Well people, another piece of fantastic infrastructure added to my brewery. What do you think?
Sparge vessel with element (bucket of death) - $110 (I did not have the balls to make my own ;-) - electricity is dangerous enough but to add water ummm - no way)
Home assembled thermostat with housing - $50 (I mustered the courage for this because otherwise I was going to be way out of pocket and there was no water with this one. Making my own was also very satisfying. I bought the bits from thermal products pty ltd - accurate to 1 degree and I have tested this).
20mm brass clamped valve -$50 - I love reece plumbing - they have everything. No leaks up to a sustained boiling point - perfect.
$10 timer from super marker (not pictured) - this is a crucial part of the puzzle.
$220 all up - I did it over time. I'm wrapped with it. The night before brew night I fill it up with the required mash water. I set the timer to 4pm and the thermostat to 70 degrees C. When I get home from work circa 6pm the mash water is waiting for me - ready to go. I greet wife and children then duck out to the shed. Open valve (90 seconds to dump mash water into mash tun), add grain (one min), fire burner (if required) to mash temp (this varies of course for style - circa 5 mins). So within 10 mins the mash is away. I return indoors. I have dinner (lovingly prepared by my beautiful wife), bath kids and have them ready for bed circa 7pm. I go back to shed (with my boys to observe) to sparge - I batch sparge. By 730 - 745 the kettle is warming up for the boil. Kids are up past bed time - I go and put them down. I return to an almost boiling pot of wort. Wife retires to couch, I brew to circa 11pm. She's happy - I'm happy - kids are happy. This tool saves me crucial setup time. I do skip a protein rest to save time which is a bummer.
It always upsets me when people say they won't brew because they have kids. I have two under two and it does not stop me - tools like this help me. I am clever too... Always brew on a night when there are all of her crappy shows on TV ;-). Also I let her know when I'm brewing so she can work around me which she lovingly always does.
I'm thinking of building an automated mash tun one day - anyone tried this?
Anyhow - comments more than welcome.
Cheers!
Sparge vessel with element (bucket of death) - $110 (I did not have the balls to make my own ;-) - electricity is dangerous enough but to add water ummm - no way)
Home assembled thermostat with housing - $50 (I mustered the courage for this because otherwise I was going to be way out of pocket and there was no water with this one. Making my own was also very satisfying. I bought the bits from thermal products pty ltd - accurate to 1 degree and I have tested this).
20mm brass clamped valve -$50 - I love reece plumbing - they have everything. No leaks up to a sustained boiling point - perfect.
$10 timer from super marker (not pictured) - this is a crucial part of the puzzle.
$220 all up - I did it over time. I'm wrapped with it. The night before brew night I fill it up with the required mash water. I set the timer to 4pm and the thermostat to 70 degrees C. When I get home from work circa 6pm the mash water is waiting for me - ready to go. I greet wife and children then duck out to the shed. Open valve (90 seconds to dump mash water into mash tun), add grain (one min), fire burner (if required) to mash temp (this varies of course for style - circa 5 mins). So within 10 mins the mash is away. I return indoors. I have dinner (lovingly prepared by my beautiful wife), bath kids and have them ready for bed circa 7pm. I go back to shed (with my boys to observe) to sparge - I batch sparge. By 730 - 745 the kettle is warming up for the boil. Kids are up past bed time - I go and put them down. I return to an almost boiling pot of wort. Wife retires to couch, I brew to circa 11pm. She's happy - I'm happy - kids are happy. This tool saves me crucial setup time. I do skip a protein rest to save time which is a bummer.
It always upsets me when people say they won't brew because they have kids. I have two under two and it does not stop me - tools like this help me. I am clever too... Always brew on a night when there are all of her crappy shows on TV ;-). Also I let her know when I'm brewing so she can work around me which she lovingly always does.
I'm thinking of building an automated mash tun one day - anyone tried this?
Anyhow - comments more than welcome.
Cheers!
