Kooks Ag Setup

[Vlad the Pale Aler]

What about a heat shield between them?

 

[kook]

Not a bad idea! What kind of materials do you think would be suitable? Maybe some sheet metal with insulation on one side?

 

[Fingerlickin_B]

Stick some of this stuff on the cooler:

Link B)

PZ.

 

[kook]

Thanks heaps for that!

I'll do some hunting this week and see where I can find some

 

[domonsura]

Fibre insulation sheet with a piece of stainless or galv flashing over it should sort that out for you. Would still be nice and thin but would shield your tun well enough.

 

[warrenlw63]

Kook

Any reason you can't just remove the mashtun before lighting the boiler? :unsure: Big burner like that will get your wort up to boiling in no time.

I never light my boiler until the 2nd sparge is finished (batch sparge). With 60 litres in the boiler my NASA gets the whole thing up to the boil within 15 minutes.

Edit Very sweet system.

Warren -

 

[Simon W]

Heya Kook, pretty sure I've seen that adhesive heat barrier stuff at AutoPro or Auto1 or one of the other car places. Marlows(rip) used to have it, dunno if supercheap would tho.

Simo

Edit: Hmm, it may have even been Repco.

 

[Nickb167]

might want to consider some white ceramic tiles. No idea where you could get them from but they would easily do the job of a heat barrier.

 

[Wortgames]

You'd be surprised how much heat a sheet of polished stainless will reflect, even with no insulation behind it. But I agree that a reflector and an insulator would be the go.

A bit of cement sheet should do the trick nicely, maybe try a building materials recycler. If you can't spring for stainless just yet, cover it in alfoil.

Damn greenies and their whole 'asbestos is bad' crusade...

 

[kook]

Gave it a test run today, had a few issues but mostly was a success. I made wort anyway

For the short term, I'm just removing the mash tun once I start the boil. It only took 14 mins to bring the wort to the boil after sparge. Also meant I could clean out the mash tun while the boil was going on.

Long term I'll look at some heat shielding.

As for the problems encoutered, a few were pretty standard like misestimating thermal loss (mash was too low at first so had to add some boiling water), niggles like having to run to/from the tap when filling the HLT (going to put a tap after the water filter) and my new fermenter not fitting in the fridge with an airlock on it

The other two major issues:

- I had no way of measuring the liquid in the kettle. As a result I didn't sparge enough, and I'd originally intended to make some sort of submergible measure but decided not to at the last minute as I was concerned about putting it back in the vessel at the end of the boil to measure evaporation losses.

- Bloody aeration unit! I couldn't get my airline to fit over the barb of the airstone. Need to look into using some different line and plumbing it a bit more permenantly. Wasn't a huge issue in the end, but annoying having to re-plumb things at the time.


Things that really impressed me today:

- Electric HLT. It rocks. Just set it, leave it and wait.
- March pump, so handy for cleanup as well as the brewing process. To sanitise (and clean after use) the CFWC etc I just pumped around near boiling water, then sanitiser solution (phos acid).
- Quick disconnects - Brilliant stuff!
- Rambo burner - It was able to bring the wort to the boil within 15 mins.
- Hopsock - Made cleanup of the kettle very easy
- Whirlfloc - Same as above, so much better than the useless irish moss flakes I used to use before (i'm sure someone just sold me dried parsley labeled as irish moss)

Now I can't wait to fix the issues and do the next brew! :super:

 

[big d]

Kook
Try a pink bat(insulation and not a mardi gra bat ) maybe sandwiched between some s/s sheeting or similar to maintain the bling factor.Should work a treat.BTW what brew did we do?

Cheers
Big D

 

[kook]

Fairly simple test beer, should be good for noticing any flavour flaws.

7.5kg Kirin Pils Malt (Matilda Bay spec?)
Hallertau for Bittering, Perle and Hallertau for flavour and Saaz at flame out.

Fermenting using some US-56. Planned on using some old WY1056, but after no smack pack activity in 24hrs decided dry was a safer bet

 

[deebee]

Rockin system Kook!

I gotta say it: I feel a brew day coming on.

 

[razz]

Great looking setup Kook ! It will last you a lifetime. A couple of things that may help. I tried VHT brand spray paint on the burner stand, it just burnt off, and it is rated to 1500 degrees. I doubt that powdercoating will be any good unless someone does high temp stuff. For heat shielding I used some adhesive backed heat barrier from Clark rubber $25 m2, does the job verywell. But having to remove the mashtun for cleaning is necessary anyway so I don't think you need it.

 

[T.D.]

Hopefully this is not too off topic, but I am also needing to make up a heat shield at the moment. Would this adhesive stuff stuck onto a piece of MDF be ok, or do you think that is still a bit risky???

 

[ant]

It's looking the dogs bollocks alright. :super:

I'm surprised your new fermenter wold fit in the fridge *without* an airlock - that thing was enormous.

Wrt measuring liquid in kettle, I'd be tempted to just pick up a 400mm stainless ruler (like you used to rap your mates knuckles with in school) and hang it from the top of the kettle. At 98L and 500mm high, you're close enough to 1L = 5mm on the ruler, so measure from the top of the kettle. Quick boil/sanitise should see it clean enough, even if just to put back in at the end to measure post-boil volume. In the long run I'd be tempted to get a nice 316 measure, with L stamped on, and a hook at the top so it's easily insertable/removable (well, that's what I'm doing...)

With all that bling already there, I reckon you've just gotta go a nice fibre insulation sheet with a stainless cover.

 

[kook]

The amusing thing is due to my volume screw ups the fermenter is less than half full

Great idea about the stainless ruler! I'll search for one tomorrow morning.

Plan to do another water run on it tomorrow, testing out a few changes and doing more accurate measurements of deadspace etc.

Should be putting a "Big Hoppy Belgian" through it on Saturday if my yeast starter kicks off in time

 

[bindi]

Should be putting a "Big Hoppy Belgian" through it on Saturday if my yeast starter kicks off in time

A Big Hoppy Belgien <_< what's in a big hoppy one? Mine are not hop driven.
More info please.

 

[kook]

Bit of an experiment inspired by beers like Houblon and Hop-It. Around 85% Pils, 5% Wheat, 10% Sugar, with a good load (ie IPA sized) American and Czech (Saaz) hops. WY3522 for the yeast.

 

[ausdb]

Wrt measuring liquid in kettle, I'd be tempted to just pick up a 400mm stainless ruler (like you used to rap your mates knuckles with in school) and hang it from the top of the kettle. At 98L and 500mm high, you're close enough to 1L = 5mm on the ruler, so measure from the top of the kettle. Quick boil/sanitise should see it clean enough, even if just to put back in at the end to measure post-boil volume. In the long run I'd be tempted to get a nice 316 measure, with L stamped on, and a hook at the top so it's easily insertable/removable (well, that's what I'm doing...)

If you were watching closely at the Remeberance brewday I was doing something similar, I have a few cells in a spreadsheet where I note pre / post boil heights vs kettle diameter for volume and also calc out the 4% for shrinkage as well. Works a treat, also if you heat your sparge water in the kettle then you just insert the ruler to the predetermined depth and the drain down to the edge of the ruler.