Raven's First Ag Brew

[Ross]

Ross - We are using a piece of SS mesh (from a security window). Cut and grinded the edges to fit in nicely in the bottom of the esky. We lift the back of the esky up slightly when sparging with a piece of timber about 15mm thick. It seems to have worked well at this stage.

For Fly sparging you need a uniform flow through the entire grain bed - It sounds to me that this may not be the case & you are getting channeling, especially if you are lifting one end of the esky. I'd suggest you try batch sparging, as efficiency is not affected by manifold design.

cheers ross

 

[raven19]

For Fly sparging you need a uniform flow through the entire grain bed - It sounds to me that this may not be the case & you are getting channeling, especially if you are lifting one end of the esky. I'd suggest you try batch sparging, as efficiency is not affected by manifold design.

cheers ross

Thanks Ross - we may give this a go next batch, however our esky limits our batching size! Keen to do double batches, as there are two of us hence a keg each! Maybe next beer needs to be just 40L, to leave room for enough batch sparge water.

Will have a play on beersmith and keep you all posted!

The other option I was thinking is to introduce some spacers under the false bottom to ensure it sits level and flat, leave the esky level also, and allow the tap to drain slowly. Also maybe introduce a food/heat grade rubber edging around the falsie to ensure channelling cannot happen around the perimeter of the falsie.

We may well have opened the tap too much at the start of draining the tun - which yes could have certainly resulted in channelling.

Hmmm... more design improvements required me thinks! :lol:

 

[TidalPete]

Ross - We are using a piece of SS mesh (from a security window). Cut and grinded the edges to fit in nicely in the bottom of the esky.

Congrats on your first AG Raven. :icon_cheers:
Love that electric kettle it's just what I could do with to replace my 30 litre urn one day.
Regarding your cooling --- What with copper so expensive these days it's tempting to go for a plate chiller that will bring the temp down in less time but I'm happy with my old chiller combined with an old esky that has ice cream containers of frozen water in it & powered by a Bunnings pond pump. Three ice-cream containers get my wort temp down to 16-17 deg c in the Qld heat if required.

:icon_offtopic:

How do you find that ss security mesh? is it more rigid that the ss Termimesh?
Son had to get one window done with that security mesh for swimming pool safety ---- $600! h34r: Wow!

TP :beer:

 

[raven19]

How do you find that ss security mesh? is it more rigid that the ss Termimesh?
Son had to get one window done with that security mesh for swimming pool safety ---- $600! h34r: Wow!

It is not very stiff, and is pushed down by the weight of the grain bed, however on my esky, near the tap, there are some nodules which lift the end up slightly - helps to allow wort to run through the tap. I shall have to get some photos up at some stage!

Not sure on cost of material for it as my mate works for a window/door manufacturer hence was a free offcut.

Have not come across this termimesh yet, so not sure on its stiffness.

Yep, plate chiller is the go, will start saving the pennies!

 

[raven19]

Update on the first tasting last night on this beer.

We are pretty happy with our first AG, as others have previously notedd it was going to be a bit watery due to us over sparging!

Lovely bitterness, looked good, initial taste was great, but dissipated quickly - probably due to being watery (?).

This portion of our brew was dry hopped also - however not too much aroma that I could tell.

Fermenting at the moment is the no chilled cube with no dry hopping. I am looking forward to a side by side testing in a week or so... as long as the first keg is emptied before then.

A good session beer it is and shall be!

We are keen to get our next AG batch cracking soon...

 

[reviled]

Update on the first tasting last night on this beer.

We are pretty happy with our first AG, as others have previously notedd it was going to be a bit watery due to us over sparging!

Lovely bitterness, looked good, initial taste was great, but dissipated quickly - probably due to being watery (?).

This portion of our brew was dry hopped also - however not too much aroma that I could tell.

Fermenting at the moment is the no chilled cube with no dry hopping. I am looking forward to a side by side testing in a week or so... as long as the first keg is emptied before then.

