted Daddy Kool, without your generous help I would not be the brewer I am today :blink: )

I made some very nice beers with that cooler, and it helped teach me what to do. With a small mash tun, and no real room for batch sparging, you learn the science of volumes pretty quickly.

Ultimately the limitations of the tun, and a very good special at a local camping store , convinced me to go for a 35 litre Keep Cold.

I would not go back to the smaller tun (not least because GMK has loaned it to someone else :huh: ).

Go for the tun you have Jye, and make wonderful beers from it.

Ultimately, and though I seriously regret saying it, size will matter.

Awrabest, stu

 

[Archie]

So basically what I am understanding is that with my 20litre mash tun, I will have to Fly sparge. Is that right.
I havnt really looked into fly sparging and thought i could just batch sparge with two seperate lots of water at the required temp.
cant really afford to go bigger just yet so i will have to make do

 

[Batz]

Thank you GMK for, without your generous help I would not be the brewer I am today :blink: )

IAwrabest, stu

[post="126548"][/post]​

:blink: :huh: :blink:

Batz

 

[Jazman]

archie with a smaller brew u can batch sparge but if u want a high gravity beer u may need to fly sparge

 

[wee stu]

Drain the tun first, before the first batch and you should be OK.

I never batch sparged in the smaller tun, I have to admit. With the larger tun, I can almost always get away with a single sparge.

The small tun simply wasn't big enough for the very odd high gravity beer I might choose to brew.

 

[jayse]

That tun will do fine, could even get 7 kilos of grain in there with a thick mash. That will get you a 1.070 in a 23 litres at post boil batch at 75% effiency, giving you around 19-20 litres in the fermentor. So don't feel your tun isn't big enough. It'll do fine, my first 20 odd brews were in a 19litre mayo bucket without any dramas what so ever.

Happy brewing.
Jayse

 

[Thirsty Boy]

Archie,

I'm a new All Grainer myself and I have an even smaller set-up than you. Fair enough I am only trying to brew batches of between 10 and 12 litres; but I sucessfully whipped up an 11lt batch of 6.5% APA in my 10lt mash tun.

I did what you suggested you might try, which is just to batch sparge in a couple of go's. From what I had read on the net, thats was what I thought was standard practise!

I used about 3.5 kilos of grain and a 2 to 1 (ish) ratio of water to grain for the mash and after the initial drain into my kettle, did 2 more sparge "batches" to give me a kettle volume of about 13 or so litres. My mash tun never got more than 2/3rds or so full at any time, so I could probably have gone a bit higher in gravity if I had wanted to. Thats what I thought it ment to "batch" sparge. I might be wrong, but it seemed to work just fine.

If I can do 11 plus litres in a 10lt mash tun, I dont see where you would have a problem in a 20? The exact cooler you used is the one I was thinking about "upgrading" to sometime down the track when I want to do bigger brews.

Hell, I'm only new at this so what do I know? What does everyone else think? What might be the negatives of doing it this way?

Regards

Dan