Mr B's All Grain Adventure

[Mr B]

The actial tun itself. This will sit inside a 90l pot. Recirc back into it. Then pulleys to lift. Undecided on sparging or not, may have to whip up a HLT.

 

[Mr B]

This holds the false bottom to the keg. A bit of stainless over the top (now bottom) fitting, and a fabbed long bolt to hold it.

 

[Mr B]

Mmmmmm, finally a pump......

 

[Mr B]

And the lifting tabs on the mash tun. It weighs about 12kg in itself, so have a 3 pulley reduction to lift it. Its going to be pretty bloody heavy.

Hoping to do a brew on Monday, we'll see how we go with relos over tomoz.

 

[Mr B]

Fixed pumps to a chopping board to hold them stable. Will eventually end up on a brew stand. Free handle included, noice.



Mash tun sits inside the 90l kettle like so


Lifted out



Bottom of mash tun



At the moment, I will likely run this on my NASA burner, quasi BIAB. Wrap it up for the mash, maybe recircing, maybe use gas to hold temps though it may be a bit fiddly.

In a couple of weeks I should have a PID controller and HERMS sorted. Just need to finalise a herms vessel, then will have a herms mash and gas boil.

Will move to 3v eventually, waiting on a couple of extra pots. May or may not come through, we shall see. Will be a sweet little 1v w/herms in the meantime.

Wont get to brew tomoz, but may get to do a leak test. Next weekend......

Edit: This is a good middle ground in the transition to a 3v. I can recirc 1v (using herms and/or gas with a wort flow over the primary heating area through the concentrated bottom output), and also use the mash tun part as either a HLT with an element through the bottom or just triclover it off, or triclover an output to the bottom and herms recirc. So it is either a 1v or 3v component. Love the making the bottom the top option.......

 

[Mr B]

Did a 55l batch on the weekend. Sorted a functioning ramp/soak pid and learned how to program it. Got a Target kettle for HERMS - cant beat $7.50, but its not shiny.

Test setup. Kettle HERMS w/Herm-it coil. Need to get a couple of compression fittings for the coil, but hose fits anyway. I did manage to acquire a stainless thing that I will use to make a proper HERMS vessel

Heating to strike.



Pulley system for lifting mash tun. Worked well.



Just mashed in. Hose recircing outside tun for 5 mins, as I understand grain should soak for this long before recirc. Not sure how critical this is but taking no chances on first try....



Mashing away. I did a full volume mash. Not sure, will maybe use less strike water and do a sparge next time to get more head for flow through the bottom.

It coped with almost full flow from a keg king pump, but only just. There wasnt much mixing with the water between the two pots, not ideal. Later when mashing out I raised the tun a little with the pulley, this helped, might be the go. Undecided.



Temp lagging a degree or so behind set temp.



I was aiming for 1.057, ended up with 1.048, so not so good.

Could be the crush, as I opened the mill a little. Could also be the temp or the lack of mixing as above. Maybe less mash volume and a sparge.

Undecided as yet.

All good fun, will brew again this weekend as I have an order for the Godson's christening.

 

[Mr B]

There were also a heap of little tail ends of grain, which I assume were from the malting process. Never noticed these before. Is this normal? Can see them floating on top of the mash if you look closely above.

 

[trhr]

Interesting to see your journey, thanks for documenting.
Did you consistently fix your lower SG on your original BIAB?

I"m a novice BIAB with either a BIGW 19L pot, a 38L crab pot or a small urn and I always overshoot my SG by about 4 to 5 points.
I do stir a bit at the beginning to make sure I have no dough balls, then sparge and/or dunk sparge with a fair bit of squeezing at the end.
I personally think its the sparging that pushes it up?

 

[Mr B]

Yep, got pretty consistent efficiency, probably a bit above 70% brewhouse.

So not super awesome, and that continued to bother me. Also the amount of trub as I stirred a fair bit. Just process improvements needed really.

I tried sparging of a sort (put the bag in an empty coopers fermentor w/tap, and sparge into that, but not many litres), didnt notice a real improvement but didnt really chase the process.

 

[Mr B]

Family went away this week, so evenings afforded an opportunity for tinkering in the garage.

3600w HERMS complete. It holds a bit over 3 litres.

I was fortunate to come across a stainless item that suited the purpose, so took to it with the grinder and welder.

Should have a bitr more oomph than a target kettle.....









Small hole drilled in between the nuts to show any leakage.



Also upgraded the controller wiring to 15A and put a led element indicator. Will throw a RCD in it this week. Loooking looking for enclosures to make a nice one, add another pid for HLT, pump switches etc.



Cant wait to give it a run next weekend. Maybe a stout perhaps..

I'm also trying to source triclover fittings so the mash tun wont have to sit in the main pot. Looking looking. Will come out the bottom, through a ball valve etc. Really need a bit bigger tun though, its pushing it with a 50-55l batch.