A good session beer it is and shall be!

We are keen to get our next AG batch cracking soon...

Good man Raven (its about time )

 

[rich_lamb]

Hey Raven - just noticed this thread. I've got a couple of suggestions for ya:

1) See if you can get the esky a little higher and sparge right into the kettle. You can turn on the kettle and start heating as soon as your first runnings come out. This saves issues with wort cooling in buckets and splashing about, and also a good deal of time and hassle

2) If you have a pool handy, you might want to split that copper coil in two. Put one coil inthe bucket of ice and one coil in the kettle. Pump pool water through the coil in the ice (pre-chill) and on through the wort and back into the pool. This would work a lot better than trying to chill hot wort through ice - unless you have sheetloads of ice.

 

[drsmurto]

Update on the first tasting last night on this beer.

We are pretty happy with our first AG, as others have previously notedd it was going to be a bit watery due to us over sparging!

Lovely bitterness, looked good, initial taste was great, but dissipated quickly - probably due to being watery (?).

This portion of our brew was dry hopped also - however not too much aroma that I could tell.

Fermenting at the moment is the no chilled cube with no dry hopping. I am looking forward to a side by side testing in a week or so... as long as the first keg is emptied before then.

A good session beer it is and shall be!

We are keen to get our next AG batch cracking soon...

Glad it has turned out well for you.

So is a thin, not quite right AG better than a kit beer? h34r:

 

[mje1980]

Raven, good stuff on your first AG. Just my .02cents, but if you go to batch sparging, and no chill, you'll cut down greatly on a) work, B) equipment, c) stress, d) water usage. I found going to no the no chill method made my brewday ridiculously straightforward ( mash,sparge,boil ). Not trying to make a point here other than to share my experience.

One of my best bitters was 3.5%, you could drink 5 pints of it on a hot summers day, and still be coherent, and no hangovers at all, congrats again.

 

[raven19]

Hey Raven - just noticed this thread. I've got a couple of suggestions for ya:

1) See if you can get the esky a little higher and sparge right into the kettle. You can turn on the kettle and start heating as soon as your first runnings come out. This saves issues with wort cooling in buckets and splashing about, and also a good deal of time and hassle

2) If you have a pool handy, you might want to split that copper coil in two. Put one coil inthe bucket of ice and one coil in the kettle. Pump pool water through the coil in the ice (pre-chill) and on through the wort and back into the pool. This would work a lot better than trying to chill hot wort through ice - unless you have sheetloads of ice.

1. Good point, only issue is overall height with such a tall kettle. Keen to get a stand going and we shall hopefully incorporate this into it.

2. It is at my mates at the moment and he does have a pool - you are right all we need is a pump, some hose and we have a chiller! I am not a fan of the ice, a fair bit of wastage and also stuffing around.

Glad it has turned out well for you.

So is a thin, not quite right AG better than a kit beer? h34r:

Our first AG sh*ts all over all my KnB's put together! Very happy indeed with it!

I shall have a few bottles left over once the keg is filled, some of theses shall be making it up your way at some stage soon!

Raven, good stuff on your first AG. Just my .02cents, but if you go to batch sparging, and no chill, you'll cut down greatly on a) work, B) equipment, c) stress, d) water usage. I found going to no the no chill method made my brewday ridiculously straightforward ( mash,sparge,boil ). Not trying to make a point here other than to share my experience.

One of my best bitters was 3.5%, you could drink 5 pints of it on a hot summers day, and still be coherent, and no hangovers at all, congrats again.

I was thinking similar on the batch sparge however our esky is mighty full already with a double batch. I am thinking batch sparges for single batches for sure... but with two of us we will always make doubles (or triples at a squeeze!).

My mate just let his cool in his fermenter (Which is bad!), but I am sold on the no chill. Its almost ready to keg... cant wait to taste it!